News Values — Differences in Reporting of Donald Trump’s Candidacy in Different Countries.
I found the following interesting websites “ What Newspapers In 13 Countries Are Saying About Donald Trump“
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2016/04/29/3765582/donald-trump-world-media/
El Deforma, a satirical news site similar to The Onion, has devoted a fair amount of its Trump coverage to mocking the candidate’s claims that he will build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The site has included articles about Canada building a wall in case of a Trump victory and Pink Floyd building the wall if Mexico doesn’t pay for it. But perhaps the greatest piece was the one that said “Trump has already started to build the wall” — and featured a picture of the candidate holding an American flag and standing next to a Lego wall.
Last month, South Africa’s the New Age called Trump “arguably the most successful internet troll in today’s political spectrum,” noting that much of his social media commentary “reads like a laundry list of troll tactics.”
After a series of victories in February, Toronto Star columnist Vinay Menon wrote that Trump is actually following a condominium development script, where “you hook people on the idea of owning a piece of the sky.” “If there are hiccups in construction — if there’s no way to actually build a wall or bring China to the bargaining table by declaring it a currency manipulator or remove from the income tax rolls more than 50 percent of all U.S. households — well, too bad, his four years are up. You should have read the fine print before signing,” Menon wrote. “Trump is the front-runner in a party he claims not to need. He’s become a leader to people who, on balance, wouldn’t be allowed in his servant quarters. A man of unmatched ego and wealth has passed himself off as a saviour to the weak and the demoralized.”
Earlier this month, the Globe and Mail’s conservative columnist Margaret Wente noted that a majority of Americans “would rather swallow arsenic than vote for Mr. Trump” and predicted his fall. “If Donald Trump were a stock, my advice would be to sell it now,” she wrote. “The one thing that has to happen is that Mr. Trump will have to change. And he can’t. His most deadly foe is himself. Mr. Trump has no situational awareness. He has no ability to take advice, or build bridges, or learn from others, or direct a team.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted If a communist propaganda ministry had commissioned a gifted cartoonist to draw a typically-American rogue, he would have invented a figure like ‘The Donald’: a man who embodies the wealthy, boorish philistine, from his self-important attitude to the way his hair is folded this way and that, and someone for whom nothing is sacred — other than money, bosoms, success and power,” wrote Yascha Mounk, as translated by WorldMeets.US.
In Germany, Trump’s unstoppable rise is seen mostly as a symptom of a distinctly American disease. In no other democracy in the world, it is said, could voters be so openly motivated by greed, show so little concern for less-privileged fellow citizens and be so politically ignorant. Only in hate-filled, under-educated ‘Ami-land’ could someone like Trump be successful.”
Is Donald Trump running to be conspiracy-theorist-in-chief? Richard Wolffe of the Guardian, UK wrote (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/13/donald-trump-conspiracy-theorist-campaign-orlando-pulse-nightclub-shooting) “Trump’s brand of deranged politics should come as no surprise to his enablers. There’s a direct line between the birth certificate insanity and where the Republican finds itself today. And that line points to a moral and political gutter that the party will find it hard to crawl out of’’
The New York Daily News paid homage to horror movie classic Dawn of the Dead Wednesday. Their rendition, however, entitled “Dawn of the Brain Dead,” depicts New Hampshire primary winner Donald Trump as the cult leader of a “mindless” mass: (http://theweek.com/speedreads/604962/dawn-brain-dead-new-york-daily-news-rips-new-hampshires-mindless-zombies-backing-trump)
My Take on all these; Why do I find these articles interesting? It is actually the huge differences in style of writing from satirical,serious,to almost very comical. But each reporting tries to describe what the authors or better still the newspapers think of Mr Trump.When one considers that journalists in general are often expected to be neutral?
Reading through the news reporting, it is quite obvious in what direction the writers are leaning to and that; while the German newspaper’s tone is a bit serious with a carefully minded insulting tone, the British reporting sounded somewhat condescending, the Mexican and South African papers have beautifully toned down the seriousness by use of satirical twist and the American Paper goes all out to paint the seriousness of what a Trump presidency would actually mean to America and the whole world.
I personally find the New York Daily News ‘Dawn of the Brain Dead’ very hilarious and at the same serious because it explains without mincing words how dangerous it is, when there is a wide disconnection between mainstream and ‘elite’ political class.
Having followed most discussions on Trump’s views of the world as a could-be American president in the 21st century, both on television and print media. Personally I think Mr Trump is a timed-bomb waiting to explode. His view of the world is somewhat parochial, bullish and very archaic.
But is that not what the media are trying to do? Are we witnessing a modern day ‘Conspiracy Theory’ against Mr Trump? Has the media united in trying to keep Mr Trump from the oval office? Never mind that sane people anywhere in our world need no media propaganda to see that a presidency with Mr Trump would mean the world going back some 100 plus years of civilization.
