Week 4- Level 2 Challenge Option: Read All About It!
READ ALL ABOUT IT
It seems we are bombarded with information wherever we go! The digital age has completely revolutionized the production and consumption of news; radio, television, and newspapers have been supplemented by online news sources, blogs, and podcasts. For this Challenge, you will conduct a content analysis of three well-known media outlets on one day and then create a visual display to illustrate your findings.
PREPARATION
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Create a list of themes you will use to code the content (see resource 2 below). Although these may change as you go through the exercise, for example you may choose to lump or split certain groups, it will be helpful to start out with an idea of the categories you will use.
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Choose three different and well-known media outlets. You can choose anything from an online news site, to a printed newspaper, a morning news program on Television or a radio program.
- For each of your chosen outlets, watch, read, or listen to an entire program.
- For TV and radio outlets, watch or listen an entire program (examples: ABC’s Good Morning America, NPR’s Morning Edition FoxNews’ Evening News)
- For newspapers and major publication, do a content analysis of the front page section (examples: The Sun-Sentinel, USAToday, The Indianapolis Star)
- Make sure you do all analyses on the SAME DAY.
- Advertisements, commercials or musical breaks do not need to be recorded as part of the analysis.
ACTION
As you are watching/reading each outlet, create a list of all the content you see and code it. You can do this with pen and paper, on an excel spread sheet or in a word document. You will need a complete list though for each source that is legible so that you can turn them in to your instructor. See below:
World News with Diane SawyerWar – 2 stories (Iraq and Somalia) – this is the specific story information
Domestic Policy – 1 story (The Affordable Care Act)
Natural Disaster – 2 stories (Hurricane Alice and Nicaraguan Earthquake)
Health – 3 stories (Rise in Diabetes, Cancer Cure, and Epidemic in China)
Celebrities – 1 story (Jessica Simpson Divorce)
Create one graph for each news outlet to illustrate your findings (see resource 3).
- Label the graph with the date, news source, and description of the project (e.g. Content Analysis).
- Provide a graph key which includes what each color or pattern used signifies. You should use the same patterns, colors, etc. for all three graphs so that way the graphs are easily comparable. For example if you want to use purple for stories about celebrities, make sure purple is only used for celebrities in each graph, regardless of whether or not they had a story about a celebrity or not.
REFLECTION
- Write a 2 page reflection in which you reflect upon and evaluate the content of news programming in the United States. Was there a lot more focus on health, war, or local crime that you had imagined? Why do you think this may be and what does it mean for us as American citizens?
NOTE ON SUBMISSION: Be sure to submit your list of content themes, your list of content (your notes), your three graphs, and your Reflection paper.
RESOURCES
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Title |
“Do 24-hour TV cable news channels cover too much punditry, celebrity” |
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URL |
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Annotation |
Debate.org has created an online forum for an ongoing debate about the content quality of cable news channels. The page features key arguments both questioning and reaffirming the choices made about content on cable television news programs. This is a great place for you to get in touch with what other people think about the state of TV news content and see if your analysis seems to bolster or perhaps contest some of these citizen’s informal analyses of news content. It may also be helpful for you to begin to observe differences and similarities between different mediums of media. |
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Title |
“Newspaper Content What Makes Readers More Satisfied”, Readership Institute Media Management Center at Northwestern University |
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URL |
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Annotation |
You do not need to read this entire publication (although it is interesting) in order for this to be a helpful resource. Scroll through the document to pages 17 -18 and you will find a section titled “VI. Themes.” This publication is specific to newspapers, but the content themes are not and this is a great place to start if you are at a loss for identifying themes within the news. Although there are 26 categories listed here and subcategories for some of the themes students need not use so many themes. Choose ones that you think are relevant and keep and mind that you may need to adjust them or add more as you continue analyzing news content. As a general rule 10-15 themes should be plenty. You may need to keep some of them broader (e.g. Entertainment (instead of separate, travel, movies, music categories) rather than trying to get too specific. Again you do not have to use these themes exactly, but hopefully they help you identify ones you will want to use. |
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Title |
Make a Pie Chart |
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URL |
http://chartmaker.mathwarehouse.com/create-pie-chart/ Links to an external site. |
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Annotation |
This is a great site that will help you visualize your content analysis through a pie chart. If you prefer a bar graph there is a link to a site that will help you make one of those as well. Both options are free and easy to use. You can use this website to illustrate your findings or another site of your choice. You can also use Microsoft Word to create your own graphs. |
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Title |
Trusted Sources, News Trust |
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URL |
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Annotation |
This is a great website if you run into trouble finding four different news sources to analyze. Although this list is not exhaustive and does not have local options it can help point you toward other print, online, television or blog options. |
RUBRIC
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No credit |
Below expectations |
Meets expectations |
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News Content Analysis |
The student does only 1 or no content analyses, or the ones they do have no specific information about the news stories. Or the majority of their sources were not well known news sources. They did not complete any of the analyses on the same day. |
The student does 2 or less news analyses and is missing some of the information about specific story content. One of their sources may not be considered well known. They may have performed one content analysis on a different day. |
Student did all 3 analyses and used well known news sources. They had both appropriate codes and specific story information for each content analysis. They also performed them all on the same day. |
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Visualizations |
Student completed 1 or no graphs, none of them have labels and they are incorrect in their representation of the content. |
Student completed 2 of the graphs and may be some of the important information such as the title or date. The graphs and content analysis should still be legible. |
Student completed all 3 graphs and they are all complete with the necessary information and easy to read and compare. All necessary titles and keys are there and in color. |
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Reflection |
The student did not complete the Reflection portion of the Challenge. |
The student provided a thoughtful response to the prompt that was less than 7 sentences in length. |
The student provided a complete and thoughtful response to the prompt that was at least 7 sentences in length. |