Blog 6-Oregon Moms

I feel like the story "Oregon Moms" was soft news simply because in the end, It's up to a mother how she wants to give birth. Obviously, in certain circumstances, a C-Section might have to be performed, or birth given a certain way, but the majority of the time, the parent gets to choose. I felt it was soft news because it was long and there were a lot of interviews, and it jumped around to a bunch of different perspectives. If it was hard news, it would have been a lot more focused, and stayed more in the center. I think the author of this story feels the pressure women are put under to give birth naturally is ridiculous, and she wanted to point out that viewpoint by using some people as extreme examples. I feel that she thinks mothers should give birth in the way they are most comfortable doing so.

Blog 5-Election Media

I noticed that this week, there were a lot more commercials regarding the presidential race because of the Oregon primaries.
Clinton and Obama are both hitting the airwaves pretty hard, and I noticed a lot of McCain commercials too. Also, a lot of news stories are being done, with some focusing on Obama in Corvallis, and how his brother-in-law coaches basketball there, etc.
Hilary seems to be getting less media coverage, but it's still present. I was semi-shocked to see a McCain commercial talking about his environmental policies, and borderline acknowledging climate change. The ad suggested he's going to be a "green president."
Obama's commercials talked mostly about fuel economy and a middle class tax cut. Clinton is saying something about "Together we can get this country on track," but I don't recall any stances on issues. The Oregon Primaries seem to be kicking politics into high gear around here.

Blog 4-Comments

I commented on Sierra & Nick's blogs for my 4th entry.

Blog 3-NPR Quotes

I listened to an NPR story from the archives online. It was taken from Friday, May 2nd's "Morning Edition." The title was "Pakistan holds peace talks with tribal leaders."
In this piece, quotes were used to used to show both sides of the story. The reporter quoted a tribal leader on his position on the matter, and a pair of local (Pakistani) political experts was quoted to provide a reasonable third-party perspective to the listener.
The quote from the tribal leader wasn't exceptionally elaborate, it was more of an opinion. The political analysts gave elaborate, thoughtful quotes. Another political leader, from the other side of the conflict was simply quoted as saying "They need to back off" regarding the U.S.'s possible involvement.
The quotes were used to get the listener caught up on what was going on if they didn't already know. They weren't especially descriptive, but a couple were well spoken, and well thought out.