Analysis Assignment: Sony Hack

Chris Costley

2/8/2015

English Composition

Last year Sony began developing a new controversial movie called The Interview. In this movie James Franco and Seth Rogen star as TV journalists who are approached by the CIA tasked with assassinating Kim Jong-un. Once this movie’s trailer was debuted it wasn’t popular at all until the US government received a warning from the North Koreans. The message they sent to the US about the film described that the movie would constitute “a blatant act of terrorism and war” and would lead to “merciless” retaliation from the country. The Korean government also denounced the film as “undisguised sponsoring of terrorism, as well as an act of war”.

Accuracy & Coverage

Accuracy is one of the most important factors of establishing an articles initial credibility. If the article isn't accurate then the readers most likely will recognize this and disregard all information provided in the article even if parts of it are true. The article I chose “Everything We Know About the Massive Sony Hack” does a good job presenting information that is new and exclusive so that it isn't repeating all the other articles on the topic but not ridiculous where it is obvious that it is not accurate. An example of this is how it provides insight on the hack and a detailed account of what the hackers used to warn Sony and the information they stole from them. It goes into detail on different subjects including stolen employee emails, passwords, unreleased movies, and other sensitive topics. Another factor to take into account is the coverage the article provides compared to other articles on different sites. When I searched the same subject up and compared the results this article was the most in depth with superior sources. The article I chose presented information from interviews and letters with government officials that weren't public to just about anyone who wanted to know. This exclusive information was vaguely brought up in the other articles although they did not provide the specific details and sources that this article did.

Objectivity

In this article the writer , Victor Luckerson , does a great job on providing information on the subject and describing both sides of the topic on if North Korea could be behind the hacking or not. Although most articles describe only the possibilities of how North Korea could be behind this he chooses a different path and decides to show both stories. This is what sets his article out above the similar articles because they all provide just one direct point of view. He provides information on both sides and gives vaild sources about each topic although he doesn’t try to persuade you to either side he just allows you to choose using the information he provides.

Authority

Throughout this article Victor Luckerson provides many sources and examples that were difficult to find at the time of the publish but now are easily found on the internet. When he published his article he provided information that wasn’t the easiest to verify at the time but now that the topic has been covered more the information he provided can be found and easily proven. In addition to that he provides common facts and incidents from the past that strengthen his topic.

Currency

At the time the incident took place this article was published when enough information was gathered to create a strong article. In addition to that it was created when the incident became popular. It was created at just the right time when the whole world began to talk about it and create conspiracies about who could be behind the hacking. This article provided the public with correct information about the hacking that didn’t try to persuade them to any conclusions it simply provided facts and statistics.

Conclusion

In conclusion this article has been proven to be credible in all fields due to its exclusive facts and superior sources. The article provided coverage that matched if not surpassed all other articles in the accuracy of the information in addition to the sources. In addition to that it has proven itself to be set apart from all other articles by only providing information on the topic and not persuading the public to think that the North Koreans had to be behind the hacking. All together the writer did a great job at creating an article that proved itself to be accurate, authoritative, current, and objective.