Death of Gaddafi

Nhia Lee BBC News
The death of Gaddafi has been all over the news these last few months. The news sources we have gathered over the years have resulted in different opinions and speculations on whether who is responsible for the death of dictator Gaddafi. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News is widely known as a political and commercial independent broadcasting news outlet. Many have accused BBC News to be extremely anti-British government and have faced many lawsuits charging them with hate towards monarchy and British government. BBC News is culturally more liberal than other British news outlets and truly anti-christian, seen by Christianity organizations.

With regards to the responsibility of the death of Gaddafi, BBC News believes that Mansour Dhao is in head of the assassination of Gaddafi,

“Mansour Dhao Ibrahim is one of Libya's most wanted - a man believed to have ordered the killing, rape and torture of the opponents of Col Muammar Gaddafi.”



The photo displayed on the top of this page shows the convoy of vehicles in which Col Gaddafi was travelling was hit by a Nato air strike in Sirte. This was the first attempt of many that have tried to get rid of Col. Gaddafi.

BBC News’ was using photos of destruction in their article. The photos are not rather bloody--less graphic--but more detailed oriented to properly convey the mess in Libya. The article sums up that Gaddafi was a man who was hiding due to fear. He was nervous, unstable mentally and physically. In a way, BBC represented this ideal and intelligible body of a man, known for brute force and anger, shifting his new body image as a scared old man, helpless and nervous.
Words such as, “The once-feared dictator scrambled into a water pipe for cover. That is where he was found and captured” are perfect examples of belittling his raunchy and tough image. Another perfect example is, "He paced up and down in a small room, writing in a notebook. We knew it was over. Gaddafi said, 'I am wanted by the International Criminal Court. No country will accept me. I prefer to die by Libyan hands'."

Structurally, the article was composed in a way that showcased a new side of Gaddafi. Many within other neighboring nations and developed countries (i.e. Britain, USA, Canda) have this idea of a ruthless man, dictator who was invincible for over three decades, however, what we get from BBC News is the side of Gaddafi not seen in the world’s eye; a nervous man, unstable, fearful, suicide. BBC News, I believe, purposely wanted to show a new side of Gaddafi and they were successful.



Nichole Tester Global Post Upon searching for news coverage on the capture and death of Libyan dictator, Muammer Gaddafi, I came across interesting reports by the Global Post. I followed the documentation by means of the internet, finding that the Post was not shy to reveal the video and still footage that other news sources deemed too graphic to document. Many of the images and videos presented on the Global Posts postings about Gaddafi were extremely graphic, however they provided an accurate depiction of the events that actually occurred with the capture of Gaddafi. This allows the viewers to create their own opinion of the actions that occurred based on what they viewed and how they perceived it, leaving no error or bias to be created by the news outlet. I was also intrigued by the section at the bottom of the coverage, which allowed readers and viewers to post their thoughts and opinions, and strike up conversations about the event and coverage. I found it very interesting to listen to the commentary that accompanied the video footage because the reporter never seemed to take one particular side of an argument. They simply seemed to state the thoughts and ideas proposed by multiple political figures and other news outlets, which contributes to the idea of letting the audience form their own ideas and opinions. Although the content itself was heavy and graphic, I found it enlightening that I was left able to access information and form my opinions for myself without the need to feel defensive or argumentative of why I believe what I do.



