One of the issues facing todays’ newspapers is the charge of bias. While editorials (the position the newspaper takes on an issue) are designed to be one-sided, news reporting should be balanced and objective. Many people think it is not. For this assignment you are to examine two New York City online newspapers, the NY Post and the NY Daily News. In regular essay format answer the following:
www.nypost.con
www.nydailynews.com
Compare and contrast the landing page for each paper listed above. Consider the following: Which is more pleasing to the eye? What about the layout of the page (in terms of story presentation)? Number of ads and the companies. Other observations.
Select two hard news stories on the same topic that appear in both publications (no gossip, sports, editorials). For this assignment political stories would be the best. Carefully compare the stories and how they are written. Briefly summarize the stories. Can you detect any bias in the stories for one political party or the other? Look for words or unnecessary information that might bias the story. Was anything of significance missing in one of the stories?
Did the story have any embedded links? Where did the links take you? Video? Another story related to the original story? Briefly comment on the content of the links.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 for two other stories. This comparison does not have to be about political stories.
Finally, in your opinion select the newspaper that you believe leans more to Republican agenda. and select Why? Identify the newspaper that leans more to the Democratic agenda. Why?
http://www.nypost.com
http://www.nydailynews.com
