Identify a recent archaeological story or discovery about alcohol that received substantial media attention, and then compare and contrast how this story was presented by different media outlets. Start by finding a few potential news stories by scanning recent blogs and other online news pages where archaeology news is published. You’ll want to select a topic that received lots of media attention.
Next, identify seven examples of media coverage of the
story (e.g., video clips, magazine blurbs, and newspaper articles) AND find the original source for the story (e.g., an academic paper in a scientific journal or the interview with
the archaeologist). I use Google Scholar to track down primary sources. Write an essay that compares and contrasts how these outlets presented and portrayed the story you choose; you’ll analyze the media sources but also critically assess how they presented the original source of the news. You’ll also want to provide background on the original discovery based on the original archaeological (or other scholarly) source.
Here are some questions to keep in mind:
What types of language or terminology are used to describe the finding or discovery? Are any of these inappropriate or misleading? Do any of the media sources misrepresent the original discovery? Or did they seem to misunderstand anything about the importance of the discovery? Are any elements purposefully distorted? If so, why? Does one or more of the media examples do a much better job than others are relating the story to the public? Why and how? Be sure to include links to the sources you cite, but I don’t need a formal bibliography.
1800 words minimum please
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