COMM 2301 (Professor Kathy Hansler): Home

Professor Kathy Hansler

Spring 2021

2301 Group Project

200 points [20 percent] of e-Portfolio grade

• Group Contract [10 points] March 14 -separate document.
• Working Presentation for Peer Feedback: April 14 by midnight, upload to Discussion Board_Group Project _Working Draft Thread
• Peer Feedback to all Groups: April 18
• Final Presentation: Wednesday, May 12 by midnight to Discussion Board_Group Project _Final Draft Thread

Skills: After completing this assignment, you will be able to:

5. compare and contrast objectivity’s role in news stories, features, editorials, and investigative reporting;
5. discuss the role of journalists and news organizations in society and identify and define where objectivity fits in the principles of journalism;
5. develop effective journalistic visual production and multimedia story telling elements;
5. discuss current legal and ethical issues facing journalists;
5. and demonstrate sound judgment and professional journalistic ethics.

Assignment:

A national journalism society is hosting a symposium entitled “Objectivity in Journalism: Fact or Fiction” and invited university students to present. The symposium’s focus: Examine if objectivity exists in mainstream new media and its coverage of U.S. news. Mainstream media is defined as news media that reports news to large audiences, including newspapers, television, cable, and radio.

Your group has been asked to develop a video on examples of news objectivity and news bias that is geared to college students. Specifically, each group creates a video project using Adobe Spark that

• provides examples of objective and biased news reporting, both print and broadcast,
• defines and explains the type of news bias, using the handout News Bias, and
• explores the consequences of the group’s findings on objectivity and news bias using the theories of scholars Jay Rosen, Linda Greenhouse, and Matthew Pressman [Week 6 Content folder].

Ideas can include studying how three publications write about one issue or how three network or cable news groups cover a specific issue. In selecting the three news agencies, one should be defined as right, the other as left, and the final as either neutral or center by news media evaluation groups such as Allsides.com *see below. [We will limit our study of objectivity to mainstream media defined: neutral/center, left center/skews left and right center/skews right by the various news bias rating groups [see list below]. Avoid far left and right media.] We will talk more on this in class.

While this is a group project, each member develops his/her own segment and will be graded on their work and its contribution to the group’s overall project and message. So, this means each group member will find and evaluate an example of news bias/objectivity on a specific issue. Each member’s project will be edited together using Adobe Spark’s collaboration tool to create a cohesive project that meets the above requirements. Adobe Spark tutorials are provided in Week 6 Content folder and in Course Handouts.

The video’s theme can be focused on:

• a specific issue such as the treatment of racial groups by the media or a specific issue such as the Corona virus, in which each group member provides 3 media examples [right, left, and neutral], or

• a study of 3 news media agencies [right, left, and neutral] and a range of subjects or issues, and each group member selects the subject or issue.

In creating your portion of the video, you will introduce yourself and your project’s focus, provide analysis of the material and draw your own conclusions, citing at least one of our 3 scholars [Rosen, Greenhouse, or Pressman for expert support]. Each

Project’s Length: Each member should develop about a 3- to 5-minute project, which tells some element of the group’s larger story on objectivity. So, for groups of 3 to 4, that’s roughly a 10 to 20-minute project, while for group of 5-6, figure 20 to 30-minutes. Time totals include the project’s introduction, conclusion, and reference page.

The introduction should clearly articulate the group presentation’s purpose and argument, taking audience into consideration. The conclusion should move beyond wrapping up the arguments, and instead explore either implications or possible solutions, and leave the viewer with a final thought.

Audience: Professional journalists, public relations specialists, as well as representatives from the business and criminal justice fields.

Assignment Perspective: American journalism has a long history of objectivity, in which the story is told in a balanced way, providing various viewpoints, with the journalist not taking sides. Dating back to the 19th Century, the long-standing journalistic view is that in researching and writing the story, the reporter seeks to tell the truth. Their position should not be seen in the story, either overtly or implied, and the reporter never uses I. The journalist tries to write in a way that neither one side or the other receives more coverage, and the journalist reports only verified information.

