true propaganda

The purpose of this assignment is to get you working in groups to expose yourselves and the class to the vast array of news sources available to you in order that you may develop a more critical sense of how the news is shaped, who is doing the shaping (and why), and how it influences our decisions. .

You will work in groups of four or five throughout the semester, each group-member monitoring two distinct sources.  While having face-to-face outside of class might pose some difficulties for some groups, I will give your groups a portion of time in class to talk about your projects. In addition, you might set up a blog.

Each group will then choose a continuing story that is being reported in the news.  Your choice of news story is completely yours, though I will advise you to choose carefully.  Here are some things to consider:

• First, try to choose a story that is truly current rather than one that is stale, since the intent of the assignment is to get you to monitor, over time, how different media sources develop a story or choose not to develop it. 
• Second, choose a story that is interesting to all of you in your group so that none of your group members feels left out.
• Third, choose a particular part of a larger story rather than taking on too much. For example, you might cover the reporting on VP candidate Sarah Palin rather than the U.S. presidential elections.
  

The group will then decide on five different media sources from the whole range of sources one has access to out there.  Your choices should include a variety of different media, such as internet, radio, newspaper, news magazine, television, or other. 

In addition, the entire group will monitor the New York Times, the newspaper (and website) "of record." 

It will then be the responsibility of the group to monitor the development (or lack thereof) of the chosen story over the course of at least one week.

The group and individuals should analyze the differences and similarities of the representations of the story by the different news organizations.  Your purpose will be

• to determine what biases shape the telling of the story,
• what assumptions the news organization makes about its audience,
• and to what degree fact is delineated from opinion.
  
  Here are some specific questions you should answer about the sources you will be analyzing:
  
• How much time is allocated to the story?  What does the amount of attention your story receives relative to another stories say about the biases of the editors or the tastes of the audience?   
  
• In order to confirm your suspicions about potential bias, do some research on the Web to find out who owns the news source or who funds it, what reputation for political bias it might have, and what its typical audience is.  
  
• How do the tone, diction, imagery, music, or other aspects of the way in which the story is told serve to shape the audience’s understanding? Answering this question should make up the largest part of your analysis.  We will discuss in class how to do this kind of analysis.
• You may use outside sources to help you with your analysis, but YOU MUST CITE YOUR SOURCES.

• Over the term, you will build a website, using Google Sites (if we get permission), which you will submit to me and I will post it along with all the other others produced in the class.  This should contain your conclusions and the high points of your analysis.  You may include text, video clips, and images. 
• Later in the term, y ou will be given ten to fifteen minutes in class to present your project.  This should lead to discussion so be prepared to answer questions from the class.
  
  Media Watch