George Floyd Memorial Square, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Kerem Yuce)
News articles can transmit nearly the same content while evoking a widely different array of emotional responses from audiences. While Western news sources have traditionally couched their reporting under an umbrella of “objectivity,” today we look at emotional language and tone in news reporting to ask the question – what does it really mean to call a news story “objective”?
This propaganda workshop looks at two news articles reporting on the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. They were both published on the same day and report relatively similar content, but observers may find that the articles use different language and tone to report on the general state of racial issues and tensions across America.
The first article from Xinhua.net is titled “At George Floyd’s Anniversary Commemoration, the United States still has no Consolation.” By Deng Xianlai and Xu Jianmei, May 25th, 2021.
Original: http://www.xinhuanet.com/world/2021-05/25/c_1127489659.htm
The second article from CNN is titled ” Memorial Events, Marches and White House Meeting Mark One Year since George Floyd’s Death.” By Nicquel Terry Ellis and Amir Vera, May 25th, 2021.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/25/us/george-floyd-death-anniversary/index.html
Last, the propaganda workshop available for download with a set of questions and prompts to explore emotion, objectivity, and news in translation.