How to Read the Media - In Class Exercise [part one]

1. Your turn to Evaluate me.. we'll take the first 15 mins to conduct the faculty evaluations..any volunteers to pass out/take them to LT124? thanks.

2. The author of this article on p.51 (Peter Hart) is the director of FAIR, the national media watch group, has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986.

I would like you to take the suggested questions that Hart uses to determine media bias (p.57)

• Is the information in a given article accurate?
• Is there missing context that might undermine the premise of a given article or television segment?
• Which experts are quoted--and, in turn, who isn't allowed to give their opinion what does this leave out?
• When TV news shows (or newspaper/internet editorials) feature a point/counterpoint debate, what political spectrum is offered?
• Is the selected media simply reinforcing the status quo on a given topic, even though there may be no reason to assume that it is correct?

And use them in an in class exercise:
First I would like you to find an article that you feel can be analyzed with this the above set of questions.

Next I would like you to use 4 of the 5 suggested questions to decide for yourself to what degree of media bias exists in your chosen article.

Then I want you to write your own question that you feel furthers your argument. (so your add your own question to the list)

All of this should be documented as a blog entry.

I would like to discuss your findings at the end of class..

For next class Thur. 4th I would like you to use your new set of questions to analyze another selection from the media. Have this analysis posted to your blog by Thursday. And be ready to report your findings to the class.
At that time we will see if any trends or interesting patterns arise from the class as a whole.