1. Think critically about news media that you or others you know consume. Do you think you (or others you know) look for news that provides new ideas and information or look for news that will reaffirm already held beliefs? The term news is used broadly here, this includes new/social media “news” consumption.
2. Do you think the expansion of options of news is a good thing or a bad thing and why? Do you think alternate sources of media reduce yours or others’ likelihood of following the news? Do you think new medias result in less informed or wrongly informed opinions? Think critically about how you view information on social media. Do you (others you know) check the source or just accept it as fact? Do you think confirmation bias and false equivalency come in to play (for you or people you know)? What do you think about this.
3. Finally, pick a news story (from the past 2 months) that interests you and do the following:
– find an article on the same topic by two different news sources on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. For example, an article on the passage of the stimulus package by Fox News and compare it to an article on the passage of the stimulus package by MSNBC on the same day. Explain what you found and relate it to the material. Are there different frames? Do they focus on different things? Is the material presented in a different order? When you read one, does it evoke different attitudes and feelings than the other? If so, why do you think so? Can you check the information if there are differences in fact?