NEWS STORIES #2

Daily Mail

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6224897/Father-charged-10-month-old-son-pictured-crawling-busy-New-Jersey-road.html

On facebook a picture emerged of a baby in the middle of a road. After circulation of the picture a man (father of child), Evgeniy Dorman, has been charged with cruelty and neglect after his four month old son 'escaped' from his care. The four month old was found crawling in the middle of the road by driver, Cory Cannon, who stopped to halt traffic after realising that the doll like baby was in fact moving and live. Cannon snapped photos of the shocking scene and posted them to Facebook, where he's since made them private after the post went viral racking up over 2,000 shares. As he stopped traffic, a neighbor picked up the baby and brought the child back to his home. It's not clear how the child ended up on the road or how long he was there for. The family did not realize the baby boy was missing until the neighbor returned him, cops added. 

This story is an example of soft news and uses citizen journalism to present it. This story is a great example of how social media is being used more by everyday people to capture anything they see or any moments they are in. When reported in the news these clips or videos captured via social media are then used as a source for the story, also making readers aware that this is less likely to be fake news. This is an example of quality journalism as it also includes picture based evidence on the matter making it more believable and real for the reader, distinguishing this story from other fake news stories. 

The I

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/theresa-may-announced-new-tax-on-foreign-property-investors-to-help-tackle-rough-sleeping/

In the UK rough sleeping is a common problem, especially in the streets of London. PM Theresa May is aiming to tackle the issue of homelessness through the new taxation on foreign property buyers. The money made from levying overseas buyers is said to be put into dealing with homelessness and, trying to decrease the amount of rough sleeping in the UK. The I Newspaper had more of a left wing approach on this story, referring to it as a 'poorly targeted rehash' of a proposal made in the 2017 manifesto. The article includes statements from labour shadow Chancellor John McDonnell against Theresa Mays new tax proposal, stating that "If the Government really want to fix the housing crisis they should back Labour’s plan to invest to build a million new genuinely affordable homes, give renters new rights, and match our pledge to end rough sleeping within a Parliament".

The Independent was the only newspaper that was seen as broadly centrist, albeit with a leftist bent. This is reflected through this article from the I, launched by the independent, who have quite a left wing approach in the response to the story. In terms of Blumler and Katz Users and gratifications theory, an audience would be interested in reading this article due to surveillance - from this news story the reader will gain knowledge and information on a political matter in their country of living which is useful for them.