| Space
shuttle rolled out to launch pad - Crack found in space
shuttle pre-launch
www.smh.com.au, 7th April, 2005
I found these
articles when looking for space-related articles on the
Sydney Morning Herald. I was surprised to find two articles
from the same source on the same topic but even more surprised
when I realised that they were published less than two
hours apart. I thought that it was really dodgy and pathetic
of the newspaper to give them different titles and make
it look like they were two different events. They probably
did it to make it seem like they had more stories than
they actually did.
Looking at
the titles you might not think the articles are related,
however they are about the same thing. There are also
other differences meant to fool the reader such as the
presence of a photograph in one article and not the other
(but I suppose that putting the same picture in both would
be a little too obvious). The authors have been careful
not to be too repetitive with the information, they have
detail in one article that they don’t have in the other,
but go so far as to have different quotes from the same
person. They have also used different words to describe
the same things. For example in the first paragraph of
each article they describe the speed at which the shuttle
moved but in one article they called it a ‘crawl’ and
in the other they called it a ‘slow creep’.
I thought that
these articles were a prime example of how newspapers
can take the same event and put a different spin on it
to give a different message. The first article talks more
about the technical aspects of the launch and puts a positive
slant on the event. For example they make it sound as
if everyone is excited about the launch and finished with
a quote about how ‘absolutely special’ the day was. On
the other hand the second article they make the launch
sound more troublesome by emphasising all of the things
that could go wrong and dwelling on past disasters. They
even have a quote from the same guy saying that the chances
of the launch actually going ahead are only 50-50.
One thing that
I can say to the newspaper’s credit is that at least the
information and facts are consistent. Despite the different
slants, they haven’t said anything contradictory in the
articles. I suspect that they published the second article
when they got their hands on the picture.
The actual
articles themselves aren’t too bad. They both give a good
idea about what has happened – the delay of the launch
due to a small crack, and provide the reader with an idea
of what is going on in general with the US and their plans
to get their grounded shuttle fleet airborne again. They
also help the reader to appreciate the complicated issues
involved in such a launch, including the technical aspects,
strict time frames, safety considerations, past accidents
and public expectations.
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