Ryding’s Blog

Source Notes

Title:

ANWR Reality (YouTube, July 24, 2008)

Summary:

This is a news story created by reporter Jim Angle and Fox News highlighting the controversy over oil drilling on the ANWR, and specifically focusing much of the report’s efforts on the town known as Kaktovik, Alaska.  This source uses interviews from citizens and stakeholders, as well as production estimates and diagrams to deliver its message effectively.

Topic:

Should the United States experiment with oil drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) in an attempt to reduce our dependence on foreign oil?

Category:

Mainstream journalistic source.

Featured media type: multimedia video

This source is a video posted on YouTube.

Publication Information:

This video was taken from Fox News and published on YouTube on July 24, 2008.

Author:

There is no author for this source, but Fox Reporter Jim Angle is featured.

Location:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPfslGt04gc&feature=related

Accessed:

I last accessed this link on the morning of March 13, 2009.

Support:

Debbie Miller- Alaska Wilderness League (environmentalist)- makes the claim that “The Wilderness would be gone forever” after the introduction of oil drilling into the ANWR.

Doug Settles- BP Exploration League- makes the assertion that the environmental impact of oil drilling has been greatly reduced in recent years, and the environmental footprint that drilling leaves is often greatly exaggerated.

John Boehner (Republican of Ohio)- House Minority Leader- speaks of the fact that in 1995 Congress did pass a bill permitting oil exploration and drilling on the ANWR, but President Clinton nullified those efforts through a veto of the bill.

Adam Linn- Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation- native to Kaktovik, Alaska and authority figure of the Kaktovik Inupiats.  Although the ANWR is relatively close to Kaktovik, Linn entirely advocates the introduction of oil drilling into the region because of the positive economic benefits that would be generated from the processes of oil exploration and drilling. 

These sources combine in order to form a news story that features differing viewpoints on the issue of oil drilling.  One might assume that the natives of Kaktovik would be against oil drilling on the ANWR, but Fox News provides the viewer with a somewhat unique perspective from Adam Linn.  Debbie Miller’s argument is not as strong as the other forms of support stricly due to the fact that she bases her argument on emotional appeal, and not statistics or fact.

Audience and Agenda:

Fox News and YouTube are both media platforms that already have a large amount of American citizen awareness, and consistent audiences that cause their messages to be spread effectively throughout the the U.S. via television, the internet, and virally.  YouTube has legal rights to this source featuring Fox News’ report, and Youtube is owned  by google, which acquired the media source in 2008.  At the time that I initially watched this report on YouTube there had been 240 people who had previously watched it, and no comments left by any of the viewers.  While this is a strongly composed report, it has reached a very small audience for a YouTube video.

Usefulness:
This video aims at providing a non-bias viewpoint on the issue of drilling on the ANWR by delivering testimonials on the debate from both sides, but it does a much better job of featuring the argument that is in favor of introducing oil exploration and production in the region.  It is making the argument that the environmental concerns associated with drilling are not actually that large, and the economic benefits that could be created would potentially outweigh the negative environmental factors that come along with it.  This source was initially attempting to address television watchers, speficially those tuned into Fox.  The information delivered in this article clashes with the perspective of Karla Dutton from my fourth interview on this issue.  Dutton believes that natives are already experiencing the adverse effects of oil driling in Alaska, but this story gives the testimonials of Alaskan natives who are in favor of the introduction of drilling near their lands.  This source leaves out the species that could potentially be harmed by drilling when formulating the stance against the introduction of drilling into the ANWR.

Works cited:

• The Alaska Wilderness League-

http://www.alaskawild.org/

• John Boehner- 8th District of Ohio-

http://johnboehner.house.gov/

• The Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation-

http://www.kaktovik.com/