Apply Dominick’s six criteria for newsworthiness to the stories you see in your newspaper and magazine. Discuss each of these news values separately.
I’m studying for my Communications class and don’t understand how to answer this. Can you help me study?
Paper Description: Media Analysis: Newsworthiness.
Length: 5-7 pages required; 7 pages is ideal because you cannot develop ideas well in shorter papers.
Apply Dominick’s six criteria for newsworthiness (posted on BB and discussed in class) to the stories you see in your newspaper and magazine. Discuss each of these news values separately; I recommend using the news value label in the narrative transition into the section of your paper in which you discuss that news value. Describe how the news value is playing out inthe paper/magazine you’re analyzing. Provide examples of that news value in action, based onthe stories you’ve selected. The six main topics of the body of your paper should be: timeliness, proximity, prominence, consequence, human interest, and economics. You should also compare how each criterion (excluding economics) is evidenced in the newspaper and the magazine – what similarities and differences do you see for each of the five criteria you’re comparing? It is best to include the comparisons as subsections under each of the five individual criteria (excluding economics) before you transition into your conclusion.
Conclude with a paragraph that presents some summary evaluation of the news selection in these media based on whatever you find most interesting. You should consider the similarities and differences you found in the newspaper and magazine, and reflect on why you think things were as you found them. In addition, there are any number of things you might want to write about in your conclusion. For example, you could consider the extent to which items that really aren’t “news” (as you would define news; as something important) were included in the newspaper. Whatitems were these? (Just because people are interested in something, does that make it “news?”)Should something have received more coverage? If so, what would you cut? Or you might consider the source of the various stories might have been – anything from PR firms? Did you see any stories using news releases? Or, you might consider ethical issues – what was done ethically right? Was anything ethically suspect? You could, if you wished, discuss the quality of the writing, and the use of visuals. You could try to determine the newspaper’s target audience based on yourreview of the news content. How effective do you think the paper is at reaching its target audience? You could consider what was especially well-done overall, and what was especially poorly-done.These ideas are presented as examples of what you could do in your conclusion; do not feel obligated to focus on any of these if something else strikes you. Do NOT try to address all of the items in this list; select one or two points to consider in your conclusion. However you wish to approach it, conclude with your overall evaluation of the newspaper and magazine content and try to come up with your own opinions as to why the newspaper/magazine exhibited the similarities/differences you found.
Strong papers fold in many examples of stories to illustrate each criterion, focusing deeply on a few examples in each criterion as the most important (detailed) examples. Please note that you can present multiple examples in an efficient (i.e., not lengthy) manner – it’s all in how you write about what you see. The sample papers contain examples of doing this, and demonstrate the ideal of including 7 quick examples in a list, followed by 3 detailed examples. They also demonstrate not repeating stories in the 3 detailed examples, although it is okay to repeat stories in the quick list of 7. Be careful not to force news stories into categories in which they don’t fit. And do not simply describe the stories – you must tie them into the criteria. Do not look at or write about advertising in any section of this paper – only analyze and write about the news/editorial content.
- “Local” means in the Chicago metro area. You must use a local newspaper, but you do not need to use a local magazine.
- “Daily” means at least a Monday-Friday publication schedule (no weeklies). Do not select a weekend newspaper without permission.
- Free dailies such as the RedEye are generally less good for this assignment because they do not represent traditional journalism and because they are affected in additional ways by the economic news value. You have to approach them differently which – although it’s possible – is for most students much more difficult.
- “Monthly” means the magazine comes out once a month. Look for a publication date that is simply “July” or “June” without listing specific dates. If you look atPeople or Time magazine, or Sports Illustrated, you’ll see these are not monthly –they are weekly or bi-weekly, so none of these are suitable for this assignment.
- You cannot do these assignments with an online version of the newspaper or magazine, nor with a newspaper from another city (A print suburban Chicago daily newspaper is fine).
