- 16 Mar, 2021
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Bloomberg National News
This is a 2-part project, the first of which will be assigned today, and you will have three weeks to complete it. The second part will be assigned soon after this one is due. Combined, the Media Analysis Projects are worth 25% of your overall course grade.
In this 6-8 page (1500-2000 words) part of the media analysis research project, you will be tasked with finding answers to questions we have discussed and will be discussing in the class, as they relate to a local Sacramento-area news media outlet. There is a list of outlets from which your choice can be made, but no two students will study the same media outlet. Your goal is to become an expert on the workings of this news media outlet, be it a newspaper, radio station, or television station, and to relate to your reader the manner in which your outlet has weathered the changes in media consumption over the course of the last two decades. I would advise that in this case, you find and interview a reporter or editor from this organization in order to obtain a quotable piece of information. If I were you, I would do that as soon as you obtain your assignment.
Your paper will be in essay format with Chicago Manual of Style (17th) /Turabian citations, and it will be due Friday, September 27. All of the following points must be covered. All of them. Here is the list:
Literature review: you must find at least one thorough analysis of this news outlet in a completely different media outlet or academic journal. You must situate this media outlet in the context of the type of outlet analyzed in some academic journal. Relevant journals might include the Columbia Journalism Review, Media & Politics, and others available in JSTOR.
2.Finances: Obtain a Copy of the Parent Company’s Annual Report. Dissect the Ownership and/or Governance Structure (who is it owned by, what kind of company is it, how long has it been owned, where does it get its revenue, what does the company want from the news outlet; ALSO are there multiple “owners”?)
What types of employment structures are there? How has the job structure of journalists employed there changed over the past several decades? Is there a labor union for journalists?
News Distribution/Social Media Presence/Circulation/Ratings/Revenue (and whatever loss or gain of funding or revenue has been experienced in the last several years) What are their highest-paying advertisers?
5.How does this publication stack up against charges of “access bias” or sourcing corruption? Also, what is their relationship to the term “fake news”—stories on the concept they have done themselves, how many times the outlet has been accused of this charge, and in what instances.
6. Audience/Readership demographics (WHO is their audience-age group, profession, social target, political message, and how large is it?)
Election Coverage (Prominence and frequency of candidates, favorability of coverage) and Domestic Policymaking Coverage–award-winning? Examples?
8.Online Presence (web traffic, Alexa rankings for all websites)/Place in the news food chain–who picks up their stories? Or do they often quote stories from other outlets? Which ones?
And finally, give a one-paragraph assessment of whether this news outlet fits the mold of others like it, and what trends you see embodied in its recent history, as well as what seems to be in store for outlets of its kind in the future.
Here is a list of news media outlets that cover the California State Capitol and/or the Greater Sacramento area, and to which you will be assigned by a decision-making process in class. Please consider which of the outlets you would most enjoy researching for the next several weeks, and be ready to make your decision . If you have an additional media outlet that you would like to consider that is not listed here, you must obtain permission from Dr. Kirsch before you embark on your project.