What This Document Is
This is an assignment packet for Brigham Young University-Idaho’s American Government (POLSC 110) course, specifically focusing on identifying and analyzing bias in news reporting. It’s designed to help students critically evaluate different news sources and understand how ideological perspectives can influence reporting. The packet presents a series of exercises and prompts for analysis.
Why This Document Matters
This assignment is crucial for students in American Government as it addresses media literacy – a core skill for informed citizenship. It’s used to develop the ability to discern credible information, recognize potential biases, and form independent judgments about political events. Students will likely encounter this material during a unit on the media and public opinion.
Common Limitations or Challenges
This packet provides a starting point for analyzing bias, but it doesn’t offer exhaustive coverage of all news sources or types of bias. It’s a tool for guided practice, not a definitive guide to objective truth. Students will still need to apply these concepts to new and evolving media landscapes.
What This Document Provides
The full assignment packet includes: a list of various news websites and TV stations with noted biases; an ideological breakdown (Left/Right/Neutral) for each source; prompts for identifying the most ideologically neutral sources; questions about the objectivity of news; and space for students to articulate their preferred news source and reasoning. It also includes example responses to the prompts. This preview *does not* include the complete list of sources, the full student responses, or detailed explanations beyond what is stated here.
