Northeastern Illinois University Break the News Assignment Essay “Break the News” Assignment (Due Tuesday, April 14, 11:59 p.m.)
1. Find a story that you feel is important. It could be from this past year or any previous years, but you will need it to be recent enough so you can research the coverage by different media.
2. E-mail me your topic. First come, first serve. *If you are going to take on the coverage of the coronavirus, you will need to narrow it down. Perhaps you want to look at one announcement (the first Illinois death, the shelter-in-place mandate, a particular press conference, possible lakefront ban, etc). You cannot take on coronavirus as one story – it’s just too big. Can you look at a piece of misinformation?
3. Look at the story from multiple media perspectives. Who broke the story? Who picked it up? You will produce a 3-5 page paper with internal citations and a Works Cited page (see MLA link under Announcements and/or Purdue OWL site).
4. Find at least three different versions of the story. How are the stories told? Do they use the inverted pyramid format? Are the reporters objective/fair or biased? How can you tell What sources did they use – are they named or unnamed?
5. Compare and contrast the coverage across the media outlets. Who covered the story best? Was the best coverage print, radio, TV, online? Why? How did the coverage differ? Were there factual errors? Were they rectified? How quickly? You don’t have to answer all the questions as some may not apply.
6. How did social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) respond to the story. Did it advance the story? Did it spread falsehoods?