Assignment: News coverage of politics
In small groups
Media can contribute to social problems discussions in 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. With that in mind …
The White House and the country have taken a decided turn since President Trump’s inauguration. But the campaign promises made (reduce inflation, deport undocumented immigrants) have been a very small part of what has happened–thousands of government employees fired by Elon Musk’s DOGE, threats to legal residents who criticize the president, law firms threatened who were on the prosecution side after the J6 riots, cuts to food assistance, the elimination of the Dept. of Education (which will affect the cost of student borrowing, among other things), Russia’s Putin is now Trump’s ally, and traditional allies in NATO are being lectured by the president and vice president, and trade and tariff wars abound. Among other things. ‘Other things’ being the press, and outlets who seek to hold Trump and his powerful allies to account are being threatened and intimidated (Trump might say it’s unfair or biased reporting).
So let’s have at it! There are issues affecting higher education as well–so many ways that federal funding’s tentacles reach out to even mid-size public institutions in rural areas. Because we are looking at very different versions of what constitute the important problems this country faces. Week 3 will see us working in small groups (much like the weekly small groups, but from Tuesday through Friday, in the same group). We will spend some time, before your groups begin, discussing the news, how it is filtered, how news organizations—especially private, corporate-owned—make their money, and how it might affect people’s views, beliefs, political affiliations, and understandings of social problems and how to address them.
This is a critique of the news–not the politicians
Most of the week will be spent discussing news and media bias, or at the least different perspectives on similar or the same stories (from different outlets), and on Friday you will be asked—in your groups—to respond to questions designed to assess what you have learned in your group over the week, focusing especially on how news sources may not all be reporting news in the same way. In the bigger picture, the same sorts of dynamics that lead to coverage that may be biased toward a target audience’s views on a presidential election, may operate to influence the audience’s views on all manner of topics and news events. Including how we understand social problems. You will have had some of this in week 2’s material, so this will be the culmination of a focus on the ‘framing’ question in analyzing social problems.
Section | Description (use the below as a guide for how to spend your time in class–if you have a master document with notes your group has collected, you can upload it to Google Drive) |
Document | List the different sources your group members checked out–choose them thoughtfully and try to stick with them over the course of the week–and what you learned about them (e.g., who owns them? Where are they identified on a partisan spectrum from right to center to left [you will need to have a variety of sites—sites that are actually trafficked and can be influential, so that you can compare/contrast]? What is their target audience? Are they commercial, non-commercial (no ads), non-profit, public, etc.? Also cite the sources you use to learn about the news sources. The Ad Fontes chart might be a helpful guide (try this if the other is too small to read). This describes some stereotypical ways to think about left and right. |
Advertising | Yes, follow stories, but also make observations about the sites you’re comparing. Who owns them? How much advertising versus actual news (expressed as %, for instance on the front page and maybe a couple of internal pages, just to compare)? Based on advertising, what appears to be the target audience for each site (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, gender, social class, partisan affiliation, geography, etc.)? |
Coverage | Coverage/stories; headlines; ‘hooks’ (to draw in reader)? I would recommend sticking with one or two ongoing news stories that break during the week (because stories and coverage often evolves over time). Consider how outlets use sources (people, politicians, organizations …) in stories, whether they include video content, whether they are covering topics from multiple angles (and not just a two-sided, Coke vs Pepsi narrative)? Kinds of stories covered? How does their coverage differ? Do they ‘bait’ headlines, and of so, how? Do they consistently seem to exclude certain perspectives (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, gender, social class, partisan affiliation, geography, etc.)? How do they use language? Do they seem to take ‘sides?’ What conclusions would you draw about the election based on a source’s coverage? |
Production | Graphics; the ‘look’; colors; audio (music, sounds); ‘bells,’ ‘whistles,’ ‘eye candy’ |
Conclusions | What did your comparison yield (what did you learn)? Are all news sites basically the same? How does money figure into this? Base your conclusions on your observations. |
How to do well (beyond following the assignment description)
- Focus on comparing/contrasting coverage from different news sources from different points on a political spectrum. So choose your sites thoughtfully, and if you’ve done so, stick with them. But also use other sources of information for ‘fact-checking’ or learning more about some story or topic you’ve chosen to cover.
- (as you do research over the course of the week, it would be useful to take notes that) Support your conclusions with evidence from stories, sites, newscasts, for instance, don’t just say Fox is biased toward Trump/Musk, or the New York Times seems highly critical of them–show how (this demonstrates that you understand what a ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ viewpoint would be, and how journalism can make a strong case, or drift into simply reporting the propaganda produced by political actors. You can submit those notes with your group’s responses–just add them all (with names) at the end of your document–set them off from the responses so I can see where one part ends and the next begins.
- Explain differences in coverage–why might news outlets cover the same story so differently? This question is worth more than a few minutes of reflection as you prepare for the questions in small groups on Friday. That’s one of the points of the assignment–you could go to three different news outlets and get three different versions of what is being sold as ‘news.’ Meaning audiences can choose their news. But is it all journalism, or do some do a more professional job than others in trying to report the news while providing multiple perspectives, credible sources and verification of claims? There is a lot of room in there for news sources to insert bias and opinion into the news cycle, and sell it as ‘news’.
- Assignment is about how news media and politics can influence public perceptions of social problems (that is, how they’re framed for public consumption). Just keep in mind that the goal here is to show what you learned in examining differences in coverage of your chosen stories among different news sites (and this is important: arrayed along a spectrum from left wing – center – right wing).
- Choosing stories to cover: There are plenty of stories on a daily basis, many ongoing. On April 15, we have: DOGE, Trump vs Harvard (and free speech on campuses), legality of deportations, political violence (latest: arson at the PA Governor’s Mansion), tariffs (changes by the day, sometimes the hour), etc. Since its ‘news coverage of politics,’ you should find stories that lend themselves to the assignment, where you’re most likely to see differences in coverage, based on audiences being targeted in many cases.
Assignment is worth 50 points. 10/40 points possible for attendance (2.5 pts/day, Tu-Friday). Otherwise, this is a group assignment. You will do the research in class during the week from Monday-Thursday, and then on Friday I will give the groups questions, and you will have until the end of class to respond (I will create a documents in Google Docs that each group can copy and use to respond to questions). Keep in mind the point of this—to better understand how ‘framing’ of problems is influenced by information, especially news and news sources, and in particular how news coverage of a polarizing president and media landscape can affect how social problems are viewed, and how leaders propose to address them.
Submitting your group responses:
You can use the same Google Drive link (use your EOU account to access) you might have used to upload notes. Make sure you title this intuitively, so I know it’s your submission for the responses to the prompts. And pleasepleaseplease, make sure every group member’s name is on the file.
Sources/resources
These are just to get you started–you should be doing some of your own searching as well.
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)
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 respond to the questions given out on Friday, and submit a summary of the work you did to prepare for the end of the week assignment. But those who just miss class cannot make up the attendance points from Tuesday-Thursday (2.5 pts/day, plus Friday’s), nor can they 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). And also reflect your preparation ahead of time in examining how news coverage of post-election politics can vary from one news source to another.
40 points possible. Due by Wednesday the following week (April 23). Link to questions (pdf and Word).
