The top stories on Vox and the Wall Street Journal were very different today, except that both ran stories about the opening on the Supreme Court. Vox ran a piece titled, "The future of the Senate may come down to Susan Collins: Collins' uncomfortable relationship with the Trump-led GOP explained." It provides background on Collins' time in the Senate as a moderate Republican and goes into detail about the tough reelection challenge she faces this year. Her decision on whether to fill Ginsburg's seat before the November election is discussed as it relates to her reelection and Collins' distaste for the Trump-led GOP.
The Wall Street Journal ran a story titled, "Republicans to Meet on Timing of Supreme Court Confirmation Vote; Romney to Consider Trump’s Nominee." This story takes a wider view of Republican positions on filling the Supreme Court seat. It discusses the positions of Senators like Romney, Graham, Collins, and Murkowski. The political ramifications for these individuals are discussed, as are the larger power dynamics within the GOP. While this article gives a broader overview of Republican positions on the topic, like the Vox article, it focuses on the political implications (for individuals and the GOP) of filling Ginsburg's seat now versus waiting until after the election. This coverage fits Patterson's description of news coverage that focuses on the political contest and strategy rather than values and outcomes. For instance, the articles spend little time discussing the types of cases the court will hear in the upcoming term and likely outcome of those if the seat is filled by a Trump nominee versus a Biden nominee---which are more substantive considerations.
Other topics featured on Vox as "top stories" include "Who is a terrorist, actually," "The battle to define the Biden economic team," a piece about voting rights for ex-fellons in Florida, an opinion piece on how to end the economic crisis, the role of minority rule in the American democracy, and a soft news piece on how to remove trackers from your telephone. These articles focus less on breaking news than do the top stories run by the wall street journal. I was surprised how few of these stories seemed related to novel or sensational events, celebrities (including well-known politicians) or crises (like the coronavirus), given that Graber and Dunaway identify these factors as important elements that shape newsworthiness. Instead, Vox ran a larger number of in-depth pieces that weren't prompted by specific events. This reflects the audience Vox seeks to attract (people who are very interested in politics and want expert analysis). It also reflects the fact that Vox is a blog and does not have a large number of reporters that it can send to cover events on location.
One thing that surprised me about the top stories on the Wall Street Journal is that many of them did not have an economic focus. Given the audience the paper seeks to attract, I thought I would see more articles about stock prices, unemployment rates, the fight over a second stimulus, and the like. Instead, the articles focused quite a bit on the coronavirus (which differed from Vox's coverage). The WSJ ran top stories on the CDC's advisory panel on the coronavirus vaccine, the UK introducing new restrictions to try and reduce the severity of a second wave of Covid-19, and the impact of reopening colleges on the spread of Corona-19. They did also run economic stories about stock prices improving, uncertainty in the oil market, the fate of TikTock, and competition over batteries in the electric car industry. The last of these stories (on electric cars), included a focus on a celebrity---Elon Musk and his company, Tesla. In fact, Musk is mentioned in the article's headline "Tesla’s Battery Day: Why Elon Musk and Other Car Makers Are Fighting Over Batteries," which increases the entertainment value of the article.
Overall, both the content and style of these two sources differed a lot today.