Unit 2
How News is Constructed
Unit 2 of this course covers the next 4 lessons, and will lead you through the process of finding, creating, and disseminating the news. The lessons should be followed in sequence.
Each of the lessons are described below:
Lesson 5 - News vs. Opinion
Building on Lesson 3, we continue to explore the questions of: what is the difference between news and opinion within the journalism neighborhood and why are the lines blurring so rapidly? How can you differentiate news from opinion in a newspaper, on television, on the Internet? What is a columnist? A commentator? Are bloggers journalists? Are Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly presenting news or opinion? How can a news consumer identify the difference? And why does it matter? Does this blurring of opinion and news have effects on the media’s relationship with the government? Does it compromise the idea of creating an informed citizenry and instead generate a polarized one?
You should finish this lesson with new ways of interpreting opinion journalism through the lens of VIA, which helps a news consumer determine the differences between opinion journalism and mere assertion.
Lesson 6 - Balance & Fairness in News
This lesson explores one of the most controversial and contentious issues surrounding the press. Are the news media fair and balanced? What do those terms mean? How can a news consumer tell?
You should finish this lesson with a more specific definitions for the terms fairness and bias, and tools for applying it to various news stories.
Lesson 7 - Understanding Bias
Building on the lesson 6, we relate issues of balance and fairness to claims of media bias. We present a definition of bias in the context of news media literacy, and make distinctions between news media bias and audience bias.
You should finish this lesson with a specific definition of media bias, and an understanding of how difficult that claim is to prove, and definitive ways of determining in an outlet exhibits evidence of bias.
Lesson 8 - Journalistic Truth and the Search for Evidence
We explore the topic of truth in the context of journalism. We ask: What do journalists mean by “truth”? How does journalistic truth differ from philosophical truth, or scientific truth, and what standards do journalists use to try to verify information?
This lesson explores the pursuit of journalistic “truth” and the verification process. What makes some news sources reliable and others unreliable? What are the differences between direct and indirect evidence, assertion and verification, evidence and inference? We also explore how news consumers can assess journalistic evidence and why the verification process breaks down. We also discuss a KEY news literacy lesson.
You should finish this lesson with another tool and a key question to use when determining the reliability of news, or almost any piece of actionable information.