Comparing Media

The single national news story of today is the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards show which is now featured on every media not only in the US but worldwide.
The article that I found in the New York Times is titled “Surprises, Not Sweeps, at the Emmys” and it consists of two very long pages with accompanying pictures from the event. The title serves as a “tease” and the pictures make up for the fact that there is no live broadcast of the event. There is a substantial amount of quotes from Tina Fey to Matthew Weiner from “Mad Men”, Jon Cryer from “Two and a Half Men”, Cherry Jones from “24”, Bruce Gowers from “American Idol”, and many others. This serves to illustrate that nothing brings people in like their own good quotes. Quotes also help break the monotony of facts in the article.
The broadcast version of the story that I saw was on CNN. It was approximately three minutes long. Information was presented in a “condensed” form in comparison with the newspaper article. It had several good quotes but far not as many as the NY Times piece. The broadcast story does not need many sound bites because television is a visual medium and the audience is being informed not only by means of words but also by picture and sound. People witness events with their own eyes and thus make their own assumptions. Quotes in a newspaper article give it personality which is not needed in a broadcast piece where the viewers can see the subjects of the story.
The show was also mentioned briefly on the KQED Public Radio which is a national public radio station. The program is called “All Things Considered” and the host talked about the awards and their winners, using very descriptive words, shorter sentences and pauses. The story-telling style is conversational like it is on TV unlike newspapers which have a formal tone. One similarity between radio and television coverage is the use of sound to recreate the natural setting.