Rogers vs. Roger

A character profile's voice is based not only on its author, but on its content. This became clear after reading both Junod's profile of Mr. Rogers and Jones's profile of Roger Ebert. Both men had done amazing things in their respective fields, as displayed by each author, but both had been dealt very different hands. This effects the tone of each article heavily. Junod's piece, from the first line, reads like a children's book as he begins with the age-old phrase, "Once upon a time..." This frames the tones for the proceeding story, for it reads like a children's book. This tonality is incredibly fitting, taking into account Mr. Rogers's career and the involvement he had in children's lives; whether onscreen or otherwise. Each facet of Mr. Rogers's life; the ones that Junod witnesses himself and finds through his research; is written in such a no-nonsense, informative tone that the piece obtains the same lilt a fairy tale would have. It's almost like a story Mr. Rogers himself would tell on the Neighborhood, everything about it screams, "this is about one of the most pivotal figures of your childhood, look at how wonderful he was."

Jones's profile is less cheery. Though he looks upon Ebert's past achievements with reverence, Jones writes about Ebert's battle with cancer and the inability to speak with such an informative and oddly distant voice that the reader cannot help but feel terribly sorry for someone they have never actually met. In his time with Ebert, Jones had witnessed just how hard life can be for Ebert with his disabilities. The only solace he really finds is in his blog and the time he spends on the internet, but in the profile, Ebert's wifi is not working correctly. Then, when he attempts to find some true happiness in watching an in memoriam episode about his old partner, he finds that the videos have been taken down due to copyright notice. Jones illustrates Ebert's anger by displaying him writing his anger down on his communicative machine, then zooming in on what he wanted to say until the letters become "unrecognizable on the screen". This, and so much more in Jones's article is a utilization of a simply informative tone that displays Ebert's tragedy to his audience. By simply stating the facts that happen in Ebert's day-to-day life; sans the magic that Junod manages to capture in his piece; the reader becomes sympathetic for this poor man who has lost almost everything.