ATCM6392

How is the news produced?

In-class exercise

The purpose of this exercise is to give you the opportunity to think deeply and critically about all
factors that may or may not influence how a news article is produced. There are no right or
wrong answers instead, the goal lies in giving you hands-on opportunity to consider the
strengths and weaknesses of (a) gatekeeping theory, (b) social control theory, and (c) the
hierarchy of influences model, key theories in journalism studies that center on how news is
produced, as well as encouraging you to revisit the concept of objectivity in news production.

This exercise is due by 9pm on September 19 (Tue) on the course blog. Please see below for
instructions.

Part 1: To be completed in class on Sept 11

1. Please get into a group of two (or on your own, its your choice) and pick a news article
that interests you. Any article from a mainstream publication would do.
2. Provide the headline, byline (author name), publication, publication date, and URL
3. Briefly describe the article: What is the story about?

Note: Part 2 is not due until the day after Sept 19, but you are encouraged to think about this
portion of the exercise as you do the readings for Sept 18, as they are highly related.

Part 2: To be completed in class on Sept 18 Please bring your laptop to class

4. Please apply the gatekeeping theory, social control theory, and the hierarchy of influence
model in your in-depth analysis of all possible factors (that you can think of) influencing
the production of chosen story.
For example, you may first describe what the hierarchy of influence model looks
like and break it down by level. The first level of the hierarchy model says that
journalists characteristics, background, and training, etc. may influence how the
news is produced. This is where you will do a bit of detective work. For example,
it is up to you to come up with everything that can possibly fit in this level, such
as where did the author go to school? What is his/her background? What is s/he
like on social media? Whats his/her political orientation?, etc. It is your job to
explain how you think this factor (e.g., his/her education background) may affect
the story she produced. Again, there are no right or wrong answers here. So
please be confident in applying your theoretical understanding, detective work,
creative thinking, and active imagination.
Heres is an example of how you may organize your post
Hierarchy model: briefly explain what the model does and what level it has.
i. (1) Individual level: briefly describe what this level entails
1. All possible factors that you can come up with for this level in the
hierarchy model, your results for each of these items, and your
explanation for how it could have influenced the news story.
 a. Race: Google image suggests that the author is Asian,
which may or may not affect the story in XYZ ways.
b. Ethnicity: Her last name suggests she may be Japanese,
which may affect the story in XYZ ways
c. Age: Her facebook profile says she is 45, which.
d. Educational background: xxxxx
e. Political orientation: xxxxx
5. Based on all that youve done in step 4, please answer the following questions:
a. What did you learn, or find amusing/surprising/boring, from this exercise?
b. Is the hierarchy of influences model missing anything in its attempts to account
for all factors affecting how the news is produced? If so, how would you revise
the model so its more comprehensive? (e.g., Are more levels needed? If so, what
would you call them and why?)
c. Based on what youve learned and/or discovered from this exercise do you
believe the story was produced as objectively as possible? Please (1) define
what you mean by objectivity and (2) explain your answer (e.g., what could the
author have done to report it more, or less, objectively and why?)
6. Please post your assignment on the course blog and use news production exercise as
a label

Again, please keep in mind that there are no right or wrong answers in this exercise. Instead, this
exercise is predominately based on your (a) application of the theories, (b) detective work, (c)
active imagination, and (d) critical thinking skills.

Last but not least have fun with this exercise, and let me know if you have any questions!