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Failing Infrastructures becoming a National Issue

With all of the major problems happening around the world; the minor problems that happen within each country’s borders get neglected to be mentioned. The United States is a great example of focusing on major problems globally or focusing on the major problems in the country but continues to forget what is happening at home that is affecting every citizen in the nation. The most common issue that every state in the United States can relate to is failing infrastructures; such as pipes that are endangering drinking water systems across the state. Along with the pipes, bridges are collapsing and roads are getting more and more potholes every day. This has been an occurring issue in the United States and recent articles from Mashable.com and CBS News both have different coverage on the issue and they both include how big of a problem this is starting to become for the country and how more and more people are starting to take notice.

Mashable.com focuses on how Des Moines, Iowa is one of the many cities that is trying to get through the infrastructure problems in the water systems and how it is only getting worse. According to the article, UCLA’s campus was flooded after the water main ruptured this past summer and that is one of the many examples that Mashable.com featured in its story. Even though the article was focused on Iowa’s community, UCLA was such a big problem that it had to be mentioned; making that connection helped get the point across easier and helped show how big of a problem the United States has on its hands.

In comparison, CBS News had their main focus on the country as a whole and started off their article with describing how serious of a problem the infrastructure is in this country and how it should be addressed and solved immediately. The purpose of each article is informing the audience about failing water structures and how the United States needs to fix this issue before worrying about other problems that do not even affect our country.

Both Mashable.com and CBS News use fear and logos to help the audience understand the importance of the damage that has been done and no one does anything about it. It seems that water systems are not the only infrastructure that is being compromised. Bridges and country roads are also being neglected and continue to break and not be fixed or addressed. Even though CBS News uses intense statistics and uses clear examples to make their point; Mashable.com uses a much softer approach. Mashable.com basically comments on the issue and only uses the failing of pipes and bridges as another small issue that the country faces; however in reality it is a much greater problem. CBS News uses interviews from government officials and water treatment plant representatives to back up its statistics to make it seem like the United States is falling apart drastically and that the country needs help. But overall, both articles go into great detail to fulfill their purposes and get their thoughts to their audiences.

The structure of both articles follow a typical news story, in which they start off with a strong lead as their introduction and gives the audience a strong attention grabber to make them want to read more. Both articles revealed roughly the same amount of information on the national issue but used very different examples to make their claims. The news as a genre usually closes with a fact or a final comment from a heavy influence on the articles. News stories also include links to social media sites for the readers to share and comment on the articles through the popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Mashable.com starts their articles with the links to the different sites for the audience to share and ends with a final quote that states that the overall issue is frustrating and that current water treatment plants are not happy with the failing infrastructures in America. Meanwhile CBS News closes their article with blaming and complaining how the United States officials were elected because they promised that they could fix the many issues that the country faces, including damage to bridges, roads and water pipes. CBS News also finishes off their posts with the social media links to pass on the article.

The language in both articles is similar but also different. CBS News uses very formal language and targets a more mature and news focused audience. CBS News also uses a longer sentence structure and a wide range of vocabulary that Mashable.com does not. On the other hand, Mashable.com uses a more relaxed formal language. They write formally but occasionally use informal writing to get their point across. Mashable.com’s writers use shorter sentences and does not use as many interviews as CBS News. This writing style is more relaxed and is targeting a younger audience to want to read and gain knowledge about what problems are going on nationally and globally.

What else is interesting about Mashable.com is that they use more pictures in their articles than CBS News and that could get the attention easier for a younger audience. However, both news sites use formal approaches to their articles and even though they are both targeting different age groups, they both use similar languages to try to get the attention of more than just the intended audience. Then the interesting part of CBS News is that they feature a video at the beginning of their articles that is kind of used as a preview for the story that is about to be told. It is also a great way to get the audience's attention and helps advertise more interest into the upcoming article.

In conclusion, CBS News and Mashable.com are both a part of the News genre and have strong similarities to their articles. The purpose and content of each article is almost identical, however the main concept that sets them apart from each other is the different style of writing and audience. Even though both news websites have the same coverage what one forgets to mention, the other has, so having similar articles in to different aspects is important to have in the news and the overall news genre. They both focus on the issue of the failing infrastructures in the United States and both admit that this is an important national issue that needs to be addressed immediately.

Sources

Kroft, Steve. "Falling Apart: America's Neglected Infrastructure." Cbsnews.com. 23 Nov. 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2015. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/falling-apart-america-neglected-infrastructure/>.

"Failing Infrastructures Endangers Drinking Water Systems Across the U.S." Mashable.com. 27 Sept. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015. <http://mashable.com/2015/09/27-failing-infrastrucutres-endangers-drinking-water-systems-across-the-u-s/#KaUARwOBVkqg>.