Week 2: Assignment

Tiffany VanVolkinburg

YesterdayNov 25 at 10:48pm

Manage Discussion Entry

I am not a follower of sports media unless the headlines are scandalous enough to be broadcast as a 'hard' news story. This is how I happened upon the sports story I analyzed, it was playing on a news station at one of my jobs. I looked it up online to evaluate it. The story (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. was about a former USA Gymnastics doctor who recently plead guilty to criminal sexual misconduct, and his abuse of over a hundred young girls.

After reading the article, I do believe that the story was reported in a fair and balanced manner. Although the topic is appalling, the only viewpoints evident are that of the sources interviewed. The book states that "although good journalists prefer facts to opinions, they are willing to include the opinions of their sources in their news stories. These opinions may be important and make interesting reading. Properly attributed, opinions enrich the story," (Stovall, 2015). This is exactly what I noticed when reading the article.

There appeared to be complete objectivity in the article, even though it was heavily laden with opinion. The opinions were simply that of the gymnasts abused, the attorneys and the other sources relevant to the story; and these opinions were paramount to the balanced reporting of the story. "In the press, quality is related to the accuracy, truth, impartiality, and immediacy of [the] information," (Battaggion & Vaglio, 2015) and this was a quality sports news story.

Tiffany VanVolkinburg

References

Battaggion, M. R., & Vaglio, A. (2015). Pin-ups and Journalists: A Model of Media Market with News and Entertainment. Journal Of Media Economics, 28(4), 217-245. doi:10.1080/08997764.2015.1094078

Stovall, J. G. (2015). Writing for the mass media (9th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.