Newspapaer Value assignment
Gans’s basic journalistic value, use the two news
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/22/us/politics/bernie-sanders-nevada-caucus.html
NewspaperValues Assignment
CMN101: Mass Media
This assignment requires that you pick up a recent copy of a regional or national daily
newspaper (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Times of Trenton, Philadelphia Inquirer,
etc.) and analyze the front page. The newspaper you select must have a minimum of four
separate articles printed on the front page; in other words, you should NOT use a newspaper
printed in tabloid format (Tentonian, NY Daily News, etc.). You should also avoid weekly and
small-town papers (Hopewell Valley News, Ewing Observer, Princeton Packet, etc.) The
newspaper issue you select should be from the last two weeks. You must use a physical copy of
the paper. Read and carefully consider all the stories on the front page of the paper as well as
any continuation of those articles inside the paper. Specifically, locate every example of Gans’
basic journalistic values (textbook pages 152-155) that you can identify in those articles. You
should be able to find at least one value from each article on the front page. Some articles may
have several values present and individual values might be common to more than one article.
In a brief (approximately 400 words) essay, explain which journalistic values you found and
what specific evidence of those values you see in the articles. Minimize the amount of article
summary you provide; the essay should focus on how the articles fit within Gans’ journalistic
values, not on the news stories themselves. For each value you identify, provide an explanation
of why the article(s) would fall into that value. In a short summary paragraph, consider the
implications of your findings. Which values seem most prevalent? Why do you think that is? Are
there any values that you think could be added to the list? What are they? What can we learn by
examining journalistic values?
In addition to the essay, you should also provide complete references for all the articles on the
front page in APA format (see example below). You will NOT submit a copy of the newspaper or
its front page.
All submissions should be typed in standard font and size with 1” margins and double spacing
(like this assignment sheet). Multi-page submissions should be printed double-sided or stapled
together. Newspaper names should by italicized. Article titles should be in quotations with
proper capitalization. Essays should be written clearly with proper grammar, punctuation, and
paragraphs. Do not include a title page or abstract. You do not need to include in-text citations.
Below are example references in APA format. Make sure they are listed alphabetically by last
name. First names are always shortened to the initial. Article titles only capitalize the first letter
of the first word and any proper nouns. Newspaper names are italicized. Nothing is underlined.
Entries are not numbered. Be careful using automated reference creators as they tend to suck.
For more on APA references, type “OWL APA” into a search engine for the Purdue Online
Writing Lab.
References
Associated Press. (2017, September 30). Four dead in California plane crash. The Washington
Post, pp A1, B3-B4.
Barker, D. (2018, September 30). Man bites dog. The Washington Post, p. A1.
Schwartz, J. (2018, September 30). Jury finds Bruce Wayne guilty of vigilante crime spree. The
Washington Post, pp. A1, A4.
View the website
Newscript.com
; specifically, make sure you reveiw the page on
LEADS
. Remember, LEADS are not headlines, LEADS should be conversational and written in present tense. Once you’ve reviewed this material, find a local hard news story from a local paper such as the Trenton Times or the New York Times. Feel free to use the paper’s website instead of the physical paper itself. After reviewing the news article, write a 15 – 20 second radio news story from the information in the article. Obviously you’ll have to remove a lot of the details to make the story fit your time frame. How effectively can you rewrite the story and still answer the 5 W’s (Who, What, When, Where, Why)?
Upload your typed news story here and bring a hard copy to class.