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Ch. 7—News: Setting an agenda about the world
Guidelines for in-class discussions and exercises:
• Give a sample news story and have students discuss, as if they were a media consultant,
how they would try to obtain more news media coverage of this issue, considering the
characteristics of newsworthy events.
• As an assignment, have students watch a 30-minute TV newscast of two different
networks (e.g., Fox, NBC, CNN, CBS) for as close to the same time and day as possible.
Have them list the stories covered and the time devoted to them. Ask them to reflect
on possible biases in this coverage, including implicit biases of what was NOT covered.
This exercise can help them see than news editors do not merely report the news; they
• A lot of conventional wisdom (and actual research) suggests that today’s young adults
are not particularly interested in news media. Ask students if they think this is true and,
if so, why? What might newsmakers change to make news more compelling and
interesting to young adults?
• Discuss students’ reactions to local news coverage. Do they think lurid crimes are
covered excessively? If so, why is this the case? Why might be done to change this?
• After discussing fake news, give students an assignment in which they are asked to find
examples of fake news and real news. Questions could be posed such as how confident
are you that the news is fake (or real)? What leads you to believe this? For a fake news
story—how likely do you think people are to believe this story is real?
CHAPTER SUMMARIES/ABSTRACTS
Chapter 7: News: Setting an agenda about the world
One of the biggest realms of mass communication, news, is examined in this chapter. We look at the
history of news, what makes events newsworthy, and how news media creates a reality for us, sometimes
