September 3, 2014
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/31/world/africa/somalia-bombing/index.html?hpt=iaf_c2
I read this article on CNN this past week. The issue at hand is an attack on a high security prison near Mogadishu Somalia. The article reports that Islamic rebels detonated a car bomb in front of the main gate of the prison and then proceeded to open fire on the prison guards. The prison guards responded and we able to neutralize the rebel group. This attack lead to the loss of life of 3 prison security guards as well as 2 civilians. The article also reports that the Islamic rebels were part of the Al-Shaabab military group which is said to be linked to Al-Qaeda. Al-Shaabab openly took credit for the attack and said they we trying to free members of their group who were inmates at the prison.
I found this article important because it is about a military conflict that happened in Africa. In last week’s class we discussed how the media reports a lot of attacks/conflicts in Africa and how the media paints a distorted picture of Africa to the American population. The media stereotypes Africa into this war torn country that needs to be saved. The media often uses different tones to convey a sense of disparity as they report about conflicts in Africa. These articles about military conflicts convey a sense of danger which I think is often stereotypical and should be discouraged in journalism.
When reading this article, I found it a bit stereotypical. The author of the article actually does not write very much into the story. Most of the article is straight quotes from eye witnesses and government officials. In most articles, I find quotes to be very useful when coupled with sufficient text explaining or backing up the idea captured in the quote. I found the arrangement of the quotes in this article not very useful due to lack of text backing the quote. When reading this article, I found that the quotes being used were arranged in a way that seemed to give it a stereotypical tone. I feel like the author isn’t explaining the entire story but instead uses bits and pieces of dialogue to create a dramatic feel.
In my opinion, I think this article could have had a very different tone if more text was used to back up the quotes being used. The heavy use of quotes gives the piece a cut and dry feeling of conflict but does not give much information on parties involved. To me it seems like a typical “Africa is a dangerous place” terrorist attack article. I found myself wanting to know more information about the prison that was attacked as well as the rebel group who initiated the attack. If the author took more time to add information about the prison and the Islamic rebels, I believe the article would be much more effective at reporting a deadly terrorist attack.
-Nicholas Stahl