Lets Talk Alternative Sources Of Media!

This week my assignment for my Mass Media and Society class is to compare a mainstream form of media and compare it to what is called an alternative source of media! In this case I decided to compare the journalistic styles of CNN.com to a source known as Wiretap. And lets say I was very disappointed in what I saw! I was excited to read a media source that wasn’t of the average big market variety that we are so used to seeing, but what I saw from Wiretap was upsetting!The only stories I was able to find on Wiretap were stories, that to me seemed irrelevant to today’s society! One article asked a question about how Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska would be treated by right winged conservatives if she were a black democrat. How is that relevant to the election. Of course they would treat her differently if she were a democrat; they would treat her like they treat Barack Obama, or Hillary Clinton, or any other democrat. When selecting the environment icon, the education icon, and the immigration icon, I was surprised to see that the most recent articles are dated almost three weeks ago and in some cases even further back than that!

Now I’m not saying that CNN.com covered the best events or stories with the best journalism ever, but at least it covered topics relevant to today’s society! Obviously it discussed the on going election, but it also covered terror trials in Sudan, as well as other international news.

So how can I compare them? First of all they covered completely different stories. CNN.com covered stories that I feel are more relevant to today’s society, while Wiretap covered stories that seemed to me to be pure fluff stories that were of no relevance to the events occurring in today’s world. CNN.com covered stories of both international and domestic issues, while Wiretap focused more on domestic issues, if you can call them issues. Both sources did seem to have fairly objective journalism, but the differences in the issues that were covered was a little disturbing! Why do readers care about what would happen if Sarah Palin were a black democrat? In my opinion there are more important things to be concerned about, the environment on the verge of collapse, an American government and economy that are about to go through some drastic changes, genocide issues in Darfur; it seems that Wiretap has its priorities a little mixed up!

But in all fairness, it may just be me. These are just my opinions and I am just a student and a I may be completely wrong, but I don’t think so. These topics and articles may be relevant to people in today’s society. People may care about what if Sarah Palin were a black democrat. However in my opinion, if these are the news sources that people are turning to then there us no wonder why America is where it is today! I can only hope that there are more alternative sources of media that do cover stories as well as CNN.com does, and Im sure that there are, so don’t be afraid to look for them!