Assignment Three- Following the Media

One of our goals for this class is to train ourselves to look closely at the websites we get our information from. We should always be questioning if the information is reliable, reputable, and if there is bias that might change the way the 'facts' are presented.


In our last assignment, many students stated that they trusted the news media such as newspapers and television news programs and the websites connected to them. The most common reason given  for trusting them is because they are well known sources.


In today's assignment we will look at how the news media covers a news event to look and see if there are any differences in how the same event is presented to us. This will help us be more sensitive to bias that may effect even the news sources we trust the most.

You may have heard about the protest that has been going on in Manhattan. For  this assignment, please search for "occupy wall street" on the internet.

STEP ONE

Look at several (many) websites that come up and check on the following things-

1. What are the basic facts?

2. Are the facts on different websites the same or different?

3. Do some sites seem friendly to the protest in some ways?

4. Do some sites seem  unfriendly?

5. On a Microsoft Word page document take some notes on 1,2,3,4. Make sure you copy the URLs when you cut and paste some examples when you find them. These notes will be checked on and counted as class work!