Trump Walk to the Church

You and your group will work together to read, watch, share, and analyze different media products. You do this to understand and show how different information outlets present the same information in very different ways as well as how they, intentionally or otherwise, manipulate their audience. You will begin by choosing a very specific and time-limited EVENT that has happened since June 1st. You will then find 6-8 sources that examine, analyze, and present that event to their viewers/readers. Since your sources report on the event, all media sources relating to that event should be dated very specifically AFTER the event. These sources can come from anywhere—and indeed, a good mix of different types of sources will help in your final analysis. Don’t be afraid of using non-traditional sources (blogs, social media posts, TV/radio interviews, etc) in addition to traditional sources (text, newspaper articles, magazine articles, etc), but ensure that all your sources are reputable and credible. Using an anonymous Jane Doe’s blog post, for example, will result in a lower grade. I recommend getting at least one article from Fox News and MSNBC or CNN because of their political differences, as well as a few sources from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Try to include some “neutral” sources as well. Each paragraph in your essay will look at one difference in the way that the event is reported and discuss why that difference occurred. The coverage has to be of one actual, specific, and time-limited event that had some local, national, or international impact. You want an event big enough to be covered by the news media in some detail. A day of protest in Seattle is a specific and time-limited, and thus appropriate (IF you can find enough sources). A speech by Donald Trump is an event. A bill passed in Congress is an event but is not likely going to give you enough to talk about. Gun control is not an event. Coronavirus, in general, is not one specific and time-limited event, and you are unlikely to find a lot of articles about one specific-enough place to cover. Global warming? Not a specific and time-limited event. You may have some additional sources used to help you explain the differences you find or provide more detail, but please limit these sources. For my example, I will cover the scandal-embroiled Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh hearing on his becoming a nominee from 2018. For the sake of my students, I have included some contextual event coverage, such as the hearing of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who accused the now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were teenagers in the summer of 1982 (well after the statute of limitations had expired.