politics and the media

Description

This week we are looking at news media effects on how the public understands and reacts to critical public issues.   First briefly define the three key concepts we are addressing this week: agenda-setting framing and priming (about 100 words). Next, perform and report EITHER an agenda-setting analysis OR a framing analysis (300-500 words)   (i) Agenda-Setting Analysis  Contact at least 10 people you know (not in this class). Try to get as wide a range as you can. You can contact by any means (text, email, phone, social media, etc.). Ask them:  “What do you see as the most important issues facing the country today?” Ask them for up to three issues. Look at the list of issues you have collected and RANK them. Which issues got the most mentions? Identify the top THREE Look online at three mainstream media ‘front pages’ or social media trending issues – what are the top three issues there? How do they relate to your sample? Is there an overlap of media and public agendas? Why? Or why not? Include a screenshot of your front pages or trends and briefly describe your sample of people at the end of your post. Try to do both the survey and the content analysis on the same day (ideally Wed September 9) to keep them both in the same news cycle OR   (ii) Framing Locate TWO recent serious news stories or segments concerning President Trump — e.g. reactions to the  ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ allegations that Pres. Trump’s does not respect the military,  a recent news conference about the Covid vaccine process, etc. One of your stories should be from a CONSERVATIVE news source and one from a more centrist or LIBERAL media source. They should be on the SAME topic and be at least 5 graphs or 1 minute long to give you enough to work with – e.g. some useful pairs might be CNN/Fox or WaPo/WSJ or The Nation/Breitbart.   How are these stories framed differently? Identify at least THREE elements of framing in these stories. Recall that FRAMES are constructed through (i) the selection and omission of particular facts (ii) the use of particular images, symbols, and words (iii) and the choices and voices of particular sources, among other ways.  Include the title of your news stories, their locations and dates at the end of your post