Week 4 Inquiry - Story Comparison

When interviewing someone for a media article, there is a very fine line between making the interviewee feel comfortable and creating a very awkward situation. Dave O'Neil has written an absolute blunder of an article for the Sunday Morning Herald, labelled 'Robert Pattinson talks about his new film, Rover, with Dave O'Neil'. Unfortunately Pattinson does not get to discuss his new film as O'Neil has made the interview all about him, writing about the monologue of his 'interview' with Pattinson rather than the stars new film. The article is extremely unprofessional and quite disturbing to read. For one that is interested in recent movie releases, I learnt nothing about the new film, Rover. However I did learn that Pattinson has a body guard that O'Neil isn't fond of, or that the reporter featured in the movie, The Nugget. 

The main issue with this poorly written article is that it has nothing to do with Robert Pattinson commenting on his new film. The lead paragraph is confused and sets a low standard for the rest of the article. As mentioned before, the article is unprofessional, does not educate the audience and focuses on O'Neil's personal life rather than the purpose of the interview. To conclude the article, O'Neil explains that readers should go and see Rover as O'Neil's new friend is in it. I have to say, I will not be going to see the movie and I definitely will not be reading any more of Dave O'Neil's articles.

The second article is featured on the Ag Force Website, and is titled 'Drought worst in living memory: AgForce Survey'. The lead paragraph in this article is great, it really grips the reader and gives them an idea about what the rest of the article is going to entail. The author respectably writes about a sensitive and confronting issue that is impacting the whole country. The article states the facts concisely with evidence to back up statements and quotes to further explain the issue at hand. 

The article provides more information than the title suggests, not only summarising the survey but providing information on what the statistics mean. The article also goes on to explain how AgForce and the Government are going to assist the rural communities who are in desperate need of help. Although the article provides some sad and confronting facts, the information is backed up with ways to assist each problem. 

The article shows a great amount of respect to the farmers currently suffering in the extensive drought. The lead paragraph is strong and sets a stable path for the rest of the article. The difference between the two articles examined is immense, the first article written by O'Neil is trivial, creating a sense of immaturity and worthlessness. Whereas the second article is informative, professional, sensitive and provides facts as well as well worded statements. The quality of articles are vastly different, creating an exceptionally different educational experience for the reader. 

References
Berkman, A. (2015). AgForce Queensland - Advancing Rural Queensland - Drought worst in living memory: AgForce survey. [online] Agforceqld.org.au. Available at: http://www.agforceqld.org.au/index.php?tgtPage=news&id=view,478 [Accessed 3 Aug. 2015].

O'Neil, D. (2014). Robert Pattinson talks about his new film, The Rover, with Dave O'Neil. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/robert-pattinson-talks-about-his-new-film-the-rover-with-dave-oneil-20140619-zs99j.html [Accessed 3 Aug. 2015].