Article Critique

The title of the news article that I chose to critique is, Religious gang war leaves hundreds dead; it was written by Andrew Geoghegan for the ABC News website earlier today.

Geoghegan did some things in this article very well but he could’ve focused some more time elsewhere to get a more believable and complete story. I am in no way claiming that the information stated in the article is inaccurate but there is a bit to be desired as far as sources and verification go. It is vital that a story has the facts but without the sources to back them up the reader could lose confidence in the journalist’s information. As might be the case with this sentence, “It is unclear what sparked the clashes, which also forced about 17,000 people to flee their homes.” Where did the “17,000 people” statistic come from? Is it just a guess or is it fact? The reader would not know the answer to either of these questions which weakens the believability and accuracy of the article.

I cross checked this article with other reports from BBC News, and Bloomberg on the activity in Jos and the statistics were the same. However this does not change the fact that the statistics should be cited the best they could be.

The stand-out components of this story were its brevity, objectivity, clarity, and selectivity. This may sound like a lot of things that Geoghegan did well, but little more could be asked of these components. He wrote the article in seven sentences and still managed to fit in the necessary information. The other articles that I read on the subject were significantly longer but they had included a short history of the sectarian violence in Jos as well. The brevity of this article helped make it clearer than the other ones that I had read.

A main goal of journalism is objectivity, to tell the story without introducing your own opinions into the article. Relating to this are the components of balance and fairness, which were both executed perfectly. Not a single sentence influenced my opinion to which side was right and which was wrong.

An entire discussion on whether or not this article appeals to the human interest in America could be started. While I am interested in international news, I don’t believe many other Americans would read this article because it does not have a strong enough impact on their lives. We live in a selfish society and while there are exceptions, most people would rather read about what’s directly affecting them. I also believe that people would like to think that they care about this situation but the fact is that not many people are willing to take the initiative to try to find a solution to the problems, if there is one. This last paragraph is my own personal opinion and I apologize if others disagree.