Source Notes 1

Fast train to the 21st century (The Virginian-Pilot, 01/25/2009)

Summary:

Joseph Paulino, a writer for the Virginian Pilot in Norfolk, implores the Obama administration to focus on high-speed rail in the northeast by constructing a faster train route between Boston and Washington D.C.  This is important to my policy question because the Boston-Washington corridor is the only operating high-speed rail line in the country.

Topic:

High-Speed Rail Policy

Category:

Journalistic

What is it?

A newspaper article

Publication Information:

The name of the newspaper is the Virginian-Pilot.  The article was published on January 25, 2009 in Norfolk, Virginia.

Author:

Joseph R. Paulino Jr.

Location:

The Virginian-Pilot

Accessed:

January 27, 2009

Barack Obama, US President

Michael Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts

Travel & Leisure, a travel and leisure magazine

Barack Obama’s policy decisions can make or break any attempts at financing high-speed rail.  Michael Dukakis is part of a flashback of the author’s that illustrates how quick the train he took in 1988 from Providence to Boston was.  Travel & Leisure Magazine reported on new high-speed rail tracks being planned in Europe.

Audience and Agenda:

The Virginian-Pilot is a daily based out of Norfolk, Virginia that attracts 201,163 daily morning readers.  It started in 1865 as a general interest periodical for people living in southeastern Virginia.

Landmark Communications, which specializes in television, print and Internet publishing, publishes the newspaper.  Landmark Communications, and thus the paper and its articles, is funded by the Batten family of Norfolk who own multiple media outlets including newspapers, radio stations, and television stations.  The Batten family’s focus is on Virginia, where they have all of their media holdings.

Therefore, they funded an article on northeastern high-speed rail because any line reaching Washington D.C. would affect Norfolk, which is part of the capital’s metro area.  Also, any possible southern continuation of the line would go through Virginia.

Usefulness:

This document was a submitted column by the former mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, Joseph R. Paulino, to the Virginian-Pilot.  He owns commercial real estate in Rhode Island.  New high-speed rail lines between Boston and Washington D.C. would increase traffic and commerce in Rhode Island.  He probably wrote the story with that goal in mind.

This source is in a regional context, dealing with the northeast corridor.  The document was created by a writer working for the Virginian-Pilot to drum up support among Virginians for an improved high-speed rail line that will likely extend into Virginia and farther south.

The article is trying to reach people living in the northeastern United States, who deal with heavy traffic between Boston and Washington D.C. on a daily basis.  It is arguing for Obama to make due on his promise to improve the infrastructure by constructing more high-speed rail lines in the northeast.

The author leaves out potential funding problems given the economic climate.  He also leaves out traffic data.

Focusing on the southeastern United States, this source relates to Source Notes 4, Source Notes 5, Source Notes 10, and Source Notes 22.

Works Cited:

“The Viginian-Pilot.”  Wikipedia.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginian-Pilot>

“Ulrichsweb.com.”  Ulrich’s Periodical Directory.  <http://0-www.ulrichsweb.com.janus.uoregon.edu/ulrichsweb/>

The Virginian-Pilot.  <http://thevirginianpilot.com/>

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Filed under: Journalistic