HOW+TO+DETECT+BIAS+IN+THE+NEWS

Part of an educated citizen’s duty in a democratic society is to be able to evaluate the validity of information presented, whether it be on television, online, on the radio or in print form. An analysis of news stories will provide you with insight into the techniques journalist use to create bias that can go undetected without a critical examination on behalf of the viewer/reader.

For this assignment you will choose two news stories reporting on the same event. Make sure that they are not editorials, as these can be biased and reflect an individual's opinion. For example, you may choose to examine news stories focusing on the Olympics from a Canadian news source and American news source.

You should be able to: > >
 * Differentiate between a news story (objective reports of facts) and an editorial (an opinion).
 * Identify the five W’s and H.
 * Identify any possible bias in these reports. Look at the connotation of specific words.
 * Determine what facts are emphasized and if facts are omitted.
 * Determine if any propaganda techniques were used.
 * Recognize if conclusions were drawn and if they were logical.
 * Decide if the story is pure objective or does it contain any biases?

Resources: How the media persuade Propaganda Critic - an excellent resource The Unofficial story to examine techniques and example of propaganda Hurricane Katrina and the "Two-Photo Controversy" - a look at how photos can create bias How to detect bias in the news

For news stories try these sites: Google news Newsnow Worldnews WorldPress

**To complete your assignment:**
To take a screen shot: Hold down the APPLE [Command] and SHIFT keys Press 3 for a screen shot of the entire screen Press 4 to get a "Crosshairs" so you can select just a section of the screen you want a screenshot for! Press the space bar after you press 4 if you want it to automatically size the screenshot so that it perfectly matches the window it's over. After you press the space bar, a camera icon should come up. Know that the resulting file will be placed on your desktop, named Picture X.pdf for versions of 10.3 or earlier and Picture X.png for 10.4 and later (could also end in .jpg).

• Attach your found news article containing the bias to our wiki site 1. Create a new page and use your name as the title. 2. In the editor tool bar go to 'widget' and then at the bottom left side is 'Other HTML' and click on that. Copy and paste the following code, and then replace the website with the one you wish to use.

code  code • Summarize as neutrally as possible your news article in 3 – 5 sentences. • Identify the words, phrases or sentences which contain bias. Explain how these words show bias. • Comment on three other news articles submitted by classmates.