Three different medias entry on the same issue: The Oscar Pistorius trial

 

 Oscar Pistorius trial

I had a presentation about Oscar Pistorius and his trial. The three different medias I picked were the English tv-channel BBC, the American tv-channel CNN and the South African newspaper Mail and Guardian.

Oscar Pistorius is a handicap-sprintrunner from South Africa. Both of his legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old. He competes in both events for single below-knee-amputes and able-bodied athletes. Pistorius is sometimes reffered to as "the blade runner", and "the fastest man on no legs".

 In February 2013 he fatally shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp when they had been dating for 3 months. At his trial in 2014 he was not found guilty of murder, but guilty of culpible homicide, because the evidence showed that Mr Pistorius believed an intruder was inside the toilet when he shot his girlfriend dead in the early hours of Valentines Day 2013.

 BBC: BBC has written several articles about the incident and the trial. They have written both long and short articles from different angles on the case. They have updated with new articles everytime something new came forward, and they also wrote a very long article with the headline "what happened on the night of the shooting", and in this article they took a look at the case from everyones point of view. They wrote about all the evidences, and what happened step by step. They used both the defenders words, and the evidences from the investigation. I think BBC did a good job not drawing any conclusions before the trial.

CNN: CNN has not written any articles the same way BBC did with putting all the evidences in order and looking at things from everyones point of view, but they have written an article after the trial about his verdict and they have also posted a video of Pistorius standing in the courtroom getting his verdict. They have also written an article about Reeva Steenkamps mother who is stunned by the verdict and wants to meet Pistorius after the trial. CNN has given information about the trial, but not with the same compassion as BBC i think.

Mail and Guardian: Mail and Guardian is the biggest newspaper in South Africa which is where Pistorius is from. Mail and Guardian have written the most about the incident of all the three medias, and they have written articles about every little detail like for expample "Those close to Pistorius may have an answer", «Pistorius seen screaming, swearing in new video» and «remebering Reeva Steenkamp one year one» and so on.

My sources were: Wikipedia, BBC, CNN and Mail and Guardian.