On October 13, 2016 Hillary Clinton’s campaign suffered yet another blow by her emails. WikiLeaks released new emails from her January 2008 campaign detailing negative statements about Obama. The event was used to strengthen Donald Trump’s campaign against Clinton. With 28 days until the election at the time, this national event was covered by several different stations and made an appearance in print, electronic, and online medias. For the analysis the issue will be shown covered in the Washington Post’s print paper, Fox News’s television station, and The Right Scoop’s online article.
The Washington Post’s print article “Hacked emails show anxiety over Clinton candidacy” definitely contains the most information of the three. It adds in extra details about how the emails add to Clinton’s weakened campaign as well as theories of how the emails were leaked. The article also explores how the emails have affected the other side if the campaign. I thought the tone was fairly balanced given voices to both sides. For multimedia the article uses a black and white photograph of Clinton speaking in Colorado. I think it showed Clinton and her campaign’s will to trudge on through the email controversy and continue forward until election day since the photo was taken the same day of the leak and Clinton was still out campaigning. The article definitely made it clear that the emails are going to cripple Clinton all the way to Election Day especially since the article claims them to be Americans number one reason for not trusting her. Overall the article didn’t seem to be supporting Trump, referring to him as weaker compared to Cruz and Rubio and only talking about Clinton’s weakened and possibly corrupt campaign. It almost had a despairing tone since it didn’t seem to think either candidate was worth endorsing.
The Fox News’s video piece “Eric Trump: WikiLeaks exposed true level of gov’t corruption” on Sean Hannity’s segment is defiantly the most engaging of the three pieces. The piece has direct commentary from Donald Trump’s son Eric towards the emails and corruption and appeals to the common man by listing the reason why the government is corrupted and how that ties to Clinton. The piece specifically lists problems of the common man that is created by the current government system that they link to Clinton’s emails. By doing this they create an understanding tone of the hard times and highlight Trump as someone who will change the current system since he isn’t connected to the current corrupt government. The piece goes on to show how the mainstream media is corrupt since it attacks the Trump and his supporters. The piece grabs people’s attention because of the tone of voice used by both commentators teems with understanding, anger, and a demand for change which connects to people going through rough times. The multimedia aspect is the inserts of pull quotes from Trump’s speeches relating to Clinton’s corrupt campaign. I think this one is the strongest to me because it’s a video so it has stronger human connection than the other two. Overall the piece clearly makes an appeal to Trump and completely slams Clinton.
The The Right Scoop’s online article “WikiLeaks Emails REVEALS Hillary Campaign Pushing Muslim Obama Narrative” completely focused on the new leaked email content and possible implications of that content. The article didn’t mention Trump at all; it only speculated on Clinton’s thoughts on Obama when she was running against him in 2008. The article definitely had a tone of disdain toward Clinton and her campaign. This article had the most multimedia components of the three. This article contained two colored pictures of Clinton in Obama’s shadow, it embedded pieces of the emails when making arguments about what was stated, and it provided a link to the WikiLeak website. This one is definitely engaging as well and could be argued to be the most engaging with its multiple entry points through text, clips of email, photos, or embedded link. I however was more drawn to the video because I feel like the content connected with me the most since it used appeals to the common man and I grew up in a conservative household. Overall this piece doesn’t promote Trump but it definitely promotes against Clinton and her campaign.
All of the pieces do use the event of the WikiLeaks to show how the emails weakened Clinton and her campaign. Others took it a step further and added in the effects of it on Trump’s campaign and one even argued how it should definitely cause Trump’s campaign to be favored. I think the print media contained the most information and was most balanced. I think the television information was mostly streamlined and opinioned. I think the online article was most direct since it provided the actual information directly and was upfront about its point.
http://thewashingtonpost.pressreader.com/the-washington-post/20161013/textview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTjldxmL9jM&index=19&list=PLlTLHnxSVuIyw5jPrLmewrpBJAPYKhgml
http://therightscoop.com/wikileaks-emails-reveals-hillary-campaign-pushing-muslim-obama-narrative/
Hannah Onder 