Assignment 1

For my first blog I chose to take a look into a very controversial topic around the world, abortion. People have so many different opinions about abortions its only right that our news outlets do too. The first news outlet I chose to look into was CNN. CNN’s demographics also play a part in its “ opinions” 55% of viewers are white males and about 50% are between the ages of 25- 55.I researched an article put out but CNN titled “Abortion is about a child, not a choice”, really the title tells it all. The article goes on to tell a story of how the person in subject is extremely against abortion stating things such as, “As a Catholic with a deep commitment to the sanctity and inviolability of human life at any stage and any degree of usefulness, I find it very difficult to make those diagnoses, knowing in many cases it is a death sentence.”. My research from this article and many others on the site it became apparent to me that CNN is not pro choice probably due to the fact that their viewer share that same view. In another article entitled,” Let’s get real about abortion”, they brought up the idea of supporting women that have been raped and got pregnant as an alternative to having an abortion. That pretty much sums up their views on abortion.

The second news outlet I chose was the Dallas Morning News, and their article called “Congressional witch hunts targeting Planned Parenthood are about promoting lies, not truth”. The article doesn’t come out right and state anything about being pro-choice, it actually made statements of being natural on the subject. Throughout the article in question it stated how many stories about abortion are filled with lies and distorted to push someone’s beliefs on others. Statements such as “I believe medical decisions are private choices, and that government has no business dictating religious beliefs.” makes me believe that The Dallas Morning News may be a little less conservative the some of the other news outlets.

Looking at these different news outlets on the same topic was very eye-opening. It shows the difference in opinions most definitely but more than that is showed how viewership changes opinion. If I have a certain view on something I’m more likely to watch a network that has the same ideas and morals as me. In the case of abortion it’s almost impossible to find a news outlet that has differing opinions because on mainstream television its seen as almost taboo.