LESSON 7. Politics and Media Literacy >>> TOOLS NEEDED ELECTION At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to:

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1 Politics and Media Literacy TOOLS NEEDED Lesson 7 Worksheet #1, one per student Lesson 7 Worksheet #2, one per student Access to today s New York Times media mudslinging soundbite spin VOCABULARY OBJECTIVES At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to: select a hard news article with an objective presentation of news identify facts, quotations and sources that balance the presentation of news within an objective article identify an opinion piece and articulate its point of view analyze persuasive techniques in political advertisements WARM-UP Ask: 1. Where do you get most of your information about the presidential candidates? Why? 2. How do you tell fact from opinion when reading or watching the news? Why is this important? 3. Do political ads ever influence your opinions of a candidate? Why or why not? Engage students in a brief discussion on the role of the media during the election season. The last time a candidate made a gaffe (obvious error, mistake, or misjudgment), how did each campaign spin the event to call attention to or cover it up? How do short sound bites played on television, radio, and the Internet come to represent the whole story? Why is it important to be aware and question what you read, see and hear in the media? USING TODAY S NEW YORK TIMES Provide access to today s New York Times. Distribute copies of Lesson 7 Worksheet #1. Review hard news (articles that are strictly factual), editorials (articles that express the opinion of the newspaper s editors), and Op-Ed pieces (essays that appear on the page opposite the editorial page, written by columnists and guest writers rather than by the Times editorial board). Also discuss the difference between objective and subjective language in the news. Go over instructions together as a class, and then have students work individually or in pairs to read today s New York Times and identify the kinds of articles discussed above. Before the end of the period, have students share their findings with the class. Ask: 1. What rules do you think The New York Times has for its reporters regarding objectivity in hard news articles? How does The Times let its readers know what is hard news and what is opinion? Why is this important? 2. Did the information and opinions you gathered affect your own views? If so, how? If not, why not? >>> 31

2 Politics and Media Literacy HOMEWORK Have students find and analyze two political advertisements, using Lesson 7 Worksheet #2. In a following class period, have students discuss their ads in small groups. Which persuasive techniques seem to be the most common? Why do students think this is? Complete these activities by having students scan The New York Times for information to support or refute their ads claims and messages. EXTENSIONS To make this assignment more challenging, have students use the information they gathered as exemplars to write their own hard news or opinion pieces on an election issue close to home. Have students read and discuss more about fact and opinion in the news. Suggested resources from The New York Times include: Talk to The Times: Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal ( business/media/24askthetimes.html), The Public Editor ( com/top/opinion/thepubliceditor/index.html), and On Ethical Journalism: A Handbook of Values and Practices for the News and Editorial Departments online at Ask students where they think most people in the United States get their news. Discuss the changing media landscape due to increasing online readership and decreasing paper circulation, and then have students poll friends, family and neighbors on their daily news habits. Creating a newsworthy event is a carefully scripted process. How does a candidate s campaign stage an event or make an announcement in order to make news? Have students read What Makes a Story Newsworthy? from the Media College Web site ( and then analyze the latest campaign event or announcement to hit the news media outlets using the criteria mentioned. Have students analyze the differences in the coverage of the U.S. presidential election by several overseas online newspapers, such as Qatar s Al Jazeera ( India s The Hindu ( and Britain s The Guardian ( as well as The New York Times. Create a chart depicting differences in the number of articles devoted to the election, the bias or slant of the articles (pro-republican or pro-democrat, rightwing or left-wing, etc.) and interesting quotations from each. For a comprehensive listing of international newspapers, see OnlineNewspapers.com ( onlinenewspapers.com). Have students analyze political cartoons, and then create their own political cartoons that address politics and the media. In addition to reprinted cartoons in The New York Times Sunday section and Week in Review, some suggested sources >>> 32

3 Politics And Media Literacy of political cartoons include Cagle s Professional Cartoonists Index ( Aaron McGruder s Boondocks ( boondocks), and Garry Trudeau s Doonesbury ( How are partisan perspectives represented on television? Have students watch and compare two pundits on opposing sides of the political spectrum, such as conservative Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel and liberal Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. Find New York Times articles on the role of digital media, such as Web sites, the blogosphere and viral and marketing, in this year s election. How are campaigns, commentators, and voters using technology like never before to spread the word? Have students investigate and write reviews of election-related Web sites, blogs and other forms of digital media. Discuss the concept of smear campaigns, or Swift-boating (based on the ads by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to discredit John Kerry in the 2004 election). Have students analyze an example of smear tactics from this year s election and the response from the candidate implicated. How quickly did the candidate respond within a news cycle (24 hours for daily sources), several days, a week or longer? Who monitors the news? Assign students different media watchdog organizations to analyze and write short reports. For a comprehensive list of online resources, see the Media Nation Web site at For more ways to cover this year s election in your classroom, see The New York Times Learning Network s Issues in Depth: Election 2008 ( com/learning/issues_in_depth/ html), as well as Lesson Plan Unit: Elections in the United States ( lessons/elections.html). 33

4 Student Activity Sheet #1 Comparing Hard News and Opinion : Politics and Media Literacy Name DATE HARD NEWS 1. Select an article from The New York Times that presents factual, objective information about a campaign event or election issue, and report the following: Article headline: Two (or more) facts from the article: Quotation cited in the article: Who said it (name and title or position): OPINION 2. Select an editorial or Op-Ed piece from The New York Times, and report the following: Article headline: Two (or more) opinions or examples of subjective language from the article: Line from the article that expresses the point of view of the writer: Author (editorial board, columnist, guest, etc.): 34

5 Student Activity Sheet #2 Analyzing Campaign Ads : Politics and Media Literacy Name DATE Now that you have analyzed news media coverage of the election, use your critical thinking skills to review political advertisements. Throughout a campaign, politicians try to influence voters by using a variety of persuasive techniques. Read the list of techniques below and try to find examples of at least two from any medium (e.g., television, Internet, print or radio ads). Once you have your examples, use the news you read in The New York Times to support or refute the information presented in the ads. Persuasive Techniques Testimonial Plain Folks Bandwagon Fear factor Transference Slogan Buzzword Loaded word Facts/figures Direct order Negative campaigning (Mudslinging) When a person, celebrity or group endorses a candidate or issue Using endorsements by everyday people because they re just like you Implying that everyone is in favor of it and you should be too Insinuating that you won t be safe unless you support this candidate/issue Associating the candidate with a symbol that makes people feel good Using a catchy phrase to help people remember the candidate/issue Using a popular word or phrase that creates a positive association Using a word with emotional appeal Using statistics and numbers to support a position/candidate Telling people what to do (e.g., Register now! ) Referring to the negative aspects of an opponent rather than emphasizing one s own positive attributes ADVERTISEMENT #1 CANDIDATE: MEDIUM: SHORT DESCRIPTION: TECHNIQUE(S) USED: ADVERTISEMENT #2 CANDIDATE: MEDIUM: SHORT DESCRIPTION: TECHNIQUE(S) USED: 35