News media assignment: Compare three online news sources (Due before midnight Oct 14)

Media can contribute to social problems discussions in at least a couple of ways. First, much of the information the public receives about social problems comes from mass media sources, and of those the news is usually given the most credibility and legitimacy. Second, the news media industry may directly contribute to social problems, and fundamentally impact institutions like democracy.

The assignment:

1. Read the online ‘front news page’ from one news site from each of the three groups below. This means the headline stories—you don’t need to read all of the sections—just the headline stories. Choose one website from each group to analyze:

• Group 1 (center): Christian Science Monitor, CNN, USA Today or NPR.
• Group 2 (right): Fox News, Washington Examiner or Breitbart
• Group 3 (left): Reader Supported News , DemocracyNow, or Axios

What you need to do

1. Document your sources: what did you watch/read? Include dates, times, authors, correspondents, length of stories (minutes for the TV version of the assignment); no. of commercials (if you’re watching TV, no. of ads and space they occupy if you’re online). Easy points if you follow directions. Save space with a table, e.g.:

2. Discuss the commercials: Who were the advertisers? Where placed? What audience do you think the advertisers are targeting? For a website, how much of the front page space was devoted to advertising?  Any relationship between advertisers and stories covered or not covered (e.g., did any major stories get glossed over that might have affected a major advertiser, or was there a story that reflected well on a firm or industry that advertises heavily, for instance did you see a pharmaceutical ad next to a story about health care, etc.)? Were there differences between the commercialization of the sites (hint: yes. What are they)? What do the advertisers tell you about the audience, and what does the audience tell you about the stories emphasized? How much of the advertising was pushing the site’s own content (or that of its affiliates, TV networks, etc.)?
3. Coverage: Focus on the headline stories (at the top)—how much deals with domestic politics? International news? Celebrity fluff? Tabloid headlines? Selling other network programming? Etc. What are the headline stories? How do they compare with the other sites you’re checking out? How are things arranged? In other words, are they using the content and headlines as ‘bait’ to attract certain kinds of readers? You could take the same story and see whether the three sites you’ve chosen covered it differently. If there’s a major story, you could cover different versions of it from your three sources. How many points of view/sources are represented in a story—were they balanced, and what were the credentials of the sources they used (e.g., a biased news story will restrict its use of sources / people that might contradict the story line)? Do they stick with only the important and powerful as key sources? Any ‘regular people?’ In addition, see what else is on the page: How much of the page was taken up by ‘fluff’ (e.g., celebrity gossip, sensationalized stories with little impact)? Was the advertising tied to the adjacent story (e.g., a pharmaceutical ad next to a health care story, or an investment ad next to a stock market story)? What does the advertising and content have to say about the audience the site is targeting? This is the most important section—put some time and effort into it.
4. Conclusions: What did you learn? I’m assuming you will have learned something, and that it will be based on the observations you’ve made in the paper and content from class. Differences between commercial/ public/ non-commercial media? You’ll definitely want to address that. How much real ‘news’ did you find?

To do well:

• Follow assignment guidelines, read them carefully;
• Analyze and compare—spend more time on analysis than description (what does it mean, why is it important?);
• Support your conclusions with evidence from stories, sites, newscasts—for instance, don’t just say Fox is biased toward conservatives, or Axios is liberal—show how (this demonstrates that you understand what a ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ viewpoint would be)

Assignment is worth 50 points. You will lose points as you stray from the guidelines, so read them well, understand them, and ask questions if you need to. The final report is due October 14^th. No more than 3 pages, double-spaced.