3-page description

1. Elite Media

 

New York Times

 

This newspaper posed several questions in relation to the inauguration and Barack Hussein Obama.  The NY Times conveyed their opinion of Obama with well-planned articles.  One article called “Obama Celebrates Holiday with Service” praised Obama for his work in a homeless teen shelter on Martin Luther King Day.  This article can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20obama.html?hp.  One of the most interesting is the speculation over what John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln would have thought of Barack Obama as a person.  Also what would they have thought about his becoming president?  The New York Times tries to answer this question with the article entitled “A Pragmatic Precedent” published on 1/19/09.  The link to the article is http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/opinion/19gates.html?_r=1&dpc

Out of all the articles I read from the New York Times over the inaugural weekend this one spoke to me the most because of its need to perpetuate a myth that Obama is a continuation of Kennedy and Lincoln.

 

Washington Post

            The Washington Post has a complimentary article to the New York Times.  It is entitled “Obama Commemorates MLK Day with Service” and the link is http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/01/19/AR2009011901189.html.  The article gives more in depth information about Obama’s day and focuses on his meeting with war veterans as well as his volunteer work with a DC teen shelter.  Fortunately, both the NY Times and Washington Post have Politics areas on their websites. 

 

NPR

            This website is eclectic.  It features poetry, traffic maps, and classroom profiles and manages to tie the stories into the inauguration and Obama.  On the Politics page one article compares Barack Obama to Frederick Douglas Roosevelt.  The article is called “Taking Lessons From FDR’s First 100 Days” at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99464140.  The website mentions security in DC but admits that DC is going to be more like one giant block party for the inauguration.

 

 

PBS

            PBS immediately compares Barack Obama to Martin Luther King and talks about “their dream”.  PBS doesn’t have a Politics tab but it seems to be the subject of many of today’s articles.  PBS had a lot of visuals to go with their articles.  They also had many links to all their different PBS shows that have Obama news.  They have names like frontline and the American experience.  They reported on Obama’s volunteer work during Martin Luther King Day.  Mainly PBS talked about DC and the security measures being taken to ensure the safety of the President. 

BBC

The BBC had a much broader perspective on the implications of Barack Obama’s inauguration.  The article I liked best was called “BBC Correspondents: World hopes on Obama” because it talked about how Obama’s African homeland responded to his inauguration and how proud they were of him.  The article can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/obama_inauguration/7839486.stm. Like all the other elite media, the BBC has drawn parallels between Barack Obama and extraordinary leaders of the past.  In Particular the BBC has discussed Obama and John F. Kennedy.  The piece on Africa and Obama may have been an example of identification.

2. Local Media

 

Denver Post

 

            My local newspaper seemed to give more attention to Vice President Joe Biden than the elite media.  But Obama got the majority of the attention.  The local media felt the need to reiterate Obama’s biracial identity.  The newspaper was particularly concerned about how Obama was going to defend and revitalize the country.  The article that I liked best from the Denver Post was “President Obama:  Crises “will be met” at http://www.denverpost.com/inauguration/ci_11497993.  By the way I love the pictures by my local media the best because they show the whole Obama family.  This site seemed to practice inoculation from the Ronald Barthes reading.

Rocky Mountain Newspaper

The newspaper discussed how the inauguration would affect people in Colorado.  The paper compared Obama with Kennedy.  This is an example of the tautology that we have discussed in group.  They discussed ways for people who had to stay in Colorado to express their inauguration excitement.