Lesson on Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Aim: What is the role of the media in political socialization?

Bell Ringer: Discuss Journal 33 (5 min)

Objectives:

6.3 Analyze the role of the media in political socialization and the acquisition of political knowledge.

6.4 Assess the impact of the media on democratic values and politics in the United States.

Agenda: (slides 23-38)

Opener:

1. Show a chart of ownership of the mass media in the United States (you can find such a chart at (http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart). What is the relevance of the increasing ownership of the mass media in the United States? Does this have any implications for the ability of citizens to exercise their democratic responsibilities? Are there any advantages to concentrated ownership?

FUNCTIONS:

2. Reporting the News
3. Interpreting and Presenting the News (gatekeepers, horse race journalism, media event, television hypothesis, soft news)
4. Setting the Political Agenda (Crime "crime provides good visuals", "if it bleeds, it leads", but the crime rate is actually falling, going public)
5. Socializing the Citizenry

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6.  Is reporting biased?
7. Political Communication (from gov to people, and from people to gov, how?)

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7. Concept Map presentations (rest of class)

Terms to know: attentive policy elites, blog, FCC, gatekeepers, going public, horse race journalism, infotainment, market-driven journalism, mass media, media event, newsworthiness, political agenda, soft news, television hypothesis. 

Home Learning:

1. Study for tomorrow's Chapter 6 Vocabulary Quiz

2. Weekend HW:

A. Search for bias journalism or watchdog journalism. In one paragraph, describe the topic being covered and how it is bias or how the topic represents watchdog journalism. Source must be informally cited.

B. Identify the various local mass media in your community—radio stations, television, newspapers. Have students determine who owns these sources, the size of their

audiences, the amount of news coverage they offer, and their political inclinations. Pay special attention to the editorial content of the local newspapers. The objective is to assess the quality and quantity of news coverage about local politics.

C. Ask your students to visit the home page of the Federal Communications Commission. What issues is the commission currently considering? Ask students to identify three of the five commissioners and discuss their stances on those issues.

D. Have students watch the following news broadcasts for the evening: the nightly news on one of the major U.S. networks, PBS Newshour, and a broadcast on BBC America (available on most U.S. cable and satellite systems). Ask the students to compare and contrast the news presented in each broadcast. Which stories were covered? How would they describe the news from a production standpoint? What other differences did they notice?

(A, B, C, or D due Monday, January 22, 2018)

3. Chapter 7 IDs due Monday, January 22, 2018