As future leaders in the communication field or your chosen profession, you need to understand how journalists report the news, and specifically have a solid understanding of objectivity and the role it played and plays in journalism. While objectivity has been a guiding journalism principle since 1865, for the past 30 years some in and out of journalism have questioned its feasibility. Never more so than now.

Journalism scholars differ on objectivity’s usefulness today. New York University Journalism Professor Jay Rosen wrote in 1993 that objectivity had outlived its usefulness, which spurred nearly three decades of debate. Writing for Harvard University’s Nieman Reports, Rosen argues that “Now is also a good time to examine the subject because in a lot of different ways objectivity is breaking down. It's a mechanism that's not operating the way it used to. There's a good deal of anxiety and confusion about the term among journalists themselves. Almost every time somebody in journalism uses the word objectivity, they usually follow with something like: ‘whatever that means,’ indicating that there is a conceptual problem percolating upward.”

Linda Greenhouse in “Challenging He Said/She Said” and Matthew Pressman in “Journalistic Objectivity Evolved the Way It Did for a Reason” take different positions on the issue of objectivity and how journalists should report. Each scholar’s ideas intersect with Rosen’s, as you will see in their articles, which can be found in Week 6 folder, as well as Course Handout.

The Public Relation profession isn’t immune to this debate, either. Some in the field have called practitioners to practice objectivity while representing clients. These sources and more are available in the Resource folder in Week 6.

Additional Requirements:

• Group + Members’ Contributions: The success of a group depends on the cooperation and professionalism of its members. Employers will expect you to know how to work effectively in groups: how to determine what needs to be done; how to find information, how to assess information; how to share the workload, and how to resolve interpersonal conflicts.

In an effort to ensure each group functions smoothly, each member will be required to sign the Group Contract, which will be posted in Week 6 Content, due Week 7, March 14 [details below]. In the event that a group member fails to complete their portion of the group project, that member will receive a 0 for the project. I will meet with the remaining group members to decide how best to develop that missing content.

• Group Meetings: Beginning in Week 7, you will meet each Wednesday for 5 weeks to develop

/collaborate on the project. In Weeks 8 [Wednesday] + 9 [Monday], I will meet with each group to discuss the project’s progress. A working video draft of the project is due Wednesday of 11th week, April 14 to Discussion Board. Then all members will watch each group’s project asynchronously and offer critiques.

• Adobe Spark: Projects will be developed using this program, which allows collaboration, although it does not allow collaborators working simultaneously, so members need to coordinate their time on Adobe. Directions and tutorial links are in Week 6 Adobe folder, and Course Handouts.
• Google Docs: All written work must be composed using Google Docs, and shared with me, to preserve its history.
• Submitting Working and Final drafts: Obtain the Adobe shareable link and upload this link to Discussion Board. Additional information will be provided in Week 11 and 15.

New Media Bias Rating Resources:

• AllSides
• Media Bias Fact Check
• Ad Fontes Media

Research readings: scholars + journalists are available in Week 6 and Course Handouts. These are intended to give you a basic understanding, and you may use them, but you should also find additional sources, as needed.

Due Dates:

Week 7, Wednesday, March 14:

• Contracts signed and submitted to BB_Week 7_Contract Assignment [this includes assigning each member’s role in the project]

Week 8: March 15-21

• Research collected, start developing it for Adobe project
• Group Meetings with Me will be coordinated for either Wednesday, March 17, or the following Wednesday, March 24.

Week 9, March 22-28

• Coordinate times on Adobe to add each member’s project
• Group Meetings with Me will be coordinated for Wednesday, March 24.

Week 10, April 5-11:

• Working draft of introduction + conclusion, and consider graphics for both, along with a reference page
• Group members upload their materials and complete voice overs on Adobe Spark

Weeks 11, April 12-18

• Wednesday, April 14: by midnight, export your project’s Adobe Sharable link and upload it to BB_Discussion board [details in Week 11]