DUE: February 1, 2025 (11:59pm, EST)
These Top Story Analyses assignments are designed to help you develop your skills in evaluating mass media content by analyzing the biases built into news reporting. In this analysis, you are focused upon headline titles only. You must look for the “breaking news” or “top stories” or “headlines” of at least TEN media sources. Try to choose a wide variety of sources, both in terms of bias and reliability. Make use of both the AdFontes Media Bias Chart and the AllSides Media Bias Chart for help with that). Be sure that the works you analyze and cite are recent (January 19, 2025 or later). In other words: examine ten media sources for a particular top story, and determine the bias of each headline. You may use media bias charts (below), but you should also read/view the actual stories. Are the headlines clearly biased, or are they subtle? How so? Do the headlines match the actual story provided? You should also read for ownership of media companies; for example, Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post—consider what that means for this newspaper’s bias.
How to Submit Your Work to Me
You have several options:
- a 300-800 word essay, attached to an email or shared via MS Word or Google Docs
- a 2-3 minute video (in which you talk and/or show items, such as images, quotes, charts, graphs, etc.)
- a 10-30 slide print presentation (made with Google Slides, MS PowerPoint, or something similar, that combines printed words with images, quotes, charts, graphs, etc.)
Once I have received an email–either with the assignment attached or with notification that you have shared it with me–I will send you confirmation of receipt for that assignment, usually within 48 hours of receipt.
How Your Work Will Be Evaluated
Your assignment will be evaluated for clarity of thought expressed, and it must be thorough—fully responding to the topic. It must demonstrate critical thinking skills, particularly as they are tailored to the communication parameters of the medium/media under analysis (media literacy skills).
RUBRIC
An A level assignment follows the assignment directions fully. It responds to the assignment fully, with demonstrated depth of thought and logic. The analysis makes an excellent comparison/contrast between various representations of the news. The communication is coherent (clear images, complete sentences,…). The communication has a professional tone. The assignment makes clear effort to see differences in bias and honesty.
A B level assignment follows the assignment directions fully. It responds to the assignment fully, with demonstrated depth of thought and logic. The analysis makes a very good comparison/contrast between various representations of the news, but it could be better (stronger). The communication is coherent (clear images, complete sentences,…). The communication has a mostly professional tone. The assignment makes good effort to see differences in bias and honesty.
A C level assignment follows the assignment directions adequately. It responds to the assignment sufficiently, with some demonstrated depth of thought and logic. The analysis makes an adequate comparison/contrast between various representations of the news. The communication is mostly coherent (clear images, complete sentences,…), but there is a lack of development of thought. The communication has a mostly professional tone. The assignment makes minimal effort to see differences in bias and honesty.
A D level assignment follows the assignment directions insufficiently. It responds to the assignment insufficiently, with little demonstrated depth of thought and logic. The analysis makes an inadequate comparison/contrast between various representations of the news. The communication is barely coherent (clear images, complete sentences,…), and there is a lack of development of thought. The communication has a mostly professional tone. The assignment makes minimal-to-no effort to see differences in bias and honesty.
An F level essay doesn’t really follow the assignment directions. It responds to the assignment insufficiently, with little-to-no demonstrated depth of thought and logic. The analysis makes a highly inadequate comparison/contrast between various representations of the news. The communication isn’t very coherent (clear images, complete sentences,…), and there is a lack of development of thought. The communication lacks a professional tone. The assignment makes minimal-to-no effort to see differences in bias and honesty. Communication is mostly gobbledygook.
