News, and news sources, are critical to the way we see the world. How do we determine if a news source is credible and the information is both thorough and accurate? This assignment challenges students to compare online articles about the same criminal justice-related or ethics-related issue from sources that fall into loosely “liberal” and “conservative” websites and which show distinct differences in coverage. The assignment combines digital literacy (finding and identifying articles on the same topic from two discrete sources) and critical thinking (analysis of the impact that biased information may have on readers).
This Narrative Portion:
Part II: The Narrative is an expansion of the outline that dives further into the assignment requirements and critical analysis of the topics presented.
In your Narrative paper should start with you (1) briefly explain the subject of the articles, (2) the areas of commonality, and (3) the substantive differences in their coverage. Next, you are going to expand upon those factors to critically analyze and clearly state your thoughts on the next questions. Firstly, you will (4) address the impact that reading only one of the two articles might have on the average reader. Consider whether a reader would be fully knowledgeable about the issue if they only read one. Additionally, what types of bias or results might occur if they read one article over the other? For example, would they change their support for implementing a policy or support for a ruling in a court case? You will close out the paper by (5) blending the information from the two articles together to give a complete and true explanation of the issue. You are going to present the blended information in such a way that the reader will be well and thoroughly informed after reading it. Bring your Narrative to a firm conclusion by tying together everything that you have learned throughout writing this paper (i.e., your views on ethical reporting, what you learned about the topic, picking news articles, etc.).
Along with your Narrative paper you will also be turning in PDF copies of the two comparative news articles and they need to be PDFs – not links to the websites. The easiest way to do this is to Export the News Articles as PDFS and save them. You can also go to print and chose the Export as PDF option.
Essentially, you will be turning in three (3) files for each part of the assignment – 1 Word Document with the assignment (Outline/Narrative) and 2 PDFs (one for each article) to their associated Dropbox by their deadline. The maximum length of the narrative version is three (3) pages. The length only applies to the body of the paper (i.e., it does not count cover page or reference page).
To reiterate, the Outline and Narrative must be submitted via the iCollege Assignments Dropboxes (found under Assessments, Assignments) by the dates noted in the schedule at the end of this syllabus. A grading rubric for the assignment is on iCollege. You should also be turning in PDFs of the comparison articles for both assignments.
General Notes from the Previous Assignment:
Topic: The murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin
Similarities
· The New York Times and The Federalist both account the murder on the same date and place.
· The New York Times and The Federalist article aim at reconstructing the death of George Floyd.
· Both articles account of the intense jury selection due to the family of George Floyd’s family asserting how there is no justice without a murder conviction.
Differences
· The article from The Federalist, accounts for George Floyds murder as a “story of hard streets, difficult decisions, heightened tempers, and hard drugs.”
· The article from The Federalist, insinuates that the murder of George Floyd was caused by his paranoia of being shot in the past unlike The New York Times that accounts for Floyd’s murder as the fault of Derek Chauvin.
· Instead of being described by his acclimates and endearing words from his family The Federalist describes Floyd as a big man with a childlike state of mind.
· The Federalist accounts the murder of George Floyd was due to a fatal heart attack due to the fentanyl and methamphetamine use.
· The New York Times article reports that after Floyd’s death all four of the involved officers were fired.
· The Federalist article does not report that Derek Chauvin’s knee was placed on George Floyd’s neck.
