For Paper 2, please write an essay of between 1200-1600 words examining the way two different news organizations have covered and are covering the 2020 Presidential Campaign. At least one of the publications should be based in the United States. The other can be based in the US or in another country. The publications you choose can be newspapers, broadcasters or other print/online sources of news.
One of the themes of this class is that media outlets often cover the same event from entirely different perspectives. Thats true of publications within a country: those with a partisan slant covering stories with a partisan angle; those who serve different demographics (including different races, religions or nations of origin); and those who serve readers in a specific region of the country.
Your essay should examine what is similar and different about the election coverage between your chosen outlets, and discuss possible reasons for these differences. In writing about these differences, please explain what you have concluded are the best practices for political coverage to fulfill the role of the press in a democracy, and explain the basis for your conclusions. Your essay should provide examples from and citations of articles to illustrate your points.
In your essay, please discuss the following:
How is the coverage between outlets similar and how is it different?
What, if anything, did the editors and reporters seem to have learned from how the press covered previous elections?
How does the news sources election coverage reflect or represent considerations such as:
1.the economic, health and political needs of the people served by the news outlet
2.the different regional or national press cultures, laws, economic considerations, or political perspectives
3.the political perspective of the owners or editors
4.economic or political pressures
What are the best practices for covering elections for news organizations to fulfill their role in a democracy?
Please make sure to incorporate all elements of the prompt into a cohesive essay. Remember that you need to include a strong intro, thesis, evidence, analysis, conclusion, and citations. As always, proper grammar, diction, and sentence structure along with a mature, clear writing style will count towards your grade.
