MEDIA ANALYSIS PAPER Assignment
Your next assignment involves analyzing one (or two) of the
evening network newscasts. You should
watch (and take careful notes on) one or more of these newscasts:
·
ABC World News Tonight (Tuesday, 4/10),
·
CBS Evening News (Tuesday, 4/10),
·
NBC Nightly
News (Wednesday, 4/11).
I will
videotape these programs and place the tapes on reserve in the library for you
to view there. You may wish to
videotape them for your own use as more than one viewing is probably necessary
for you to do a good job on this assignment.
Your task is to analyze the news stories presented in the
broadcast by using David Paletz's "Types of Bias" in news. You may supplement your analysis with
materials taken from the chapter on "News as Persuasion" in Jamieson
and Campbell's text (especially material concerning "dramatization");
however, use Paletz's structure as the basis for organizing your analysis. After viewing the newscast, pick several
stories that show evidence of one or more types of bias. For each story:
1) Describe
(in considerable detail ‑‑ e.g. how long, what visuals, what
commentary, what lead, what conclusion, etc.) how the news item is presented.
2) Explain
how that presentation illustrates one or several forms of bias, AND
3) Explain
what influence the bias has on the viewer's understanding of that news item
as best you can estimate.
.
Begin your paper with a brief introduction that describes
the newscast and contains basic information (e.g. what was the lead story, what
were the major stories, how many news items were presented all together,
etc.). Conclude your paper with a
discussion of any trends (in bias) you may have noticed throughout the newscast
and on that network or on TV in general.
I expect a typical paper will be 4‑6 pages typed,
double spaced. The number of stories
you discuss and the number of types of bias you use will vary depending on
which newscast you view and how much "depth" you achieve in the
analysis. Some of you may do four or
five stories ‑ describing one type of bias for each. Some may see several types of bias in each
of two or three stories. Some may
compare and contrast the coverage on two networks of the one or two main
stories of the day. I expect that the
easiest types of bias to see on these newscasts will be "ordering,"
"drama," and "theme," but others will also be found in the
newscasts. Keep your eyes open for the
effects of camera angles, graphics, and other visual effects.
Papers will be graded on the following basis: how well you use the analytic terms (types
of bias); how clear your descriptions of the story presentations are; how clear
your explanations are of how the bias is presented and influenced the viewer; how well‑organized the paper is; how thoughtful/insightful the analysis
is; how good the overall quality of
your writing is.
Form Bias: ordering, drama, aggressive interviewers, access, visual
technique.
Mental Bias: themes, definition
of news, knowledge, source influence.
PAPER DUE: Friday, 4/20 (note
change of due date)