Write a 5-6 page summary and analysis of the readings assigned from the State of the Free Press 2023 book. I am not looking to read a repetition of the stories as presented in the book:

1. Summary/description. Pick three censored stories you consider most important, summarize them and justify your choices. Use one of the original sources for the stories (sometimes there are multiple stories and reporters, sometimes not)—not just the write-up in the Censored book (at the end of each story are the sources and links/citations to the original sources). You should read the summaries for all 25 top stories—but you’re being asked to write in-depth on three.
2. Analysis. Why do you think these stories have been censored? Be specific on this one—what kinds of factors might lead news outlets to not carry a story (is it the quality or veracity of the story, the powers that might be affected by it, a lack of interest among readership/viewers, etc.)? Or maybe the story was covered, perhaps subsequently. You are expected to use other assigned chapters in the book to help you with this analysis. In addition, we will have discussed and you will have read about ‘filtering’ pressures that should help in explaining why stories might be censored, or at least marginally covered, how and why. Use them. You can be critical of the stories and how they were put together—but make sure you distinguish between the student-authored summaries of the stories, and the actual stories as written by the journalist and reporters. So make sure to go to the source material included with the Censored summaries. Just don’t become so enamored with the story you forget to analyze why it received so little coverage in the press.
3. Conclusion. What do you think of the book? I expect a well-reasoned analysis. I’d also like to know where you might agree/disagree with authors, and There are two issues here—one is specific stories in the book that you read, the other is the totality of stories that rarely appear in mainstream, commercial news outlets. Make sure you touch on each of these—it will require both thought and more than a couple of sentences. Cherry-picking a handful of stories to craft a narrative shouldn’t happen at the expense of the project’s overall goals and mission. Be fair, even if you have doubts that the authors were.

Read the following chapters from State of the Free Press 2023:

1. The top 25 censored stories and media analysis of 2021-22 (foreword, introduction & chapter 1);
2. Also read these chapters:
   1. “Junk food” news (chapter 3)
   2. “Media democracy in action” (chapter 5)
   3. Use these chapters to inform the paper—in non-gratuitous ways.

To do well:

• Make sure you summarize / analyze three stories from the top 25—each will be worth about a third of the points, so if you only do two, you’ll be missing 1/3 of the possible points. Also, you need to integrate the other assigned chapters (3 & 5) from State of the Free Press 2023 into the write-up (not in the last sentence )
• Be critical—that means spend some time analyzing each story, preferably even doing some background research elsewhere. Regardless of your views on the stories, show that you understand the author’s journalistic claims. How did the author(s) use sources? If you find yourself getting caught up in ideology, refer to notes from class about the ‘Coke-Pepsi’ analogy.
• Think about why most of these stories rarely if ever get covered in mainstream news. Are they untrue? Are they unimportant? Would they offend powerful groups? If so, which and how? Would they not find an audience—is it as simple as ratings calculus? You will have been exposed to the news ‘filtering pressures’ from class. You should see if/how they apply.
• A concluding paragraph about the value of this assignment. What did you get out of it? Whatever that turns out to be, I’d like to see some deeper reflection her If you learned something, flesh it out. If you didn’t, do some informed speculation as to why not.

50 points possible, due before midnight May 9^th. Submit in Canvas.