Katie Batz
The Daily Telegraph



In my search for coverage on the fall of the Libyan dictator Colonel Muammer Gaddafi, I stumbled upon The Daily Telegraph. The Daily Telegraph is a day-by-day newspaper that is distributed throughout the United Kingdom. It is also distributed internationally. The Daily Telegraph is known for having usually more of a conservative stance compared to other daily newspapers in the United Kingdom. For this project I am using The Daily Telegraph’s website. What I found interesting and that sets this media outlet’s coverage apart from others is that they created a live written coverage as the events in Libya happened. The coverage gives the time of the event and then provides a description of what happened. Even though The Daily Telegraph is considered to be conservative newspaper the coverage on Gaddafi is very unbiased. In a way the reporting done by The Daily Telegraph is an example of this project. It covers one issue; it follows it, and records what happen by covering the facts and the ideology by providing pictures, videos, opposing views from other news sources, and so on. The snapshot on the left is just a small example of how The Daily Telegraph represented the fall of Gaddafi. It is interesting to see exactly what was going during each minute of Gaddafi’s downfall. The Daily Telegraph not only gave their own opinion and perspective on Gaddafi’s death, the impact of his death, and the reactions of the Libyan people but it also shares with its audiences the feelings and perspectives of other news sources. I have personally never read, watched, or listened to a media outlet that has been as broad as this. This media outlet is similar compared to other outlets when it comes to the facts on a certain topic but different when it comes to how they represent the news.


Wendy Batch Bill Maher - Real Time

The reason why the death of Gaddafi interested me was Bill Maher. I was watching an episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher” when the host mentioned that the United States and Barack Obama were responsible for the death of Gaddafi. This was surprising to me because I had yet to hear this point of view that the United States was directly involved in the death of the dictator. Bill Maher is an extremely liberal comedian who hosts an equally liberal talk show that discusses political news. While he is not an official news source, many people in America take his ideas to heart, and see these events through his point of view. He directly influences and informs Americans through his media, so he is a form of news. As I mentioned earlier, Bill Maher has a very strong point of view that Obama was responsible for the death of Gaddafi. “It cost us a trillion dollars to get Saddam and a billion dollars to get Gaddafi,” he stated on his television show. Maher even expressed disbelief at the fact that conservative individuals were denying Obama’s role in the death of the dictator. “These Republicans, they will not give credit. They gave credit to the rebels, to the British, and to the French. But they would not mention the president. It was like they were on a game show and the password was ‘Obama’.” Bill Maher’s view that Obama caused the death of Gaddafi was very strong, and it is interesting to see the conflicting stories of the event from different ends of the political spectrum.
Structure-wise, the topic did not take up the entire hour of the show. Maher discussed the topic for one segment, the monologue segment, which lasted about 15 minutes. He did dedicate the entire segment to the topic, and was able to express his opinions in the time allotted. He did not cite any references on where he got his information, and simply dove into the topic when the segment began (no segways, etc.).


Compare & Analyze

Essentially, we had a very diverse group of news outlet whether they were broadcasting and news outlet from the U.K., popular television comedy hour show, or a global news outlet. Each source had a specific way in which they approached the situation--blaming the President of the United States or rebel leaders. BBC differed from Telegraph in a way that the Daily Telegraph were geared towards providing more updated information and paid extremely close attention to news from Libyan. They strive for perfection and really tried to give the most updated and useful information. BBC, however, was one post and stayed with that one post. The next updated article was a week later after. So the two British news outlet differed in up to date information. However, in comparison to the others, BBC's made sure that the photos they placed onto the article weren't graphic. They were in essence, striving for more photos showcasing destruction of vehicles and buildings, exampling the instability of the country rather than graphic images of Gaddafi.

So basically the main difference was about who was responsible for the death, but there wasn't a lot of difference. The difference basically means who gets the respect of being responsible for the death of a dictator. This can lead to nationalism and changes in "the history books". These sources are controlling the news in their method of framing the event, but their accounts of the event are about the same, it's just the framing.

Conclusion

Basically, what we were intending to do was to see how these different news outlet, conservative and/or liberal, were interpreting information about the death of Gaddafi and who was responsible. We understand as a team that the decisions made by these news outlet and social media will control how the history of this historical event will be represented through these different media and social media outlets. Essentially, we all came to a consensus that this could lead to nationalism and change the history books. It could change how history of this event could be interpreted and that these sources are controlling the news in their method of framing the event. Everybody has the same account of the event but the way they frame such an event has such a huge impact on the interpretation of the history. Like what Marx says “the class that is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.” You can interpret the class that is ruling the material force as the MEDIA outlet sources that have corporation control over the main news.