Over my next few blog posts, I will follow a current news story and monitor how it develops throughout the week and focus on the differences of how they are beeing covered.
If Britain is going to stay in the EU or not, is one of the most discussed political debates at the moment. Until the EU Referendum takes place, it is likely to come up in the news on a frequent basis.
Today, Cameron held a speech and proposed his EU Reforms for Britain in a letter to Donald Tusk, the head of the european council. Unsurprisingly, it sparked a lot of debate across news platforms.
- The Mail Online published an article by the columnist Katie Hopkins , in response to Cameron’s speech and letter. She hardly talks about what Cameron actually said in his reforms, but in an angry tone, reinforces that drastic regulations must be made – blaming Cameron directly for not demanding enough changes. “get us back the things we gave away too easily: our borders, our economy, our law, our right”. It appears like a letter of persuasive writing, rather than a piece to inform the reader about the content of the letter.
“the 5 freedoms Cameron must get back from Europe if he wants us to stay”
- The BBC News Politics Section, very factually states and reviews the key points of his reforms, as well as making some suggestions about the chances that each of the agreements could be reached ,and what impact this might have on the referendum.
Camerons Goals
- Protection for non euro countries: recognising the EU as a “multi-currency” area, giving more protection to non-euro countries like the UK
- Competitiveness: extending the single market and cutting down on excessive regulation
- End obligation to ‘ever closer union’: Allowing Britain to opt out of the EU’s founding ambition to forge an “ever closer union” of the people of Europe, so it will not be drawn into further political integration.
- Benefit restrictions: Cutting the current high levels of immigration from the EU by reducing what the government claims is one of the major “pull factors” – access to in-work and out-of-work benefits.
- The guardian, has published their own entertaining version of the letter, reinforcing that he cant be taken seriously.
- Can everyone be a bit nicer to Britain and not exclude us from trade deals?
- Please don’t let the European parliament make us drive on the right-hand side of the road.
- Can you stop so many of your fellow Poles from coming to Britain and flooding our supermarkets with cheap lager?
- Can we not be quite so close as we used to be, but remain very good friends?
- Buzzfeed refers to Camerons reforms as a “shopping list of demands” , focusing on how his eurosceptic Tory MPs will be dissatisfied with his proposals. A simple, but fairly detailed summary of the most important points from the letter is made. It is certainly more informing than the Mail article, but does not explore the reforms in much depth. However, it draws upon important responses, including the warnings that were made by the European commission, that Camerons migrant reforms were highly problematic.
#Online Journalism 