What is news? Support your answer with specific examples of news and relevant academic literature.

For assignment 1, please choose one of the following topics:

What is news? Support your answer with specific examples of news and relevant academic literature.
Choose a ‘hard’ news story (not an opinion article, an editorial, a feature, a letter, or an entertainment story) from an established news outlet, print or online. Using theory about objectivity in journalism (i.e. please explain how objectivity has been understood in journalism theory and how it is different from other related concepts), discuss the extent to which the report can be seen as objective (i.e. use the theory you’ve presented to analyse the example). Please include a copy (scanned, copied or linked) of your chosen article, as an appendix to the essay (outside the wordcount).
Does news personalisation undermine the public sphere? Discuss in relation to relevant academic literature.
Watch an ITV Evening News 18.30 bulletin on ITV hub (https://www.itv.com/hub/itv-evening-news-1830-weekday/2a4545a0435/) (any day is fine, but please note clearly on your essay the date of the bulletin you watched; also beware that each bulletin remains online for 24 hours so rewatch within that period, and take clear notes to use in your essay) and apply Billig’s Banal Nationalism theory to discuss how the bulletin ‘reminds’ the viewer which country they are in. Please illustrate your argument by providing clear descriptions and verbatim excerpts of what was said and shown.
Marking criteria: Three sets of criteria are assessed in essays; reading and research, argument and analysis, and writing and structure. Markers are thus looking for the following:

Reading and research: evidence of critical engagement with reading materials; evidence of independent reading of a range of appropriate academic material (including books and academic journal articles) beyond the core readings.

Argument and analysis: well-articulated and well-supported argument; evidence of critical thinking (through taking a position in relation to key ideas from the module and supporting this position with evidence from readings); evidence of relational thinking (through making connections between key ideas from the module and wider literature and supporting these connections with references to readings); evidence of independent critical ability.

Writing and structure: clear writing; clear and coherent (easy to follow) structure; accuracy in referencing.