The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper first published and circulated in Washington, D.C. in 1877. Having been around since then makes, The Washington Post Washington D.C.’s oldest circulating newspaper. While The Washington Post covers a diverse range of topics from national and international news, business, politics, pop culture, fine arts, film, fashion and sports, it has distinguished itself from other leading newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times though its political reporting on the workings of U.S. government, most notable their coverage of the Watergate Scandal. Since The Washington Post does tend to cover more political matters, I believe that their main audience are educated adults and to a lesser existence university students in America.
One of today’s (9/11/2013) top headlines covers Syria and is entitled Obama takes Syria case to the public in White House address. Following Russia’s proposed diplomatic solution of having President Bashar al-Assad give up Syria’s chemical weapons to international forces, President Obama has stated that this is the last diplomatic solution for Syria to avoid an American military strike. President Obama also put Congress’ vote on military action is Syria on freeze, waiting till President Bashar al-Assad gives notification on his intent to give up Syria’s chemical weapons to Russia. Despite President Obama’s turn to diplomatic solutions, he is still talking about the need for America to strike in case Syria fails to cooperate. However, Congress still stands divided on taking military action in Syria with many stating that President Obama has not done a good enough job of convincing Americans of the need to take action.
Obama takes Syria case to the public in White House address
Another article that I found interesting was Apple’s new iPhones: How the 5S and 5C stack up against the competition. On September 10th, Apple unveiled its two latest iPhone models, the 5C and the 5S. The 5C is essentially a cheaper version of the iPhone 5, except with slightly better specs and is made of plastic. The 5S is the top line model, boasting increased processing power, new flash technology that will give pictures “SLR-quality”, and a fingerprint scanner. The iPhone isn’t the only smart phone around anymore though. The 5C will mainly face competition from Google’s Moto X phone, that boast total customization over the phone, a larger screen, and a higher megapixel camera. However the 5C is cheaper, smaller, slimmer, and offers a better resolution than the Moto X. The competition for the iPhone 5S is the Samsung Galaxy S4. Like the 5C, the 5S will have a smaller screen and fewer megapixels then the Galaxy S4. However, the 5S will have a more premium feel since it is designed out of aluminum and glass, compared to plastic for the Galaxy S4, a higher resolution, and a fingerprint scanner to boast over the Galaxy S4. There are still many other smartphones in the market, but these are the ones expected to compete with Apple’s new line of iPhones.
Apple’s new iPhones: How the 5S and 5C stack up against the competition
Their article on Shelf-harm blogs also caught my attention. Self-harm blogs pose problems and opportunities are blogs solely dedicated to self cutting, suicide, eating disorders etc. and come with all the details and photos that go along with such activities. This community of self-harm bloggers according to one user, Anouschka, is understanding of the actions and doesn’t judge those who self-harm, which according to Anouschka is a welcome feeling often lacking in her real life interactions. Experts however say that the bonds that self-harm bloggers form reinforce the actions that they are taking and may convince them that self-harm is a healthy and normal thing to do. Another concern is the spreading of misinformation on how to self-harm among the bloggers. Also these types of blogs present trouble for recovering self-harmers and may trigger relapses for them according to Shannon Barnett, a pediatric psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. These fears led Tumblr and many other blogging network’s to ban self-harm blogs, but this ban does not seem to be working as self-harm blogs are still around.
Self-harm blogs pose problems and opportunities
The Washington Post is one newspaper that I will always try to grab if I can. This is because of the vast range of articles that are covered in The Washington Post and I find many of them to e fairly interesting. Also the political coverage that they do often brings different facts/statements and viewpoints on stores than other newspapers tend to.