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Objectives Students will:

• analyze the ways in which broadcast media covers the 2016 presidentialelection and current events.

• compare and contrast different networks’ coverage of current politicalevents.

• discuss the potential influence that television broadcast media has uponviewers.

Warm-up Begin by leading a class discussion of television news reports:

• Channel One News• CNN• Fox News• CBS News• MSNBC• ABC News• NBC News• BBC News

Ask students to describe what they know of these networks and the topics they cover. Tell students that they will investigate and analyze one news network’s broadcast.

Small groups: Organize the class into small groups, and pass out an Evaluating the Media handout to each student (See end of this PDF.)

Assign each group member a different broadcast to watch. Limit students to the major news network broadcasts, such as:

• Channel One News• CNN, such as Anderson Cooper 360 or CNN Tonight• Fox News, such as The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity or The Kelly

File• MSNBC, such as The Rachel Maddow Show• CBS Evening News• ABC World News Tonight

OneVote Lesson Plan Part 4: Media Literacy

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• NBC Nightly News• BBC World News

America• PBS Newshour

Analyze Have students use the Evaluating the Media handout (see last page) to record observations of their selected news broadcast. Remind students to pay attention to the topics of each news story, the order in which news stories were presented and the advertisements that were aired during the broadcast. Students should consider the following questions as they record their notes: What ideas, values or points of view are overt or implied? Was any information left out that would be important to know? Who is the target audience of this broadcast? How do you know?

Compare/Contrast When students have completed their observations, have each group meet to compare notes. Students should identify similarities and differences between each broadcast. What topics did each broadcast cover? In what order were they presented? Were there similarities or differences in the way the broadcasts presented stories or in their objectivity?

Students work together to group each broadcast into one of the following three categories:

• Democrat/Liberal/Left-leaning• Republican/Conservative/Right-leaning• Neutral

Groups record their conclusions and share them with the class.

Discuss: How can broadcast news influence public opinion about politics and political candidates?

Closing Activity Poll your students: Which network provided the most objective news coverage? Which seemed the most biased?

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Name _________________________Class _________________ Date _____________

Evaluating the Media

DIRECTIONS: Working with a group, you will investigate similarities and differences between news sources, including the major national news networks and local news outlets. Your team will watch several news broadcasts on a selected evening and compile your information below. Each member of the group should watch a different news broadcast. For each separate news story, note the topic, reporter, location and length of the report. Note when advertisements break into the broadcast, how long each broadcast lasts and what is being advertised. Note any other pertinent details in the space provided.

Network/Channel ________________________________________________________

Owner ________________________________________________________________

Date and time of broadcast ________________________________________________

Anchor/reporter _________________________________________________________

Lead story _____________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

Other stories ___________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

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Advertisements________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

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Total news time__________________________________________________________

Total advertising time_____________________________________________________

Notes_________________________________________________________________________

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