This week task is about press, and the way the election campaigns are discussed in three different newspapers coming from three different countries.- The New York Times (USA)
- Il Corriere della Sera (Italy)
- El país (Spain)
I've decided not only to analyse how the three different newspapers deal with the American elections, but also to have a look at how they discuss each other campaigns, given the fact that all of these countries are experiencing an election campaing or have just voted their former President.
As for the American elections, the NY Times is obviously very focused on them in this particular period, and it devotes part of its website to this topic. In the section of the website devoted to politics and there are maps giving the results in each state, summaries of the situation of delegates, videos, podcasts and blogs. Moreover, in the Election Guide 2008 you can find all the possible materials concerning elections, such as results, candidates profiles, finances, primary calendars, schedules, and issues developed in the programs. Day by day the situation is supervised and there are articles concerning each single sentence said by one of the candidates, which gives the idea of how a big thing these elections are for America.
As for the coverage of the elections or campaigns taking place in Europe, the NY Times seems to be a little regardless of what's going on in Italy or Spain; this is probably due to the fact that
they're having a big campaign inside and thus they're not so interested in loking outside, but also to the fact that Americans are known to be a very patriotic people, and so not particularly interested in seeing what's going on in the rest of the world.
As for the Spanish elections, for instance, the NY Times devotes just a couple of articles to Zapatero's victory, one of which has such a title: "Socialists Re-elected in Spain, After a Bitter Campaign", which actually gives the idea of the NY Times having never talked about Zapatero's campaing so far.
As for the Italian election campaign, the NY Times seems to be not interested at all in following what's happening between Veltroni and Berlusconi, given the fact that if you look for the names of our candidates, Veltroni and Berlusconi, in the website searching engine, you can find just three or four recent articles, containing their names, which means that America does not follow our elections. They rather follow what's happening with Alitalia, maybe because of the fact that Italy is mostly view as a touristic country, so that they're interested in knowing own to reach our country...
...well...they're welcome!
What I found particularly interesting is that on December, 13 2007 the "Quotation of the day" was taken from a Veltroni's speech: "It's a country that has lost a little of its will for the future. There is more fear than hope" which probably reflects what they think about us abroad.
The Corriere della Sera gives a lot of importance and space to the American elections, both in the "Esteri" section and in the "Speciale USA 2008", which offers clear explanations of how elections work in America, videos, information and a complete glossary of specific words.
The Corriere also focuses on our home elections, but I think that the overall coverage for American elections is probably as complete as the one devoted to the Italian campaign.
As for Spain, the Corriere followed the elections quite exhaustively, and I realized that Zapatero's TV commercial has had a wide resonance even abroad; in fact, it is quoted even in Italian interviews and articles.
El País, on its side, is following te American elections in a less detailed way; there are obviously articles concerning the situation and the what's going on within the primary elections, but they do not have a special section devoted to the US elections or candidates, and they just discuss them in the "internacionales" section.
As for the Italian elections, in the website of El País they're following them, but not in a particularly exhaustive way. In Spain they seem to focus a lot on Berlusconi's words, both to quote and criticize him.
While analysing the three newspapers, I've noticed that there are some issues they have in common while discussing the American election campaign. The first thing I would like to say is that in America, Italy and Spain too, the attention is focused on the democratic party, and obviously in the run to get the nomenee between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In most of the articles, both in Italy and in Spain, McCain is not even mentioned, unless in the end, with a conclusive sentence such as "In the meanwhile, the republican McCain...".
This is particularly interesting because it gives the idea of how the whole world is concentrating on the left wing campaing, sometimes no even knowing who McCain is, or what he thinks and says.
Secondly, I've noticed that, as far as photos are concerned, all the newspapers prefer to use Obama's pictures rather than those of Hillary or McCain; this may be due to the fact that he's got a better look on which he's investing a lot during this campaign; moreover, he's younger, which may be relevant too.
Finally, all the newspapers put online the video of Hillary Clinton when she was a baby: this is a video which seems to have had a lot of success online!
That is all for this week discussion!
See you all nest week!
Camilla
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