CHAPTER Fifteen
The Media

Exercises

Comparing the daily news

1. Look at the web sites of two national newspapers. (See the Explore section for web links.)
2. Answer the following questions:
   • What are the main stories covered on the web site? Are they the same? Do you see any differences in the stories on which the newspapers are focusing?
   • For those stories that are similar, do the journalists take the same slant in their stories? In other words, do you get the same information from each story? Is the tone of each story the same?
   • For the stories that are different, why might a given story have been covered by one newspaper and not the other?
     

You can do this same exercise for cable and network news stations (again, see the Explore section for web links). It might be interesting to compare CNN (generally considered to be liberal in its news reporting) to Fox News (generally considered to be conservative in its news reporting).

Comparing the mainstream media to alternative media

1. Go to the New York Times and read several of the articles posted on the web site.
2. Then, go to Utne.com, a site for alternative media sources, and read several of the articles.
3. Answer the following questions:
   • What differences do you see in terms of the subjects of the posted stories?
   • How is the tone of the articles different on the two sites?
   • Do you find any subjects on the web sites that are the same? If so, are they reported in the same manner?
   • Why would one source be labeled mainstream while the other is labeled alternative?
     
Monitoring the media
1. Go to a media watchdog web site such as Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) or Iwantmedia.com. (See Explore.)
2. What kinds of stories are posted on the FAIR web site? Are they stories about news bias? Questionable reporting tactics? Inaccurate reporting?
   
3. Pick one or two stories that interest you. Do you agree or disagree with the authors' arguments? Explain.