Agenda-Setting and Framing theories to analyze news media content.
- You will analyze online news media content from two news organizations.
- Your goal is to identify the top issues of the day (agenda setting) covered by each news media organization. Also, you will analyze how the news media organizations framed these issues.
- Your paper should be 3-4 (double-spaced) pages long.
Please follow these steps when working on your project:
- Choose any 2 news media organizations.
These can be any two established news organizations that focus on national and international issues. For example, you can look at stories covered by CNN Links to an external site.and PBS News Hour Links to an external site. websites, or and ABC News Links to an external site.websites, or Vice News Links to an external site.and NBC News Links to an external site.content… etc.
- Write 2-3 sentences about these news organizations.
Provide background information about the audience (age, ideology, etc), ownership, and ideological stances (if applicable) of these news organizations.
- Open websites of both news organizations (at the same time).
To make sure you are comparing apples to apples, please only analyze the news media organizations’ websites.
- Take screenshots of each organization’s home page.
If you are using Safari browser on Mac, you can go to File > Export PDF to save the home pages as PDF files. You will need to submit these screenshots or PDFs with your project submission.
- Analyze the home pages side by side.
Examine story placement. Which stories/issues are more prominently displayed on each of the websites’ home pages? What are the top 2-3 stories? Do you notice any differences or similarities?
Examine headlines and photos. Do you see any differences or similarities in how the 2 media organizations frame issues in headlines and photos? Which words do news organizations use to describe topics in headlines? Who is featured on photos, and how do these people look (example, concerned, sad, happy, etc)?
Find articles that cover the same issue/s in both media organizations (if possible). How prominent is this issue on the home pages? Have you noticed any differences in how media framed these issues? Which angle did the media choose to tell their stories? Which words and pictures did they use to tell this story? What can you say about the selection of quotes/sources? Did you notice any biases in the coverage? If you cannot find two similar news stories on home pages, you can search for such stories in other parts of the website.
Open and read other news stories from the home page. What can you tell about the general tonality of these stories? Are they positive, neutral, or negative? How are these stories framed? What can you say about the selection of story angles, visuals, quotes/sources, and word choices? - Write a conclusion. Provide your thoughts about the findings. Your conclusion should mention agenda setting and framing.
- Cite all sources used in this paper (and check your plagiarism score after the submission). Use APA style (Links to an external site.) for in-text citations and references.
- Use a third-person voice in your writing.
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