RA#1

October 12, 2010

Al Jazeera Network,

The quality of a story is portrayed through the accuracy, honesty, and unbiased, thorough facts and observations. Through your online news page, in my opinion, you have been able to pinpoint what it means to be a good quality network. The detail of your website has captured the importance, not only of events occurring in your country, but around the world. You have organized your website, not only to be an outlet of news, but also a source of receiving feedback and opinion of the people, keeping in touch with the voice of crowd.

The essence of interest is the most important to gain and keep one’s attention. Through the headline readings portraying international news, you have used photographs and distinct words to call people in wanting to know more. Below the main headlines for “today”, the column of videos gives direct visual of current events, which in many occasions allows people to retain that information in a stronger manner as opposed to simply reading the articles.  Your news bulletin contains direct footage of your news broadcast on impacting stories, changing day by day. Going into depth, you share particular stories that you feel have a stronger root, being unable to express that importance in a simple headline. Through being an outlet for news, you also keep a blog divided in sections of interest, such as “Americas, Asia, and the Middle East”. By reviewing the opinions before being posted, you have been able to keep order according to your community rules, along with avoiding conflict through mislead and abusive words. 

Your headlines have come to show the integrity of publishing factual news. A particular story dated October 9, 2010, titled “Chile Rescue Shaft ‘Reaches’ Miners”, accompanied by a photograph of the miners awaiting their rescue, was written with such emotion and detail to fully allow the reader to engage in the event presently taking place in Chile. There were quotes from the Reporter, Health Minister, Engineer in charge, and the President of Chile, all giving the story a deeper feeling in knowing the direct words of these very important and influential men  - particularly for this situation. The detail in giving precise dates, Doctors orders for the miners through this process of being rescued, hours left to see the face of these men again, and the crowd of family and journalist/camera crew from around the world sleeping in tents outside the mine, where they now call “Camp Hope”, gives the reader an anticipated feeling in wanting to stay in touch with every hour that passes awaiting the rescue. But in reading the note “All 33 of us are well inside the shelter” from the eldest miner Mario Gomez, after two weeks of having pronounced dead was the moment that made this entire story come to life. Comparing the writing of this story to the article “Celebration in Chile Drill Reaches Minors” dated October 9, 2010 Fox News, I was able to clearly see the difference in how you portray detail and emotion instead of simply giving the factual information.

To formally conclude this letter, I would simply like to thank you for your hard work in covering the various amounts of stories from around the world. You have heard the voice of the people and taken into account the importance of focusing solely in being honest and accurate in each story, with of course having facts to support your information, constantly staying observant to the truth happening around us.

Respectfully,

Haley Y. Alvarado