Television News Program Analysis
COM/310
July 23, 2012
Margaret Allender
Television News Program Analysis
In the media now days, every media sources has their own way or portraying what is going on the world today. Based on three mass media sources ABC, NPR radio, and The New York Times the main topic being discussed today is the Zimmerman trial case. George Zimmerman was a security guard is accused of killing an innocent 17-year-old boy who was a different race than George in self-defense reasoning. George accused the African American boy of having a weapon who shot the boy, which ended up killing him. Community was in uproar over this situation that lead to this controversial debate: did he shoot the boy out of defense or out of racial hate? These three media sources each have their own interpretation on the Zimmerman case after a recent worldwide interview with George that demonstrates the medias standpoint and the personal values that affect individuals. With the recent scandal of George’s release from jail on bail, his first televised interview to the world, included important points of the segment that led to subjective reasoning. During certain points in the interview, Zimmerman mentions that the whole incident happened for a reason and that reason was “all in God’s plan.” Zimmerman is being accused of second-degree murder who is out of jail today and making statements that will be used in his trial for evidence. During the segments of the interview, Zimmerman even took back his comment on if he ever regretted the situation, which led him to say no he did not. The point of the interview was so that people understood his reasoning and how is not a bad person. Subjective reasoning is based on someone’s point of view or belief (LaFave, 2008). How the media demonstrates subjective reasoning is the way they interpret what Zimmerman is trying to convey to its audience. For example, in the ABC news coverage of the interview, it states that the whole situation was God’s plan but in NPR radio they had a segment to the communities response to his statement, which will go into details later throughout this paper. In any mass media sources, there will always be a subjective reasoning to the situation. The main thing that should have been mentioned in the interviews was the response to the situation from the communities’ standpoint. The situation at hand is not just about Zimmerman; it is also about how the community has been so negative towards this situation. There have been in the past of racial issues but has never been a problem until this situation happened. The media failed to include that although he did do a crime in other peoples eyes but we do not know all the facts that lead to this problem. These media sources do not mention what led to this case but we are just suppose to assume that his man committed a crime from hate and is now apologizing for is actions. We do not know if he really did this out of hate but it is leading us to assume that. This interview that Zimmerman wanted was his opinion on the whole ordeal that happened that led to subjective reasoning in this case. The various social groups within the news segments represent the community. As mentioned before from what Zimmerman quoted before about God, there was a response from the victim’s parents. According to NPR video it states, “We must worship a different God. There is no way that my God wanted George Zimmerman to murder my teenage son” (Memmott, 2012). The family of this boy and the community have come together to make sure that Zimmerman understands how hurtful and how it has affected the community as a whole. The main reason behind this interview was to show people his side of the story and what he believes that lead to the situation. In that segment alone about God, even the religious community was most likely affected by comment since Zimmerman killed someone, which is considered a sin. Various social groups, such as cultures and the community within the news segments were represented in the interview. In these news segments, I believe that this interview was taken at face value due to the opinion of Zimmerman and no one else being interviewed for it. Zimmerman just wanted to let everyone know his side of the story and he did not mean any hate towards one specific race or individual for that matter. Like any media there will always be sensationalized segments for entertainment but that is not the case here. They are not trying to entertain people with this story; they are simply trying to show the community the affects of the person who committed the crime as well as the family members. These news segments affects my personal values by not understanding how difficult it can be to be put in a situation like that, accused of being a hatred person, and also understanding that it is not okay to kill someone whether at fault or anger. I do not understand sometime how someone, besides Zimmerman can have so much hate to the point where they want to kill someone. I believe that Zimmerman did not do this out of racial issues but just simply at fault from accusing of someone having a weapon. These days it is important to watch out for yourself and for the community itself. Through my personal beliefs as an individual, it is not okay to kill someone through hate and this situation has simply just got taken out of hand that should not have been which this segment was taken out of face value. Based on the three mass media sources, they each have the same concept to them but have different interpretations of the interview. ABC is more focused on how Zimmerman changes his mind on some key points, NPR shows the community based side of the interview, and New York Times shows the full background of the situation as well as the interview with Zimmerman. Based on personal values of the community, and myself it has affected how we view people whether we feel safe or how people are viewing individuals now based on race and cultures.
References
Alvarez, L. (2012, July 18). Zimmerman says he doesn't regret actions in shooting. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com.
Curry, C. (2012). ABC News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmerman-prosecution-tv-interview-evidence/story?id=16815296#.UAx3f45OTdl
LaFave, S. (2008). . Retrieved from http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/subjective_objective.html
Memmott, M. (2012, July 19). 'God's Plan' led to deadly encounter with Trayvon [Video file]. Retrieved from The Two-Way website: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way. 