In your final essay, you will either:
• analyze how a global issue is represented in US-based news media; or
• analyze how non-US-based news media represent an issue of your choice.
If you wish, you can choose the same topic for your final essay as you did for your presentation.
However, in that case, I will be looking for significant progress in your final essay beyond the
work you did in your presentation.
To conduct your analysis, you will need to develop a sample of news articles and a video on your
topic. This sample will provide the raw data for your analysis. The sample should include at least
twenty news articles and at least one news video and be from mainstream news sources. It should
not include op-ed or comment pieces. Include a table at the end of your essay with a list of the
items in your sample.
The final essay should be between 3,000–4,000 words and written in an academic style with full
citations (it does not matter which citation format you use so long as you are consistent). Please
write your essay in 12-point Times, with single line spacing, and one-inch margins, and 12 point
spacing between each paragraph. If you use these settings, you should expect to write between 6
and 8 pages but check your word count is within range rather than rely on the page count. Please
use subheadings to break up the essay into sections.
For the final essay, you will also carry out a literature review – this means doing a search for
academic journal articles (not blog posts, newspaper articles, or think-tank articles) and academic
books on your topic, and developing an understanding of what other academics have already
written on the subject.
You should draw substantially on the readings from class, which will give you concepts – such as
the concept of a framework and of information bias – that can be applied to your research topic
in order to analyze how media report on your chosen issue. These concepts should be clearly
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defined in your essay. You should also study academic material, if available, on your specific
issue (list all articles or books used in your citations).
Here is a suggested structure for your final essay:
1) Introduction (500 words)
a. A little on why you’ve chosen the topic and any decisions you’ve made in
narrowing down the topic (you may use the word “I” to explain any personal
connection to the issue).
b. Introduce the key concepts you’re using in your final essay and define them in
general terms.
2) Literature review (500 words)
a. What have other academics said on this topic? Is their analysis plausible or
not? Give reasons. What are the apparent gaps in research?
3) Background (500 words)
a. Brief background on context of the issue – perhaps the history of how it
emerged, and the wider social and political environment.
4) Main analysis (2,000 words)
a. Use the news items you have collected to think about:
i. frameworks
ii. narratives
iii. information biases
iv. sources
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v. places and people
vi. use of images
b. If you wish, you can copy and paste stills of images into the essay (number as
“Figure 1,” etc., so that they can be referred to in the text).
5) Conclusions (500 words)
a. Summarize your general conclusions.