Journalism Skills - Task 1

my chosen text, I have chosen to analyse an article from netnews.com. In general, local media houses lack in reporting foreign news. This can be clearly noted, one to many times, throughout the netnews article. Upon the first skimming I found the text to be oddly familiar, after a few searches on the internet, I found the original source, that the journalist used for ‘referencing’ the Maltese version of the article.

It was made quite obvious that Netnews journalist did not write the article but translated word by word from the original article published by DailyMail.co.uk. The journalist, in this case Raymond Abdilla, has clearly made no effort in his article.

This is evident throughout the whole article, however here’s an example:

Daily Mail:

“The first of seven mass vaccination hubs for those aged 80 and over open their doors to the public today. The centres - which are also open to health and care staff- offer an alternative to receiving the jab at GP surgeries and in hospitals. They cover all seven NHS regions in England, including the Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne…”

Netnews:

“L-ewwel minn seba’ ċentri tal-vaċċinazzjoni tal-massa għal dawk li għandhom 80 sena u aktar jiftħu l-bibien tagħhom għall-pubbliku illum fl-Ingilterra. Iċ-ċentru - li huma miftuħa wkoll għall-frontliners - joffru wkoll alternattiva boiex huwa jitċievu t-tilqima fl-isptarijiet. Iċ-ċentri jkopru s-seba’ reġjuni imwaqqfa mill-NHS (National Healt[h] Service) kollha fl-Ingilterra inkluż - iċ-Ċentru għall-Ħajja fi Newcastle upon Tyne.”

In addition to that, there are other grammatical errors, mostly typos that, had the journalist re-checked the article would have been spotted instantly. Amongst the mistakes there are, “National Healt Service”(National Health Services), “iċ-ċentri se jkunu magħmulin”(iċ-ċentri se jkunu magħmula), “qed”(qiegħed), amongst others.

To add to the list, lack of punctuation can be seen throughout the whole article making the sentence structures abysmal. For instance, “il-Prim Ministru, Boris Johnson, qal li se jiftaħ 50 ċentru ta’ tilqim tal-massa madwar il-pajjiż, fi żmien ġimgħat, biex jgħin fil-mira tiegħu li joffri tilqim lil kważi 14-il miljun persuna sa nofs ix-xahar id-dieħel.

What I found particularly appalling was the fact that the journalist chose to use one source only, DailMail, when in fact he could have added additional information from other media houses in England. The main flaw behind this particular article was that upon my research, I found that theSun had published a similar article, however they stated that the ‘jab’ rollout was every 45 seconds and not 35. Though both might have a reputation that they might not be the most reliable sources in Britain, the stark difference should have prompted further investigation from Abdilla’s end, to try to find out which one was correct. However, the journalist turned a blind eye and chose the one that would catch the eye most.

When it comes to multimedia elements in the article, although posted on the portal of Netnews, only one photo has been published, with no hyperlinks or videos that might have made the article more engaging and attractive to the reader. And sure enough the only photo used in the article published by the PN media was one of the many published by DailyMail.