Evaluation of News Magazine Stories

The two news magazine websites I chose to look at were Fortune and Bloomberg Business. Both of these websites provided a huge variety of news articles ranging from world news to state news. Both websites also had a large selection of news-related videos available for people to watch.

The two news stories I chose to look into and write about are "Cruz Campaign Gets Flack for Pressuring Iowa Voters" and "North Korea Says It Is Holding U.S. Student Over Hostile Attack"

Gerd Altman "Cloud, Blog, Tweet, Like, Share" March 2015 via pixabay. Public Domain Dedication

1. What is the debate, disagreement or argument in the story about?

Cruz article- This article's debate is about presidential candidate Ted Cruz's tactic of improving voter turn out in the Iowa caucus. What he did exactly was send out mailers to people in Iowa, apparently resembling an official notice, showing voters their voting percentage in the past few years. The mailer also is said to have included the statement "CAUCUS ON MONDAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE." The people involved in this story are Ted Cruz, Iowa's secretary of state Paul Pate and republican strategist Rick Wilson.

N. Korea article- The man issue in this article is about how a U.S. college student from Virginia University traveled to North Korea as a tourist and is accused of trying to bring down North Korea's "single-minded unity at the tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation," according to KCNA. However, authorities will not release exactly what the student allegedly did. The main people involved in this story are the Korean government and the student from Virginia University.

2. Who is the most sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why do they evoke feelings of sympathy from you?

Cruz article- The person who evokes sympathy from me in this article is Ted Cruz. However, I do not have sympathy for him because of my political stance or anything close to that, because that is not what the assignment is about. That being said, I am approaching this issue from a non-political stance.

The reason I have sympathy for Ted Cruz is because I truthfully do not see anything wrong with what he did. He did not threaten voters for not voting, he was simply trying to encourage people to come out an vote, which actually is a positive thing considering many people do not vote, when they should. This is because especially at this early stage of the election, for both sides, every possible vote is critical.

Could Cruz have gone about encouraging voters a different way? Maybe not an official looking notice? Yes. But is this the biggest thing voters and the media should be focusing on as the election and caucus approach? Absolutely not. There are much bigger issues at hand for both sides that candidates and the media should be focusing on, not petty things like this.

N. Korea article- While reading this article I definitely have sympathy for the student that is being held by North Korean government. This is because North Korea is a scary place, and that government does not let much information out, therefore how does anyone know if this child is guilty if authorities will not release exactly what he supposedly did?

The article even says that "North Korea has used detained U.S. nationals in the past as a way to draw prominent American figures such as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter into Pyongyang as mediators to open dialogue with Washington." Reading that makes me very suspicious on how legitimate the accusation of this student is.

3. Who is the least sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why can't you easily sympathize with them?

Cruz article- I have the least sympathy for any voter who was "offended" by the mailer Cruz sent out. If I received a mailer like that from any presidential candidate, I would either simply throw it away if I didn't agree with it, or if I agreed with it I would go and vote. In my opinion there is no reason to make a huge fuss over something as silly as a piece of mail encouraging you to go and vote. In addition to that, candidates are obviously wanting people to come and vote for them, otherwise why would they be running? Therefore, of course they will do what they can to encourage more voters to go to the polls.

N. Korea article- I am in no way sympathetic with North Korea on this issue. Everyone knows that North Korea is a shady place (for lack of a better word). With the recent testings of their hydrogen bomb and wanting to be recognized as a nuclear power, who knows what the reason could be for throwing this American in jail.