Mr. Lobb's CommTech: September 6, 2013

First Ass.

You are going to track ONE news story for about a week. (including the weekend)

Choose something that has a good shelf life - (something that will last for a few days)

In order to do this correctly, you need to consider the different sources of news (that you can use AND in general).

a) TV NEWS - every network will have an up-to-date, legitimate news broadcasting structure

news makes a lot of money for most networks
news is a guaranteed watch for most households (especially older people)
news ad time sells high - a one-hour block of TV show sells 16 minutes of ads (or more) -
news sites drive traffic - Yahoo news homepage is the most popular site on the web
news sites are constantly updating - a good way to have content on your site/station
the best TV news sites - CBC, BBC, (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN) - American news doesn’t have the same rules as Canadian or British - they don’t have to tell the truth (kind of)
American news is more likely to be BIASED - based around a belief or idea - the idea of making money - news is a business!

many newspapers just get news from other sources and repackage it
this is crazy sounding, but it makes sense - it costs a lot of money to have some in Syria, hanging around, waiting for some bombs to go off
there is a whole business around selling news stories that would be too expensive to get on a small paper budget
so, most newspaper sites HAVE to be big in order to be useful
New York Times, Globe and Mail, NOT THE DAILY MIRROR!

hey, who sells those news stories to other news sites?
it’s these guys
Reuters, Canadian Press, Associated Press, etc
these sites are just about collecting and selling news articles, photos, editorial
this is a huge business and it’s about having people work in the country where they live and all feeding stories in to a central location, which banks the stuff

there are sites that specialize in kinds of news (celebrity, sports, etc)
but there are also sites that specialize in a particular SLANT or BIAS on the news - left wing sites and right wing sites

Do you know what left wing and right wing means?

left wingers are liberal, open, accepting, pushing for change, allowing more freedoms for personal decisions, often have government involved in social causes
could have more taxes, could have socialized programs - ie you got to the hospital for free
left wingers accept immigration more easily, gay marriage, legalization of pot, swearing in music, freedom of expression for artists, etc

right wingers are conservative, closed, less accepting, more traditional (Values), prefer less government, more military, more big business running the show, fewer laws in finance (VERY BAD! VERY VERY BAD!)
fewer taxes, less immigration, some are literally racist, no gay marriage! no abortion! no pot! no bad swears in this dangerous black guy music!, hey! no naked in the art!
more likely to be religious

The news is USED by either side (and everything in between) to control the message that is given out
This kind of news is called PROPAGANDA
this is a great way to manipulate uninformed people
it’s also a great way to form a child’s thinking without the child knowing

Search for 10 news sites, some that you agree with in terms of your views, and some that you don’t agree with.

List them, and they will be the sources you use for your news searches over the next week.

You will have 3-5 assignments from this pool of news. Give at least one example and your reasoning for the answers.

Find evidence of opinion, propaganda and blatant point of view use. ie stereotype reinforcement, side choosing, or just straight up wackiness

Find evidence of news that you think is ridiculous or stupid, but is in a “real” news site.

FInd a news subject that actually interests you that you think will be ongoing and that you can track for next week. Track it in opposing viewpoint sites. ie left and right

4. Take raw material and information to write your own news article about that subject from your OWN point of view.

Mr. Lobb's CommTech