Channels: CNN and MSNBC
1. The news priorities are similar; both CNN and MSNBC discuss the same news story. They both discussed President Obama's speech on the Zimmerman trial extensively.
2. CNN showed mostly positive perspectives on Obama's speech, although, did present some negative ones as well. MSNBC, on the other hand, gave only positive feedback and even criticized Fox for their negative comments on his speech. Both CNN and MSNBC praised Obama for his courage to bring up the touchy subject of race and racial profiling. They also appreciated his attempt to personalize his speech and the fact that he questioned the benefits of stand-your-ground laws. CNN also included another perspective, which criticized the fact that Obama spoke of ever-present racism that exists in our nation, despite the fact that, as an African American, he was elected twice.
3. CNN and MSNBC presented the subject in a very detailed manner in an in-depth report. Both showed the speech, discussed it, and had guest speakers give their opinions as well.
4. This shows that the media can have a great influence on how the people perceive political events. This occurs as each news channel chooses to present either in a positive or negative perspective of certain events, policies, etc. As people rely on these channels for political news, they may choose to vote for or support candidates/policies based on what they saw on television, thus influencing politicians' political agendas. For instance, after watching CNN and MSNBC, viewers may begin to feel positively towards Obama's speech and therefore negatively towards the verdict of Zimmerman's trial and stand-your-ground laws. However, if they watched Fox, they may have felt differently.