We all have bias. This assignment gets you to analyze at least four sources reporting on the same issue or topic and to consider the following questions (among others):
- What is the bias or prevailing perspective of these sources?
- What information is highlighted in these various sources?
- What's underplayed?
- To what effect?
- How are images used?
- How does the medium -- social media, digital, print -- influence the message and how it's perceived?
- Who do you trust and why?
- Where does credibility come from?
For example, think about the 2020/21 Summer Olympics, postponed from Summer 2020 and scheduled to be held 23 July – 8 August 2021 in Tokyo. How might the information about this event differ between the IOC, Tokyo newspapers, sport-specific websites or feeds, and American National Governing Bodies?
You may wish to tie this assignment to the issues paper by researching the same topic, but that's certainly not required.
This five-point assignment can be used as an optional replacement for any of the five-point assignments on the syllabus, namely the feature story or live tweeting assignments.
The resulting analysis should be a single-page, single-spaced document with clear paragraphs and a defined central argument. Submit the assignment in the Google Drive by 14 April.
