Media Critique

 The article, Vets try to save leg of dog hit by stolen van, was an obvious violation of journalism just by reading the title. It was located as one of the top stories under national news. This article violates so many of the 9 principles and 7 yardsticks of journalism.

A principle that it violates is making the important interesting. Yes, it's sad, but it's not important, especially not important to be a headliner under national news.  People have other things to worry about than a dog that just got a hurt leg. Yes, it includes a crime which is a core topic, but the crime is based off them hitting a dog. The important variable in this story is the stolen car. Why was the dog more important than a criminal driving around in a stolen car? The writer states in the first paragraph that this chase was being televised so why wasn't that the subject of this article?

A yardstick that this article violates is newsworthiness. How does this story affect anyone? It will affect the owners, but not for a very long time. If it doesn't affect the audience the first time, then it won't ever be a huge impact. For example, the journalist states, " Gordo, (the dog), won the hearts of the hospital workers." This is not significant; it's pointless.

Another yardstick that relates to newsworthiness that was also violated is local relevance.  This event happened in Los Angeles, California. This should have not have been under national news. It's understandable for it to be on the news in LA, but not in Louisville, Ky thousands of miles away or anywhere else for that matter. 

The journalist could've exceeded these yardsticks by changing the main subject of the story. The journalist could've wrote about the car chase and used the dog hit as an example of one of the things that happened. This would've made the important interesting and it somewhat newsworthiness. It would still not make this story contain local relevance unless you live in LA. It's not significant to any other county, city, or state. Also, Wave 3 news could've not included this under national news on their website. 

In conclusion, the reporter was too focused on the dog. Their is more important factors in this story.

http://www.wave3.com/story/26571617/vets-try-to-save-leg-of-dog-hit-by-stolen-van