Post #3: Media this Week

Much has happened in the past week, from AT&T shifting away from phone contracts, to Hope Solo's spectacular performance in the opening match in the Women's World Cup on Monday. However, one article hits a little closer to home: a police office drawing his weapon while confronting a group of teenagers at a pool party  in McKinney, Texas (you can see the full video from the article here). Although this event happened last Friday, the effects of this event can still be felt, and they certainly won't die down any time soon.

One thing that stood out to me when reading about these three events was style of writing. Of course, with respect to tone it is clear why the police brutality is more somber than Hope Solo's performance or AT&T's new business model.  

The police brutality story was primarily factual, at most going into some detail to describe what is seen in the video. This is to be expected since it is a "breaking news" style article, focused on giving the reader the facts. The same can be said for the Women's World Cup article; it briefly recaps the highlights of the game and Hope Solo's performance, as well as some background on her and the team's performance in the past. Ironically, the article that would sound the least interesting was the most pleasant to read.

 Even if you simply scan the (already short) article rather than actually read it, it is very easy to understand its subject. The article begins with, "The $200 iPhone is toast" (Goldman, "The death of the $200 iPhone"), which immediately grabs the reader's attention. Goldman then jumps to the "meat" of the article: "Two-year contracts will now only be available at AT&T stores -- online or brick and mortar" (Goldman, "The death of the $200 iPhone"). Even though the subject may not be controversial or dramatic, the author took liberties to "spice" up his writing, including attention-grabbing images such as the one above, and using phrases such as "brick and mortar." Subtleties such as these can make an article stand out among its peers, regardless of the subject matter.