Political Science

 

Read a report from Pew Research: http://people-press.org/report/559/

Watch the documentary Outfoxed

http://vimeo.com/24935369 (We will view this in class on Wednesday).

Watch this video on the tenth anniversary of Outfoxed:

Tilting at the Right, Leaning to the Left: Robert Greenwald’s ‘Outfoxed’ Has Its Own Slant on Balance

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 11, 2004; Page D01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41604-2004Jul10.html

How to Make a Guerrilla Documentary

By ROBERT S. BOYNTON (NYT) 2885 words
Published: July 11, 2004

http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F60E12F73F5F0C728DDDAE0894DC404482

Then read:

Journalism Should Own Its Liberalism And then manage it, challenge it, and account for it By Thomas Edsall

http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/journalism_should_own_its_libe.php

This article cites a study on Media bias from UCLA

You can read about it at:

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/Media-Bias-Is-Real-Finds-UCLA-6664.aspx

The actual study is available here:

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.8.htm

Finally there is a critique of the study here:

http://mediamatters.org/research/200512220003

You may also want to view a collection of links on media ownership at:

http://www.corporations.org/media/

After going over these sources discuss the significance of media bias in agenda setting (you may want to see the section of your text dealing with this issue). Discuss the role of media bias and the impact you think it has on the political climate.

(You will note that Mr. Murdoch and his “journalistic” enterprises have come under quite a bit of public scrutiny in the past few years with a Parliamentary investigation in the UK resulting in possible criminal charges.)

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