- Three-point deductions will be given for not using hard copies of a local daily paper or a monthly magazine.In your paper, use examples from the newspaper and magazine as evidence to support your arguments. State all your claims and premises explicitly. For example, if you wish to say that a news story reflects the proximity news value we discussed in class, then you need to discuss examples of stories that illustrated this news value and explain why you think the proximity news value is present. Always remember this guiding principle: people reading your work never knowwhat’s in your head, we only know what’s on the page.Your paper is a narrative analysis of what you have seen. In your papers, there should be very little simple recounting of what you saw. Instead, you should analyze the content. In grading this type of analysis, the emphasis is on your insight, appropriate application of course concepts, and depth and sophistication of the arguments presented. Your writing is also evaluated. Always keep your analysis rooted in this newspaper (magazine); do not speak of “news” or “media” (or even this one media outlet) in general terms. Keep everything you say focused on this single day’sedition of the newspaper and single issue of the magazine.
- Write in a style that is comfortable for you, but make sure it is clear, grammatically correct,and carefully proofread. “Comfortable” does not mean “sloppy,” nor does it imply that the rules ofgood writing will not be considered when evaluating the work. The first person (I, me, my) is recommended for this class. The second person (you, your) is rarely appropriate in academic work;do not say “you” unless you are intentionally directing your words to the reader (me!). Only usewords that come naturally to you; do not put on your formal and stilted “I’m writing a class paper now” hat. Write to communicate. Be clear and direct, and be certain that the story you want to tellcomes across. Do not depend on spell-check. It’s a good tool, but it will never replace carefulhuman proofreading.Use a variant of APA style. You may not need any in-text citations, and you will probably not need a reference list, even though in other courses you might.
- If you’re referring to Dominick in your paper, use a proper in-text reference: “Dominick (2013)presents…” or “Dominick (2013) listed the….”. You probably never need to quote Dominick, but if you do, include the page reference: “According to Dominick (2013, p. 277-278), the mostimportant thing is ‘insert quote’.” Or “Dominick (2013, p. 277-278) defined proximity as ‘insert quote’.” If you are not taking a direct quote, do not include the page numbers. It is highlyunlikely you will ever refer to Campbell in this paper, because it is based on Dominick’scriteria. However, if you do refer to Campbell, follow the same citation information as listed for Dominick. You do not need to take any direct quotes, because there is nothing in this material that you cannot express as a paraphrase, but please note that you are allowed to use direct quotes in this paper, if attributed properly.
- We use “quotation marks” to represent quoted material. ‘Single quotes’ are reserved for use when you’re inserting quotes within quotes – as was done in some examples above. Youprobably won’t be using quotes within quotes.
- If you refer to Dominick in your paper, you do not need to include a reference list. If you choose to include a reference list, it will be evaluated for proper APA style, so be sure you reference it properly. Again, you should not refer to Campbell, but if you do, treat it the same way as a reference to Dominick.
- If you are using the work of any other author in your text, you must include the proper in-text reference and you must include a reference list. You do not need to refer to the work of any other authors for this paper, and you are strongly encouraged not to, but if you do, your references will be evaluated for proper APA style – not the variant I’ve described here.
- For our purposes, the “media text” being analyzed (the newspaper or magazine) is notconsidered a source, and you do not need to include the newspaper, magazine, or any individual stories in a reference list. If you do include a reference list, it will be evaluated for proper APA style.
- You do not need to include the page number or author of the material you have selected as examples in your paper. You do want to let us know a little about the material, though – “The story about Snooki’s car fire is an example of prominence because…” If the page number isrelevant in and of itself (for example, if it’s on Page 1 this might be an economic considerationat work), feel free to include that in your paper, but include it as a part of the body of your paper and not as a reference item.
- You must italicize the names of all media outlets and all media content. Thus, The Chicago Tribune, Ebony, Sports Illustrated, Game of Thrones, Killing Us Softly IV, Color Adjustment,The Chicago Sun-Times, and so forth, must always appear in italics. For most students, becausewe don’t require a reference list, grading your APA style is a function only of italicizing these titles, so if you are careful and double-check your paper, this should help your score rather than hurt it.
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