Dawn News correctly cite that the girls won A third place award in enviromental sciences rather than THE third place.
However they then go on to mention the two schools/students from the US that won the OVERALL 1st and 2nd places out of 1500 students taking part.
Whilst none of what they have written is incorrect, facts that they have been withheld and the juxtapostion of the two phrases I point to above make it appear that the Pakistani girls won 3rd place overall out of 1500 students. This is not the case, as I pointed out in previous posts.
Whether the journalists deliberatly manufactured this impression, or simply did not understand the data presented to them, is a matter of opinion. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that the careful juxtipostion of truthful statements with the ommission of clarifying data suggest, to me, that the journalists were engaged in an exercise to hoodwink their readership and inflate a sense of national pride regardless of the actual truth.
Once again I must state that I am not trying to denigrate the girls involved - they are stars who deserve praise and congratulations - rather my critic of this story is more concerned with the workings of the media in manipulating a story to fit an agenda.
Neither is this a pro USA post, I am not American and have no reason to hold a pro US bias - I cringe at the shouts of USA,USA, USA! whenever I hear them.
Just trying to find out the truth of the story as there was something about the post in the Gulf Times that didn't read and sit right, and I was interested as to what it could be.
If you are content with the media giving you false info and trying to manipulate your thoughts and opinions in such a way then these postings of mine will have been of no interest to you. However if you are interested in how the media and words can put a slant on, or downright distort, a story then I hope I have been of some service.
Finally, my lasts words on this post, as I have been careful to stress on all of my previous posts so as no one can be in any doubt about my opinion of these students - well done girls, you have done amazingly well, take a bow.
It seems The Gulf Times got their story from Pakistan's Dawn News, here is, I believe, the full article that the Gulf Times edited down:
http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/15/pakistani-students-win-prize-in-intel-sci...
Dawn News correctly cite that the girls won A third place award in enviromental sciences rather than THE third place.
However they then go on to mention the two schools/students from the US that won the OVERALL 1st and 2nd places out of 1500 students taking part.
Whilst none of what they have written is incorrect, facts that they have been withheld and the juxtapostion of the two phrases I point to above make it appear that the Pakistani girls won 3rd place overall out of 1500 students. This is not the case, as I pointed out in previous posts.
Whether the journalists deliberatly manufactured this impression, or simply did not understand the data presented to them, is a matter of opinion. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that the careful juxtipostion of truthful statements with the ommission of clarifying data suggest, to me, that the journalists were engaged in an exercise to hoodwink their readership and inflate a sense of national pride regardless of the actual truth.
Once again I must state that I am not trying to denigrate the girls involved - they are stars who deserve praise and congratulations - rather my critic of this story is more concerned with the workings of the media in manipulating a story to fit an agenda.
Neither is this a pro USA post, I am not American and have no reason to hold a pro US bias - I cringe at the shouts of USA,USA, USA! whenever I hear them.
Just trying to find out the truth of the story as there was something about the post in the Gulf Times that didn't read and sit right, and I was interested as to what it could be.
If you are content with the media giving you false info and trying to manipulate your thoughts and opinions in such a way then these postings of mine will have been of no interest to you. However if you are interested in how the media and words can put a slant on, or downright distort, a story then I hope I have been of some service.
Finally, my lasts words on this post, as I have been careful to stress on all of my previous posts so as no one can be in any doubt about my opinion of these students - well done girls, you have done amazingly well, take a bow.