We have had a recent discussion about personalization in the media. There is no doubt, when it comes to political campaigns at least, that the media do their best to personalize a candidate (I cite Fox News' hour long special on each Republican candidate). Now, I'm not saying this personalization is on purpose, but there is no denying it happens. This personalization is a part of the media's information bias that many believe could be harming the population as a whole. In my opinion, I don't think this personalization is extremely harmful, but I do think there should be more of a focus on the issues. However, in the attached article, it seems to me that personalization has been used as a positive. Typically, I am critical of the "liberal media" (as any good Republican should be), but here I think the New York Times may have done a good job.
The article I have attached pertains to the ongoing debate between the Obama administration and the Catholic church. This article is dealing how Catholic hospitals have grown and in the process they have taken over some smaller, secular hospitals. This taking over of the smaller hospitals has led to more and more hospitals with religious strings attached to them. Despite the contentious content of the article, the authors do a good job of presenting the opinion of the Catholic church. In the process, they quote many members of the church, which serves to humanize them. Up to this point, this battle between the Obama administration and the Catholic church has seemed, to me, to be very impersonal. But, this article takes the battle and attaches human faces to it. The article shows that this is not some cosmic battle between two huge organizations. Rather, it is a disagreement in beliefs over how polices should be implemented. The battle is not a battle, its people voicing their opinions and hoping to shape policy to favor their opinions. This process is what our democracy was founded upon. The voicing of opinions is crucial to our society and that is the sum of this battle.
At a time when much of the mainstream media are hyping up this issue as a confrontation of monumental proportions, the New York Times has done a good job of showing that it really isn't the battle of the century. While I would normally agree that personalization by the media could be a bad thing, in this case I think it is a good thing. I commend the New York Times for this article and I wish media outlets would write more like it.
By the way, sorry my blog was a day late!
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/health/policy/growth-of-catholic-hospitals-may-limit-access-to-reproductive-care.html?_r=1&hp
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