DIFFERENCES
IN NEWSPAPER COVERAGE
DIFFERENCES
IN NEWSPAPER COVERAGE
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR - ASSIGNMENT # 1
by Kent Edward Baxter 20 January 2000
Story:
Bill Gates resigns as CEO of Microsoft - 14 January 2000
In accordance to the interests of their constituencies, mainly their
readers, both the National Post and The Globe and Mail featured the Bill Gates
resignation story on their respective front pages. This is in contrast to the
Sun and the Star, who had coverage of the event either in the inside or on the
back pages, mostly on the resignation, with little (if any) coverage devoted to
the potential impacts on the company.
What is more, the National Post devoted extensive coverage to the event
in three areas: Bill Gates personally, and his fortune, the Microsoft
Corporation's strengths, weaknesses, past and future, and the potential
implications of the resignation, such as the antitrust case headed by the
American government, and impacts on investment. The latter is symbolized by the
words of one investor in the Financial Post - 'Without Bill [Gates] I'm scared'.
Since the National Post is aimed towards the interests of business, it is logical that the business aspect receives the most emphasis. Coverage is peppered with not only references to other business shakeups that have occurred around the same time, such as the Time Warner-AOL merger, but potential changes to come out of Microsoft, mainly new developments in software, such as appliance controls, and a 'back-to-basics' approach to software development.