Answer the following question with at least one substantial paragraph.
In what kinds of journalistic writing are you more likely to find the personal opinion of the journalist or writer? In what kinds are you least likely to do so? Why?
2) What is bias? Consider each following topic and discuss, in a few sentences each, whether and how a writer should, or should not, be biased toward or against it.
a) Nazism
b) Slavery
c) Jim Crow
d) Women’s rights
e) A particular tax policy
f) Academic freedom
g) Municipal policies on animal control and no-kill shelters
3) What is “fake news”?
Here are two pieces of writing about “fake news” from The Washington Post. What’s the difference in writer’s intention between these two stories?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fake-news-writers-need-to-meet-the-real-reporters-who-die-trying-to-do-their-jobs/2016/11/21/2d116308-afdc-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.f76f3cc91a31
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pizzagate-from-rumor-to-hashtag-to-gunfire-in-dc/2016/12/06/4c7def50-bbd4-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_comet-reconstruct-852pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.7b46ced7583e
4) Consider tabloid publications, like The National Enquirer. Read the following article and then answer, with at least one substantial paragraph the following questions.
The National Enquirer http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/04/news/how-the-supermarket-tabloids-stay-out-of-court.html
Are individuals safe from libel in the United States? If not, why not? How does a publication like The National Enquirer differ from publications like The New York Times in terms of libel?
5) Read the following article and answer, with at least one substantial paragraph, the following question.
If there are lots of people who believe Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States or that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax, how do you know what sources to trust? And the answer is not just “You don’t.”
6) Find an article or news story from each of the following sources and apply the so-called CRAAP Test (see link below) to the article or story you find.
You don’t have to include every point from the test, but you should indicate, with at least several strong sentences, how the test’s criteria relate to the sources you find.
https://researchguides.ben.edu/source-evaluation
Apply to an article or story from:
The Boston Globe
Gawker
PBS NewsHour
Mental Floss
National Geographic
Journal of the American Medical Association
National Public Radio
National Review
Folio Weekly
Info Wars
The Nation
The Onion
