Chapter 14. Chapter 14
Media Literacy Activity:
Examining Expert Sources
Media Literacy Activity: Examining Expert Sources
Activity Objective: In this activity, you will apply the critical process to extend your critical approach to the news.
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Media Literacy Activity:
Examining Expert Sources
Reviewing the Critical Process
Developing a media-literate critical perspective involves mastering five overlapping stages that build on one another. Let’s review the critical process you’ll be using below:
Description: paying close attention, taking notes, and researching the subject under study
Analysis: discovering and focusing on significant patterns that emerge from the description stage
Interpretation: asking and answering “What does that mean?” and “So what?” questions about one’s findings
Evaluation: arriving at a judgment about whether something is good, bad, or mediocre, which involves subordinating one’s personal taste to the critical “bigger picture” resulting from the first three stages
Engagement: taking some action that connects our critical perspective with our role as citizens to question our media institutions, adding our own voice to the process of shaping the cultural environment
Media Literacy Activity:
Examining Expert Sources
Description
- Read two newspapers (one local daily paper and the New York Times) from the same weekday (Monday-Friday).
- Count the total number of sources used by each newspaper.
- Devise a chart on which you list every expert source who is quoted in the stories for that day. Column heads might include “News Event,” “Expert Source,” “Occupations,” “Gender,” “Age (approximate),” and “Region” (local, national, or international).
Use the space below to answer the following questions.
1. Are all sources identified? How are they identified?
2. Can you tell which area of the country these sources are from?
3. What kind of experts are quoted in the news? What jobs do they seem to hold?
4. What genders are the news sources?
Media Literacy Activity:
Examining Expert Sources
Analysis
Using your findings, analyze the pattern of each newspaper's use of sources.
Use the space below to answer the following questions.
1. Who seems to get quoted most frequently?
2. Among those quoted, what kinds of occupations generally appear?
3. Do male sources or female sources dominate?
4. What types of sources can be left anonymous instead of using the name of the sources?
Media Literacy Activity:
Examining Expert Sources
Interpretation
Through the following questions, interpret how each newspaper uses sources.
Use the space below to answer the following questions.
1. How are the sources used?
2. Why do you think certain sources appear in this day’s news more frequently than others?
3. Why do reporters seek out certain types of sources rather than others?
4. Why does the paper allow some sources to be anonymous instead of naming them? How does quoting anonymous sources affect an article?
5. How would you compare the local newspaper with the New York Times as far as sources are concerned?
6. Does the gender of sources mean anything?
7. How important are sources to newspaper journalism? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using sources? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of publishing specific articles without using sources?
Media Literacy Activity:
Examining Expert Sources
Evaluation
Through the following questions, assess your views on the use of sources in the news.
Use the space below to answer the following questions.
1. What is your opinion about the types of sources that are used by the newspapers?
2. Do you think the local newspaper or the New York Times uses better sources? Why?
3. Should newspapers allow sources to be anonymous? Why? Or why not?
Media Literacy Activity:
Examining Expert Sources
Engagement
Let’s take action! Moving forward, use what you have learned to engage with sources in the news. Below are a few suggestions to get involved:
- Report your preliminary findings and document how the reporters came to choose their sources.
- Contact a reporter and/or an editor responsible for your selected stories.
Use the space below to answer the following question.
What are three actions you can take to engage with news sources moving forward?