sn115009@ohio.edu
@saranealeigh
During the time after the conventions, ABC News has found some interesting ways to fill their website's content demand. A few of those ways were nothing short of questionable in the eyes of a journalist.
First off, the homepage for ABC News politics features a shot of Mitt Romney against a background of an American flag. What should pop up next, but an advertisement for a website called Mormon.org. A little bit more than coincidence I would say.
Connecting Romney's image on ABC to the Morman site could be some sort of motive, but I am not in any position to say one way or another, I am just reporting what I see and what I think.
Just below the picture of Romney under the "Latest News from OTUS" section is a link to an interesting story with a misleading title. The link to the story reads "Pot-Induced Twinkie Addiction," but after following the story, the REAL title reads "Mass. Voters Sent to Bogus Website Warning of Pot-Induced 'Twinkie Addiction.'
While the shortened title certainly does it's job of attracting the reader's attention, it is annoyingly misleading.
Another interesting sight is on the homepage for OTUS; a giant picture of Snookie from the MTV show "Jersey Shore" with the captain "Romney to Ripa: 'I'm a Snookie Fan.'"
Is this truly content voters want to see? What do voters think when they see an article about what one candidate thinks of an MTV reality show star? As for myself, it makes me want to read something, anything, else.
This is just one of the many things I find discouraging about this year's election coverage. If we want voters to be educated, we need to do more educational stories and less of what is believed to be public interest. The public interest is what is good for this country, not what the latest reality start thinks is good for the country.
I understand that the media is trying to get a younger audience interested in the election, but this celebrity interest is not the smartest way to go about it.
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