Evaluation of News Magazine Stories.

The Agenda

Today we're going to take a peek at some articles from the popular magazines Forbes and The Economist. Our goal is to uncover some controversial findings that leave two parties either debating or conflicting with each other. Let's take a look shall we?

Netflix and...... Apple?

The word on the street is that Apple could potentially make a move to purchase Netflix for a whopping 60-70 billion dollars. Pocket change right? This has stirred up some questions from the public and from other companies, as this deal could put Apple over the top of its competitors (such as Amazon). 

Iven, William. "Macbook Apple Imac Computer Screen Laptop" 1/22/15 via pixabay. Creative Commons 0 Public Domain License

1. The debate at hand is whether or not Tim Cooks will jump on an amazing opportunity, or rather try to start his own brand of streaming (iStream and chill just doesn't sound as good). Another aspect is whether Apple will cough up the cash to buy Netflix. This buy-out could potentially put apple above the level where Amazon and Google are currently residing. 

2. This story is basically the author, Jay Somaney, vs. Tim Cooks. Tim Cooks was not interviewed for this so it's almost like Jay Somaney is talking to himself, and saying why Apple has to make this deal happen. How is he sympathetic? He points out several amazing reasons why Apple should do this deal. He offers praise about how Netflix could become a streaming superpower with the funds and marketing ability that Apple has. It seems as if it is a no-brainer to get this deal done.

3. Jay Somaney is also the least sympathetic character since he is the only one. Although he offers praise, he ridicules Tim Cooks' ability to put Apple in the right direction. Rather than Tim Cooks' usual approach of building from the ground upwards, Somaney believes it would be ignorant not to attempt to buy an already booming company. Somaney also calls-out Cooks' "limited foresight" towards the end of the article. His stance towards the end of the article makes me wonder if this was infromative, or a "do it, you won't" kind of jab at Tim Cooks.

You can find the article here:

Forbes Apple and Netflix Article

More Money, More Problems

The United States is facing what could be a rough 2016 as stocks are already down 6% in the month of January. However, this year appears to be much different than others.

Altmann, Gerd. "Financial Crisis Stock Exchange Trend Symbol Arrow" 11/26/14 via pixabay. Creative Commons 0 Public Domain License

1. The debate in this article asks why the American people are spending less even though they have more money in their pockets. With lowered gas prices and increased incomes, Americans should be pumping more money into the economy rather than saving it. The main issue is that the saving percentage has gone up by about 0.6%, which is crushing what should be an easy flowing economy. JP Morgan is a mentioned bank that provides what could be an explanation for this,

2. The most sympathetic group in this article seems to be the JP Morgan research team. They have explanations that kind of  calm the reader down. Rather than being in an uproar and freaking out about the economy, they provide explanations to the lack of spending. For example, this has been a wet year in terms of climate and restaurant sales have gone down almost 2%. It's not necessarily sympathetic, but it's as close to sympathy as this story gets. It's more of a "here's the facts" kind of article.

3. The least sympathetic individual is the author. The author kind of slips in the idea that the concern of Americans is a gloomy headline regarding the economic status of the country. Throughout the article the author just lists facts of the stagnant U.S. economy, without offering much emotion behind his/her words. The author is unknown in this article so we are not able to dig up economic views or anything that could lead to an unemotional post. Perhaps they tried to remain unbiased until the last sentence, but we can't be sure of that. If they would have provided a little more of their own view, it could have been easier to sympathize with the author.

Find the article here:

The Economist Article