The news topic that I chose to focus on was the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The two news sources that covered this topic are the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Aljazeera. The articles written by these two entities vary even though the content is the same. Aljazeera is an organization that is located outside of the United States, while the Post-Gazette is located directly where the tragedy took place.
The context of where each organization comes from could influence each editors style for how they would want the story written. For example, the Aljazeera article contains 550 words and is far shorter than the article written by the Post-Gazette which contains 2,731 words. The reasoning for this could be because from the point of view of Aljazeera the story is one of many mass shooting stories in the United States while, for the Post-Gazette this story seems more significant than other stories that are similar because it occurred in their own community. Both articles are on the extreme ends of being short and long and therefore the flow of both articles could have been improved. The Aljazeera article ended somewhat suddenly and could have provided more or better specific context for the situation. The article by the Post-Gazette has a good amount of context but feels drawn out to a certain extent because of numerous amounts of quotes. It is questionable how necessary it is to include some of the quotes in the story because they do little to provide something that has not already been determined from earlier in the article.
In the book, Think Like an Editor 50 Strategies for the Print and Digital World Steve and Emilie Davis provide strategies that are essential to being an editor. Strategy 18, skeptical editing was accomplished by both articles. Skeptical editing is a way for editors to break down a story and question what they are reading in order to improve the story (Davis, 109). This strategy was effective in both of these articles because skeptical editing can be done no matter how long, short, complex, or simple a story is and can be especially helpful when doing stories that are sensitive such as the Tree of Life shooting.
Another strategy that the editors of these articles followed is to edit for fairness. In stories such as the Tree of Life shooting there are people who are in the story by choice and by chance. People in the story by choice include police officials, government officials, and others who hold a special place in the community. These people are obligated to be in the news by virtue of what they do and editors can press a reporter to get interviews from them. People part of a story by chance are people that are naturally part of a news story such as victims and their wishes should be respected if they do not want to be interviewed (Davis, 191). In the Aljazeera article, a law enforcement official identified the shooter but would only speak to the Associated Press news agency under the condition that they would be anonymous. As a person that is in the news by choice it was fair that the news did not disclose the identity of the law enforcement official and the official gave significant information.
Strategy 16, context is one of the most important strategies of editing (Davis, 99). The Post-Gazette article was very long but had a good amount of context in order to tell the story in a way that made it feel significant. Aljazeera wrote the article with just enough context so that the reader knows what happened but with very little substance. Having the right amount of context versus not enough context is the difference between a reader reading the article to the end and a reader not finishing because of lack of interest.
Both articles were edited also with strategy 40, taste. In a story as sensitive as a mass shooting, having good taste is essential so that the readers are not offended (Davis, 259). The headlines of both articles were written with good taste and are not questionable. Editors can run into issues when headlines are borderline click bait.
Strategy 20, sensitivity was accomplished by Aljazeera and the Post-Gazette as well. The editor of the Post-Gazette utilized this strategy well due to the inclusiveness of their sources and who they used quotes from (Davis, 121). The Post-Gazette article used quotes from typical sources that were also used in the Aljazeera article such as Donald Trump, but also used quotes from a former Rabbi from the Tree of Life and also a catholic bishop. Aljazeera displayed sensitivity for all who was involved in the story including the suspected shooter.
Strategy 28, accuracy was displayed in both articles because the information in the Aljazeera article and the Post-Gazette article were correct. It is detrimental for news organizations to edit for accuracy because the credibility of an organization will be in jeopardy if they publish information that is inaccurate (Davis, 183).
The styles of the Aljazeera article and the Post-Gazette article differ however both are strong in terms of editing and journalistic standards. The Post-Gazette is the better piece because the substance in the article goes beyond just the basic facts that are written in the Aljazeera article. The Post-Gazette had a few more punctuation errors than Aljazeera but the Post-Gazette also had a significantly higher amount of writing. Overall the amount of context given by the Post-Gazette makes the story feel more like a narrative while still hitting on the necessary points for the article, while the Aljazeera article does little to make the reader want to read to the end even though the article is short as it is.
Works Cited
Davis, Steve, and Emilie Davis. Think like an Editor: 50 Strategies for the Print and Digital World. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2014.
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