The purpose of this assignment is to examine the impact of media on individuals. You will explore how individuals remember significant social, political, cultural events and how the media influenced on individuals’ recollection. (i.e. Would the media’s framing for a certain event affect people’s understanding of the event?) For this assignment, you are going to interview an adult and talk about one event which was reported extensively by media.
For this assignment, you need to have an interviewee who is older than you and a mediatized event (the media talked about a certain event, incident, or disaster for days).
a. An interviewee: the person needs to be older than you. It would be ideal if the person is at least 5 years older than you. In this case, he/she may recall the event clearly, even if the event happened when you are too young to recollect. Otherwise, he/she has to be old enough to remember details of the event when it happened.
b. An event to discuss: any big event that dominated the news media. It would be ideal if the event happened at least 5 years ago.
There are two ways to find the topic that you discuss with your interviewee.
1. You may want to decide which event you want to discuss with your interviewee. (i.e. 911 terror, 2007 financial crisis, 2016 Presidential election, or any major media events)
2. You may ask your interviewee if he/she could think of any issues and events that were widely highlighted by the media. Then you can start from there.
3. The event does not have to be happened in the U.S. You and your interviewee can choose any international event as well as the U.S. event.
c. During the interview, you will ask about how he/sheremembers the event.
Possible questions: Do you remember _______?
What happened?
Do you remember any specifics of the event?
How did you find out the news? via TV? Radio? Newspapers? Internet?
How was the event represented in media?
Did you follow the related news? How long?
What is your strongest memory of the event?
Is there any incorrect information about the event that you received from the media?
d. Once you’ve done with your interview, find media coverage of the event. It can be news articles, news clips, etc. You need to find at least two different media sources related to the event.
e. Compare the interviewee’s memory with media sources that you found (i.e. newspapers, tv & radio broadcasts, bits from pop culture that represented the event, etc.). You need to write a 1,000 words-reflection paper based on what you found with this assignment.
In your paper, you may want to discuss about following questions: who is your interviewee? how did you choose the topic? What questions did you ask to your interviewee? You also need to compare the contents of your interview with news reports of the event. What part of the event was highlighted by media? How did people remember the event? Is there any similarities and differences between your interviewee’srecollection and the media reports? Explain the relevance between the news report and individual’s memory about the event; etc. If you find any discrepancy between them, what would be the reasons for that? Based on your research, what makes people remember a certain event? What is the role of media in the process?
Rubric:
• The student had an interview with an interviewee who is older than the student and is able to recollect memory related to a mediatized event. (1pt)
• The chosen topic (mediatized event) is relevant. (1 pt)
• The student explained the reason of why he/she chose the event.(2 pts)
• The student demonstrated the contents of the interview clearly. (2 pts)
• The student used more than TWO media sources to compare his/her interviewee’s recollection of the event and indicated which sources he/she used. (1 pt)
• The student articulated the differences/similarities between how news reported the event and how the interviewee remembered the event. (2 pts)
• The student provided meaningful thoughts and ideas about the differences/similarities between how news reported the event and how the interviewee remembered the event.(2 pts)
• The student provided insightful comments about the role of media and its impacts on people. (2 pts)
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