Week 5: Final Project and Student Response

2:50pmDec 14 at 2:50pm

Manage Discussion Entry

https://www.yahoo.com/news/captured-isis-fighters-Iraq-justice-swift-conviction-certain-174952840.html

The enterprise story I selected is from Yahoo.com, and its title reads: "For captured ISIS fighters in Iraq, justice is swift and conviction certain." The story begins with some details about the trial of 20-year-old Hamza Ali Salim accused of illegally training with the Islamic State, preaching falsely at a mosque and persuading people to fight against the Iraqi army. After bravely describing the process that people accused of being part or collaborating with the Islamic state undergoes, the story explains how some innocent people are practically forced to admit their relationship with the terrorist group without having the opportunity to access a lawyer since these are afraid to be accused to siding with terrorists. The process is, therefore, based on forced confessions and the cases are resolved quickly without many chances for the accused to prove their innocence.

The story explains that most of those accused of belonging to the terrorist group doesn't represent innocence at all, and in many cases, the whole family had ISIS ties. The story details the results of the investigations providing information about resolutions from European countries on how to deal with minors and their relatives and detail interviews with witnesses and is accompanied by seven photos with detailed attributions. "Accountability journalism is crucial to a news outlet's mission." (Rieder, 2012). A captivating title and pull quotes are used to catch the attention of the reader which worked fine with me since it got my attention until the end of the story. An enterprise story can be hard or soft news; however, because the topic is on the political side I will categorize this enterprise story as hard news. "A hard news story is more politically relevant, focuses on the public or social relevance or consequences of an event and is written in a less personal style that does not include the journalist's personal views." (McIntyre, 2016).

References

Rieder, R. (2012, April 4). Emphasizing enterprise reporting. Retrieved from http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=5284

McIntyre, K. E., & Gibson, R. (2016). Positive News Makes Readers Feel Good: A 'Silver-Lining' Approach to Negative News Can Attract Audiences. Southern Communication Journal, 81(5), 304-315. doi:10.1080/1041794X.2016.1171892