News media assignment: Compare three online news sources (Due at the end of class, January 23)

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 (in-class writing) assignment:

1. Choose a news story that lends itself to coverage of political topics, from one news site from each of the three groups below. Best to stick with a headline story, one that you will find covered on each of the sites you’ve chosen. Choose one news website from each group below to identify a story and 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 story your group chose.   How do the sites compare in how they covered it? For instance, do any of them use the content and headlines as ‘bait’ to attract certain kinds of readers? How many points of view/sources are represented in a story (for instance, people interviewed, ‘experts,’ politicians, etc.)—was the use of sources balanced? Did it cover multiple perspectives, or play to the target audience (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 advertising–what is adjacent to the story? Was the advertising tied to the 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 the way the story is reported have to say about the audience the site is targeting? Did you look at any sites that might provide data or statistics or context (if so, definitely include and cite those sources)? 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)
• Take notes–they will come in handy when you do the write-up on Friday as a small group. Also, move quickly, you only have two days in class, but your reading is light for the week–I’m assuming you will do some reading outside of class on this one.

Assignment is worth 50 points (attendance 10 + write-up 40). 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 write-up is due January 23^rd at the end of the class period. No more than 3 pages, double-spaced. Obviously, there are things you can to to prepare for the in-class write-up ahead of time. The actual write-up should be done in class, though.

If you miss Friday, without an excused absence, you can’t be part of the 40-point assignment. You will have to complete it on your own, as a makeup. There is no making up points from missed days (Tuesday and/or Thursday) during the week.

Submitting your group responses:

You can send me a Google Drive link (use your EOU account to access), and if your group has extensive notes, paste them at the end of your write-up (with some space so I can tell where the write-up ends). And please please please, make sure every group member’s name is on the file.

Sources/resources

These are here to give you some ideas if you want information beyond the stories themselves that helps to understand differences between how the sites cover them.

Media bias

• Media bias chart from AllSides (this could be helpful)
• ad fontes Media Interactive Media Bias Chart (‘static’ chart)

Fact checking

• UC-Berkeley Library list of fact checking sites
• League of Women Voters’ Reliable Sources for Fact-Checking

Ownership

• from Harvard’s Future of Media Project
• from the Free Press (spreadsheet–you might want a laptop for this)
• from TitleMax–Digital news site ownership

Topics

• The Federal budget (National Priorities Project)
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (progressive site analyzing economic issues)
• Pew Center: Mexicans’ and Americans’ views of each other and the border
• USA Facts (pretty good for finding some basic statistics for possible fact-checking)
• Council on Foreign Relations (good if your story involves world politics (e.g., like Greenland, Europe, etc.). Good for context.
• ProPublica–they do lots of investigative reporting, you might find something useful.
• Other potential sites/sources–from another course, but just FYI.

Polls, resources

• ASPA list of some public opinion polls
• Poynter (journalism site)
• Columbia Journalism Review

On misinformation

• from neuroscientist Richard Sima (he writes a series ‘Brain Matters’ in the Washington Post)

Occasional reality checks as you go:

Point out differences between coverage of different news sources, but also point out how they are different:

• Use of sources (politicians? Experts? Are the experts recognized in their field? Have they published? Do they work for non-partisan organizations? Remembering that claiming to be ‘unbiased’ or ‘non-partisan’ isn’t the same as showing it in one’s work). Do they treat sources differently, based on their points of view?
• Use of language—are there ‘talking points’ (e.g., ‘waste, fraud and abuse’) used, and if so are they supported with evidence beyond simply repeating them and having to take the source at their word without proving anything?
• Inclusion of perspectives (do they expose their audiences to perspectives they may disagree with?) Do stories descend into left-versus-right or republican-versus-democrat? Do they seem designed to inform and report, or to elicit some sort of emotional response?
• Fact-checking—are sources making things up, or at least not providing credible evidence or documentation to support their claims? When asked questions, do they respond with attacks on the questioner, or do they try to answer questions in a respectful way befitting of a public servant whose salary is paid by all taxpayers?

If you’re not finding differences in coverage between sources, could it be the story(ies) you’ve chosen?

Ultimately, we’re looking at how media affect the public’s perception of social problems. And how that might lead to support for certain ways to address those problems, as opposed to others (refer to the this page, for instance, and how a proposed solution can also influence how a problem is framed). And it’s a 40-point assignment (plus 10 possible for attendance)–that’s half an exam worth of points!

Makeup

IF you have an excused absence (many of you have contacted me), you can do your own write-up, using the information your group has collected, and send it to my email. But those who just miss class cannot make up the attendance points from Tuesday-Thursday (3 pts/day, plus Friday’s 4 pts–if you have an excused absence you won’t miss those Fridaypts), nor can a student just show up Friday and join a group that has been working all week on this.

As with the small groups, your makeup should reflect the same amount of time you would have spent in the classroom with a group (meaning 50 minutes of work for each day missed, plus the 50 minutes responding to the questions, would be the effort I would expect). Don’t overcomplicate this–I want to know what you learned from this process, about the story, about how it was covered in different sources, and some of the dimensions (like advertising, bait) above in the description.

40 points possible. Due by Wednesday the following week (April 23).  Link to questions (pdf and Word).

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