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  • Renee Hobbs

By Renee Hobbs

Media Literacy IN ACTION

 

Questioning the Media

2nd
Edition

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CHAPTER 4
HOw DO PEOPLE GET THE NEWS?

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Learning Outcomes

  1. Understand how people access news and journalism today

  2. Identify the many different forms of news and journalism that consumers use

  3. Appreciate the professional journalistic practices involved in reporting news about war, crime, and conflict

  4. Consider how framing shapes news coverage and current events in certain predictable ways to make information more salient to audiences

  5. Reflect on how economic pressures affect news values and increase news partisanship

Fierce competition in the news industry has had unexpected consequences for American society

MEDIA LITERACY LEARNING MODEL
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KEY IDEAS FROM CHAPTER 4

  1. News is a form of storytelling that defines newsworthiness in relation to proximity, timeliness, relevance, conflict, and human interest. Language and images are used to frame heroes, victims, and villains in ways that influence our understanding of social reality.

  2. Two types of journalism compete for attention in the public sphere: traditional journalism and news-adjacent content.  Journalists who work for legacy media organizations use a set of procedures and routines to be accurate, fair, and balanced, but many people choose news-adjacent content, news aggregation services, and sensational content over quality journalism. With the rise of news aggregation services, the business model of journalism has been undercut.

  3. Crime news is reliably popular with audiences and news frames for crime news may lead people to feel helpless and hopeless about recurring tragedies like mass shootings. Eyewitness accounts of police brutality and riots offer viewers the point of view of people on the scene and this can have a galvanizing impact on public opinion.

  4. Fox News has maintained profitability in a crowded media landscape by reinforcing the existing biases of its audience. Because Americans now live in two different media worlds, people need to consider both the quality of information and its partisan leaning in making decisions about what to trust.

I'M AN ORIGINAL CATCHPHRASE



Analyze and Comment on a
News Story

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Message: What is the content and main ideas of the

information being expressed?

 

Rationale: Why did you select this example? What makes it

interesting to you?

 

News Values: Why was it published? Which news values are most relevant to this particular story?

 

Audience and Context: Who is the target audience? What kind of prior knowledge is needed to make sense of this news story?

Construction Techniques: How are language, images, and sound used to construct this news story? How are metaphors, symbols, and rhetorical strategies used to attract audience attention and activate emotional responses?

 

Work with a partner and find a recent news story that interests you both. As you review the work you have selected, discuss some of the following questions with a partner and take notes of key ideas that emerge: 

Context: Where, when, and how have people encountered this message? How might  this affect its interpretation?

 

Credibility: What type of news media message is this, and what distinctive features are used in the story to communicate credibility?

 

Omissions: What questions do you have after reading and analyzing this story?

 

Judgment: How does the information in this story make sense to you? What do you see as the strengths and limitations of this story?

 

COMPOSE AN ESSAY

Collaborate on a written essay about your ideas, answering each of the questions in a paragraph. Use evidence from the news story you selected to support your reasoning process.

Share your work online using the hashtag #MLAction. 

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THE MANY GENRES OF NEWS

Review the different genres of news shown in the “Two Forms of News” section of this chapter and reflect on your own choices of news and information. Consider these questions as you plan your informal extemporaneous response for the ML Inquiry

  •  In your opinion, which of these genres is most like to catch your attention?

  • Which of these genres is most familiar? Which is less familiar to you? 

  • Which of these genres is most useful for democratic citizenship?

  • Which of these genres us most useful for social relationships?

  • Which of these genres would you like to explore in more depth in the future?

 

Make an informal extemporaneous response to share your views, offering description and examples, and using reasoning and evidence to support your top three choices. You can also view and respond to comments by other people who have offered their thoughtful reflections on this question.

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HELP A REPORTER OUT 

Participate in the making of journalism by finding and talking with a journalist who is looking for sources on topics of all kinds. Explore the Connectively website, which connects journalists and bloggers with relevant sources to meet journalists’ demanding deadlines. Check out the daily queries posted by journalist and find a topic that where you have some experience.  Journalists are always looking for sources on all kinds of topics, from serious to silly. Here are some recent examples from the daily pitch list:

  • How are college students balancing work and school?

  • What coping strategies do people use when faced with an unexpected death in the family?

  • Have you ever had a déjà vu experience?

  • Does your cat stare at you?

 

Find a Connectively query where you have some relevant knowledge or life experience and write a persuasive email offering to be interviewed. If the journalist contacts you, agree to an interview. When you contribute to the creation of news by becoming a source, you help ensure that news represents the lived experience of all.

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Learn more about how Walter Lippmann influenced media literacy educators, researchers & activists

GRANDPARENTS OF MEDIA LITERACY

WALTER LIPPMANN

"When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion. The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute."

--Walter Lippmann, 1955  

VIDEO

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