Media paper

Media assignment: How much news is there in the news? (Draft before midnight Jan 28)

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.

There are two ways you can do this assignment: either (1) watch TV news, or (2) read news web sites.

(1) The TV assignment:

  1. Watch two network nightly news shows (note: you need access to satellite or cable to complete this)
    1. one must be cable: Fox, CNN or MSNBC—national—local Fox or network news affiliates don’t count!!
    2. the other must be either ABC (Diane Sawyer anchors), CBS (Katie Couric) or NBC (Brian Williams)
    3. Watch one hour of PBS news (the Lehrer News Hour—it starts at 7:00 on weeknights).
    4. Compare and contrast the three different broadcasts (see the points below). You’ll need to take good notes as you watch, or record the broadcasts, or both (I would recommend recording it if you can).

(2) The web 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 main stories. Choose one website from each group to analyze (go to the assignments link online and these sites are all linked):

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.:

 

News site/ network

 date/time

No. of stories/ avg length (words/min.)

Story subjects

no. commercials/ avg length

main advertisers
  1. Discuss the commercials: How long (for TV, e.g., 15 seconds), who were the advertisers? What audience do you think the advertisers are targeting? For a website, how much of the front page space was devoted to advertising? For TV, how many minutes out of the newscast? 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.)?
  2. Coverage: Focus on what’s on the front page (for the web version)—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 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. Do they have their own reporters or do they use a wire service (e.g., Associated Press/AP, Reuters)? 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?’ What kind of stories were covered (e.g., investigative, reporting, editorial, human interest, or domestic vs international vs war)? Did headlines ‘slant’ any stories? Were some more likely to use scare tactics (use of fear on the front page)? Were different stories placed up front? 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.
  3. Production: did they make use of graphics, were some sites/networks more sophisticated than others, was it just a talking head (in other words, is it glitzy, entertaining, or more talking heads delivering text)? Were there differences between the three sites/networks you compared in terms of their ‘look’ or ‘feel?’ Did the headlines vary or set the tone of the site’s viewpoint? Did TV news stories have running titles and graphics (e.g., an ongoing story or series)? Were there tickers running below the images? Icons/waving flags/other graphics moving on the screen? What colors does the site use?
  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. Differences between commercial/ public/ non-commercial media? You’ll definitely want to address that. How much real ‘news’ did you find?

How to do well:

  • Follow the assignment description;
  • Analyze and compare—spend more time on analysis than summary of stories;
  • Support your conclusions with evidence from stories, sites, newscasts—for instance, don’t just say Fox is biased toward conservatives, or common dreams is liberal—show how (this demonstrates that you understand what a ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ viewpoint would be);
  • Explain differences—why might different news outlets cover news differently? This question is worth more than a few minutes of reflection. 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 important ‘news.’ And what effects might this have on those viewing the newscasts, and their understanding of current events or (dare I mention??), social problems? News outlets get to decide what to cover, what not to cover, where to put it, how to cover it, and how long to cover it. Within those decisions, there is a lot of latitude to inject bias and opinion.
Section Description (see above for more detail)

pts
Document Chose one site from each group; describe what you did, when, etc.

15
Advertising How much versus actual news? Target audience for each source; relationship between ads and stories? Differences between the sites, why important?

15
Coverage Coverage/stories; headlines; ‘hooks’ (to draw in reader)? Use of sources; video content?

20
Production Graphics; the ‘look’; colors; audio (music, sounds); ‘bells,’ ‘whistles,’ ‘eye candy’

10
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.

20
Writing Use your observations to write the paper, support any conclusions with evidence; Mainly, proofread your paper (go beyond spell checker …)

10
Draft Looking to see you’ve put some effort into this—even if it’s not complete, let me see where you’re going with it, and get something in for some points

10
 

Total

100

Assignment is worth 100 points. You will lose points as you ignore the guidelines, so read them well, understand them, and ask questions if you need to. 10 points possible for having a draft of your paper turned in at least one week before the due date—that is, by January 28th. I won’t have time to provide feedback—this is mainly an incentive to begin the paper ahead of time. You will want to give your paper to someone you trust to proofread. The points you receive will be based on the completeness of the draft.  The final paper is worth 90 points, and due February 5th. No more than 5 pages, double-spaced.

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