Agenda Journal: Newsworthy Watch CNN News (notes in journal) & Discuss “Newsworthy” Review Fact vs. Opinion (finish up from yesterday) Bias vs. Perspective

Thursday, February 7, 2013 JOURNAL What kinds of stories does the news cover? List as many stories that you’ve heard in the news as you can. Pull out the articles from yesterday.

Newsworthy Watch CNN Student News & keep a list in your journal of the different who’s of the stories What makes something newsworthy? Newsworthy: An important event that a wide group of people would be interested in knowing about

Fact vs. Opinion Finish discussing articles from yesterday.

Bias vs. Perspective perspective (n.): a mental view, outlook, or mindset; a way of regarding situations or facts and judging their relative importance (NEUTRAL) bias (n.): a mental leaning or inclination; partiality; When a perspective prevents impartial/objective judgment on issues relating to a subject (NEGATIVE)

Bias vs. Perspective A person’s perspective creates their bias, which is best witnessed through looking at word choice BUT, just because someone has a perspective doesn’t make them biased Bias can be created by: Omission Selection of Sources Word Choice And many more…

Omission Leaving one side out of an article, or a series of articles over a period of time Ignoring facts that tend to disprove liberal claims, or that support conservative beliefs Can occur either within a story, or over the long term (example: a particular news outlet reports one set of events, but not another)

Selection of Sources Including more sources that support one view over another.  Can be seen when a reporter uses such phrases as “experts believe”, “observers say,” or “most people believe” When a news story only presents one side, it is obviously the side the reporter supports.  (Journalists often go looking for quotes to fit their favorite argument into a news story.)  To find bias by use of experts or sources, stay alert to the affiliations and political perspective of those quoted as experts or authorities in news stories. If a story quotes non-experts, such as those portrayed as average citizens, check to be sure that about an equal number come from both sides of the issue in question.

Word Choice What words have they used? Are there negative connotations associated with it? Are they letting their personal bias in?

Word Choice #1 The New York Times 3/11/2003 Iraq forces suspension of U.S. surveillance flights UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Iraqi fighter jets threatened two American U-2 surveillance planes, forcing them to return to abort their mission and return to base, senior U.S. officials said Tuesday. USA Today 3/11/2003 U.N. Withdraws U-2 Planes WASHINGTON (AP)-U.N. arms inspectors said Tuesday they had withdrawn two U-2 reconnaissance planes over Iraq for safety reasons after Baghdad complained both aircraft were in the air simultaneously.

Analysis The use of the word "forces" vs. "withdraws" and the phrase "Iraqi fighter jets threatened" vs. "Baghdad complained" impacts the way we read the articles.

Word Choice #2 The Denver Post (Home of Avalanche) Red Wings 5, Avalanche 3 Injury begins Avs' tumble The Detroit News (Home of Wings) Red Wings 5, Avalanche 3 Wings are too much for Avalanche

Word Choice #3 The Red Wings played the Flyers last night in a hockey game and they won 4-3. The Red Wings executed a decisive win (4-3) over the tempered Flyers, in last night’s heated game of ice hockey.

Word Choice #3 We can fall into a pattern of looking for biased word choice in every word. NOT all word choice is biased. Sometimes non-essential words are used to make the language more colorful.

Practice – News Article Read through the article on your own. Think about it: Did they include all the known facts? Star any sentences that list facts. Did they reference multiple sources? Underline them. Did they use any words that showed their opinion? Highlight the words.

Practice Read through the article on your own. The underlined portions show potential bias based on word choice, omission, and sourcing. Figure out which is happening and label at least five underlined portions. After everyone has finished reading and labeling, we’ll come back together and discuss it.