Media Criticism: Election 2020 + Aftermath

Media Critics' Conversation

As the experts on how the media has covered Election 2020, students were asked to use that knowledge to write, in groups, their second piece of media criticism to share with the Poly community, this time in the form of a written conversation between/among group members (here is the model they used!).

They were asked to consider the following questions:

How well did the media cover Election Day, election night, and the aftermath? What is the basis of your critique?

Some guiding questions they considered as they drafted their group's conversation:

• How well do you think the media handled election coverage? Explain your reasoning!

• How did the media frame public discussion of the election (by repeating various story elements, using common metaphors, quoting similar people, etc.)?

• What topics or elements of the election were frequently covered? Which were ignored? How do you know?

• What was the dominant "story" of the election for each of the outlets you tracked? Why do you think that was the angle each took? How successful do you think each outlet was? Why?

• In what ways, if any, could the media have their coverage of the election?