You will follow a major news story and critique its coverage in social and traditional media. You will choose the medium you use to tell your message.
Step-by-step Approach:
#1 Listen, watch, and read the news. Find one on-going story, and follow it on at least three different mediums.
Two of those mediums must be a traditional mass media source: radio, television, online newspaper and/or magazine.
One medium must be social media: Reddit, YouTube, Twitter and/or Facebook
*All mediums must be English-language.
#2 Collect a minimum of three reportages from each of those mediums, totaling nine.
Your particular story (example: war in Syria, public infrastructure funding, birth of new royal family member) must be covered on at least five separate days.
The oldest stories you choose must begin after the start of our semester.
#3 Write a synopsis of what happened. Analyze the similarities and differences between the various reportages.
Write a summary of the news coverage explaining the overall focus of the stories, the key players and their positions.
Compare how the different news organizations (Toronto Sun, GlobeandMail, Huffington Post, CTV News, etc….) tell
t
he story. Contrast those traditional media to the input from social media (Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, etc…).
Did one media devote more time to facts about the event? Did another media give more airtime to one point of view? Did any of the media give the event a context? Did social media contribute more information to the story? If so, did you trust the accuracy of that information? Etc…
#4 Conclude by reflecting on Marshal McLuhan’s famous statement “the medium is the message.” How did the mediums (radio, television, Twitter…) change the stories and what impact might that have on the audience’s understanding of the story?
#5 Present your findings using the medium/s of your choice: print and images (1,000 – 1,500 words), video (6-10 minutes), or audio and images (6-10 minutes).
You can present your findings in a zine, a powerpoint, a video, an essay, or a radio blog.
Regardless of the medium, you will be evaluate on the following 4 c’s: clarity, coherence, critiquing, and correctness.
*If you choose to create audio or video, please upload it to a YouTube or SoundCloud account and share the link with me. I can’t accept files bigger than 1MB.