Analyzing Dual Coverage of Whitney Houston's Death

Last Saturday, the sudden death of pop music superstar, Whitney Houston shocked the world and immediately became a major news story.  Like other large news outlets, CNN and Aljazeera both wasted no time in providing developing coverage of Houston’s death.  The two broadcast news giants included a lot of the same basic information regarding the situation.  However, they also portrayed different methods in handling the story. 

Both versions of the story start in similar fashion by outlining Houston’s death, the details of the discovery of her body, information regarding her current status as an artist at the time of her death, and possible input from fellow musicians and individuals associated with her.  However, the major difference between the two stories comes after these facts have been laid out.  CNN’s version continues into a retrospect of Houston’s life, explaining the success of her numerous hit singles and her added success as an actress, while briefly mentioning her destructive, drug-filled relationship with Bobby Brown.  Aljazeera’s version, on the other hand, proceeds to go into a relatively large section explaining how Houston had been partying and drinking heavily the night before the discovery of her body.  TMZ, a gossip site notorious for exploiting the personal lives of popular celebrities, is cited numerous times as the main source of this information.  TMZ is nowhere to be found in CNN’s report. 

I believe that CNN’s coverage of Houston’s death did a better job of remaining respectful and professional, while still touching on the infamous negative parts of her life.  It seemed like Aljazeera’s version was subtly focused on what Houston did wrong during her lifetime rather than what she did right.  Their version goes as far as to mention Houston’s past destructive habits at, literally, the very beginning of the breaking news report.  Personally, I consider that type of information to be slightly irrelevant during the opening of what should have mainly been a report on a major celebrity’s demise.  CNN’s version provided me with every aspect of the story, as well as brief biographical information, both good and bad, regarding Houston.  I felt that Aljazeera’s version quickly reported the facts regarding Houston’s death, mentioned a few of her songs, and then turned into a glorified gossip update.  The different methods of coverage these two stories use could be due to the fact that Houston was an American musician.  Naturally, an American news outlet is going to most likely come across as sympathetic, positive, and somber rather than cynical and gossipy when reporting on the death of a beloved American celebrity.