Monday, Sept 19 - Pirates kidnapped a British tourist in Kenya

This article, "British Tourist, Kidnapped in Kenya, May Be in Central Somalia", caught my eye as soon as I opened the page because I have a friend studying abroad in Kenya right now. She's living with a host family just outside of Nairobi, very close to where the British woman was kidnapped from her resort. Even though I didn't want to read the article because I knew if I did I would worry about the safety of my friend (even though the chances of her getting hurt are slim, I would still find myself worrying about her since she is so far away and in an unfamiliar place), I somehow kept reading to find out what happened to the kidnapped woman and whoever else was with her on vacation. Like we learned in class today, the article opened with a summary news lead and a sense of urgency and immediacy. Although the article doesn't affect many people, it has many elements that interest people in society today, such as conflict, a victim (two actually, her husband was killed while trying to protect her), crime, PIRATES, change in status quo/trend, and much more. The other articles on this page also featured news stories that were sad, negative, and just not very optimistic. I really hope to read some more uplifting, positive stories this week but lately the news is always pretty negative, but that is the reality in which we live. Hopefully some more positive stories, maybe feature ones, will come out this week!