Media Studies 2014 period 5 class
We will compare the coverage of news in different countries and different
media.
Look at the list below. Each person in the class has been given a combination
of 1 Japanese newspaper, 1 Japanese TV news bulletin, 1 English-language
news bulletin, and 1 online English-language newspaper or news site. See
below to find out what you must do.
| Takashi Shohei Daichi Sayo |
日本経済新聞 | NHK evening news | Channel 4 News (UK) (Click "Catch up" in the top line and watch the bulletin for the date you have been assigned. The length and subject of each section of the bulletin are given under the screen.) | The Guardian (see the left-hand column) |
| Kiyofumi Yu Ryoto Jun |
読売新聞 | 日本テレビ evening news | RTE News (Eire PBS) (click "Nine News" under the screen for the appropriate date) | The Irish Times |
| Ayaka Shoma Yuki I. Minami |
毎日新聞 | TBS evening news | Al Jazeera News (international audience) (Watch either the 20:00 or 23:00 bulletins by clicking the appropriate part of the "Today's Schedule" box on the right.) | Al Jazeera |
| Yugo Anri Takuya |
産経新聞 | フジテレビ evening news | BBC World News (international audience) (I think that this starts at the beginning of every hour.) | BBC news |
| Yuki M. Yusuke Takuro Yuri |
朝日新聞 | テレビ朝日 evening news | CBS Evening News (US) | The Washington Post |
(*Shizuka: If you do this activity and send the information to me, or to
one of the people in your group, I will not count you as absent on Wednesday.)
Choose ONE day (either Saturday, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday), and collect
the following information from each of these sources for that day:
For the news bulletins, note each item that is covered in the bulletin, the order, and the approximate length. If it is difficult to understand the English language bulletin, look at the website. This should give you related information. If necessary, just write down, for example, "a story about British politics". For the newspapers, note each story that is given in detail on the front page. For the websites, note the four or five stories that are given the most importance.
In addition, note:
1. The type of news (positive/negative/neither + one or two key words,
such as "economic development", "war" etc., so that
we can easily compare the different newspapers/television channels..
2. Why each item has been chosen (for example, see p. 139 of the textbook).
3. Note the images and sounds that are used. What do they show? Where is
the viewer positioned? (For example, in a story about a war, are we shown
the point of view of one country rather than the other? Do we see the rockets
being fired by the soldiers, or the rockets destroying buildings and injuring
people?)
4. In the case of non-Japanese news, please also note the name of the country/countries
involved. Is the overall effect negative/positive or neither? (Are images/locations
ever used just because television needs to show images rather than because
they are necessary to the news item?)
It would also be interesting if you thought about the similarities/differences
between television and newspaper news. How are the newspaper pages/television
studios/websites designed? What strong/weak points do the different media
have? How are they trying to compete with each other?
In class on Wednesday, we will bring the information together, so please
make sure that your information is well organized. We will look at differences/similarities
in the coverage of news in different countries and media, and discuss the
implications of what we have discovered.