Evaluation of News Magazine Stories, Blog Post 2.3

Along with newspapers, news magazines remain a popular medium of information exchange. Although print readership has declined with the rise of easy internet access, many of the most popular news magazines have online versions of their articles and stories. While many magazines tend to focus on specific topics to report on, one can usually find a wide variety of stories to follow. Reading through some of these magazines on my own, I discovered that there were more than a few stories related to science and technology in some way.

Stories:

Time Magazine: A Giant Hydrogen Cloud Is Heading Toward the Milky Way

Wired Magazine: Pluto Is More Like Hoth Than You Ever Thought

1. What is the debate, disagreement or argument in the story about? Explain concisely, but with specificity and precision. Name specific people, places, things, events, dates, times and/or other identifying details.

Time Article:
The main argument being made is that the hydrogen cloud in question will not reach the Milky Way Galaxy for another 30 million years. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope made this claim. However, no other agency or astronomer has come forth with calculations to prove the Hubble astronomers estimate to be in question. For the most part, the article shares information rather than explaining a debate.

Wired Article:
The disagreement in this article is exemplified in the images at the top of the article. Both are showing concentration of water ice on the dwarf planet Pluto. However, the image on the left was scientists' earlier estimate while the image on the right shows the true concentration of water ice on the surface of the dwarf planet. NASA scientists were able to quickly correct their mistakes, however. They later theorized that ice water on Pluto acts like rock on Earth. Mountains, hills, valleys, and craters are all shaped by it.

2. Who is the most sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why do they evoke feelings of sympathy from you?

Time Article:
There is only really one group of characters involved in this story: The Hubble Space Telescope astronomers. I feel sympathy for them due to the fact that they are the first scientists to propose an estimate for when the gas cloud will interact with the Milky Way Galaxy. Their theory may well yet be proven wrong in the future.

Wired Article:
I feel definite sympathy for the NASA scientists studying Pluto. While they knew Pluto was covered in ice water, it seems as if the data they collected was false at first. Later, they found the real data. As often happens in science, later data will prove an old hypothesis wrong.

3. Who is the least sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why can't you easily sympathize with them?

Time Article:
I found it hard to sympathize with the author of this story. The author put very little information into the article. I was able to receive a quick run-down on the story at hand, but nothing more. It was rather difficult to write a blog post on it as a result.

Wired Article:
Just like the Time article, I found it hard to sympathize with the author of this story as well. Instead of referring to water as H2O, its proper chemical name, the author wrote "H-Two-Oh". For an author of article appearing on a science/technology themed magazine, it seemed rather unprofessional to me.

Roanish. Milky Way 01. July 23rd, 2011 via Flickr. Attribution License.