Running head: Viewpoint Comparison Essay 1

Viewpoint Comparison Essay

Victor Manuel Barbosa Alonso

BC 301 Critical Thinking

City University of Seattle

08/19/18
Viewpoint Comparison Essay 2

Abstract

Everyone has different forms of seeing everyday situations. This can affect the

organizations depending on its core values and beliefs. This work analyses how the different points

of view of news media influences the content of the articles they published. The content of two

articles that talk of the same topic will be evaluated to show how this posture influences in the

objective of each article and to conclude about the importance of knowing how the different points

of view in news media.

Nowadays, there are many news sources with different points of view. A point of view is

the angle of considering things, which shows us the opinion or feelings of the individuals involved

in a situation. The different news’s points of view are caused by the type of audience, the core

values of the news’ source, among others. In this essay, two points of view from two different

articles about the exit of the United States from the Paris agreement would be compared to

demonstrate how news sources influence the opinions expressed in the articles they publish. The

Paris agreement has the main objective to strengthen efforts to reduce the climate change and to

adapt to its effects, giving assistance to developing countries. The first article corresponds to an

article of CNN which informs about the decision of the United States to leave the Paris agreement

of climate change. On the other hand, there is an article of the New York Times, which exposes

the same topic, but with a more critical point of view.

The first article to analyze is the one of CNN Politics. The first appearance in the article is

the title which is a declaration of Gary Cohn: “Trump still planning to withdraw from Paris climate

accord” (Liptak, K., 17, September 18). This happened after a confusion that US would not leave

the agreement. This title could have the objective of criticizing US exit but it does not demonstrate
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that the decision is definitive. Also, the organization of the article is very simple. It consists mostly

of the declarations of Gary Cohn to explain Trump’s decision, the opinions of some international

politics, the confusion that happened about the position of the US and how the posture of its

government in the future for this agreement would be. In addition to this, there are also some little

advertisements in the article that focus on health, trips and languages, maybe with the target of an

adult audience. The information is mostly objective, it seems like the main purpose is to inform

and not to criticize in a big way. Although, there are some few statements that criticize Trump’s

decision. For example, Liptak, K. stated that this withdrawal would increase the fissure between

Trump’s administration and its allies (17, September 18). This statement demonstrates that the

author softly criticizes Trump’s decision. But there are also some statements that soften Trump’s

decision. Liptak, K. argued that “Trump chose to trigger a withdrawal mechanism that will take

more than three-and-a-half years to complete, leaving time for his aides to hammer out a plan that

would alter US commitments while remaining a part of the agreement”. This sentence explains

that the US would be patient and they will organize so that their exit does not affect negatively the

agreement. Moreover, the author, Kevin Liptak, has experience covering US presidents all over

the world and its main purpose is more to report instead of criticizing. This content of the article

reflects that the CNN Politics is more a neutral media, not very biased to being liberal or

conservative.

On the other hand, there is the New York Times article which is titled, “Trump Adviser

Tells Ministers U.S. Will Leave Paris Climate Accord”. This title indicates the audience the

Trump's decision is absolute, and nothing will change it, maybe biasing to criticize. Furthermore,

the article starts describing how was the meeting of Trump’s adviser with other ministers,

explaining that the adviser was inflexible to change the decision of leaving the Paris agreement.
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This can be reflected in the following declaration of Gary Cohn: “We reaffirmed the president’s

statement that he made in the Rose Garden, and we continue to reinforce what the president is

saying” (Friedman, L., 18, September 17). Then, there are some maps that reflect the opinion of

the Americans about climate change. They demonstrate that Trump’s decision does not reflect the

Americans’ concerning about climate change. Finally, there are stated some declarations of

International ministers that stablished they did not learn something new about the US posture they

already knew Trump’s definite decision. These statements could be used to criticize Trump’s

decision, as being inflexible and unambiguous. Besides that, there are some advertisements, and

one offers a plan to protect against an upcoming economic crisis. It is curious that this

advertisement appears on this article, because some publicity is programmed to appear in articles

of a specific topic, in this case criticizing the government actions. About the author of the article,

she focuses on climate and environmental policies. It could be an unconscious viewpoint of the

author to criticize this decision because obviously she is against the climate change. All these

factors demonstrate that the New York Time is a left news media, because it focuses more on

criticizing Trump’s administration instead of being objective.

In conclusion, even that the two articles focus on the same topic, they differ on how they

biased the information. The first article has a more liberal position than the one of the New York

Times, because it does not criticize in a big form the exit of the US from the Paris agreement. On

the other part, the second article is liberal, because it has the objective of criticizing the exit of the

Paris agreement. It is important to know the postures of the different news media, so that we could

have an idea of the kind of information we could find and where to look for it depending on our

interests. According to Mayfield, M., we can communicate better when we understand our

viewpoint and understand and respect the viewpoints of other persons (2010, p.223).
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References

Friedman, L. (18, September 17). Trump Adviser Tells Ministers U.S. Will Leave Paris Climate

Accord. The New York Times. Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/climate/trump-adviser-un-paris-climate-

agreement.html

Liptak, K. (17, September 18). Cohn: Trump still planning to withdraw from Paris climate

accord. CNN Politics. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/18/politics/gary-

cohn-climate-paris-trump/index.

Mayfield, M. (2010). Thinking for yourself (8th ed.). Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning.