Final Blog Assignment

News Article: http://news.galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=769ad79f88104ecc40b80812ea78d601
University of Texas Medical Branch Website:
http://www.utmb.edu/

In an article found in the business section of Galveston Daily News, reporter Laura Edler’s draws attention with the headline “Medical School in Critical Condition”. The news article claims that UTMB is the county’s largest employer and had very public layoffs and cost-cutting measures that put the community ”on edge”. Although UTMB were going through all this extreme adversity, the article quickly switches gears by stating that state Rep. Craig Eiland and state Rep. Kyle Janek were to meet with medical branch president John Stobo to discuss that UTMB is at a “crossroads”. This is where the article ends, leaving much to the reader’s imagination.
On the other hand, the official UTMB website does a very good job of addressing the issues of what was to come for the Branch. It is addressed in a rather optimistic tone. It states exactly what the Branch is doing to improve it’s conditions, and what kind of construction the students, staff and visitors should expect, such as portions of the west campus being closed for six months as landscaping and beautification projects are being delivered, entrances of certain buildings being closed and the re-routing of pedestrian traffic. They speak of exactly what kind of improvements will be made to the Branch to make it physically better. In my opinion, the official website does an excellent job at filling in the gap of the news media accounts in regards of the building’s health, but it speaks little of the recent and dramatic layoffs (only found when you search the website with the keyword layoffs) which is probably what most people are curious about in the first place.