This assignment asks you to choose a semi peripheral or peripheral country and research its media freedom, media development, technology use and Internet penetration (not number of users), cultural and political development as well as world visibility in the global media. Once you collect the data from the required sources, establish your thesis about this country according to the WST model and connect it to your knowledge about the world news flow. Describe your findings. Additionally, select three recent news stories published by Google News (https://news.google.com/?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en) about your selected country. Save their URLs and headlines for further analysis and citation purposes. When you open Google news, go to the World section and do a search with your countrys name. Pick news stories that are relevant to your assignment.
Your report needs to address the following:
Is this country a democracy in its different levels, a monarchy, a dictatorship, tribal system, etc.? Whats its development rank?
Is there press freedom in this country? How journalists are treated in this country?
Does this country have a solid mass media system? Does it import media products? Does it export media products?
Whats the level of Internet penetration and social media use in this country?
Is this country in a positive path media-wise and tech-wise when compared to others?
Based on your findings, how is this country portrayed on Google News? Think on visibility vs. invisibility, biased/unbiased information; negative/neutral/positive news.
Use only the sources proposed here. Dont get too attached to technical details. Examine their meaning. Get background information on your country of choice from the BBC Country profile (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/country_profiles/default.stm). Use further data from institutional organizations such as Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, Internet Stats (http://www.internetworldstats.com), UNPD country development rank ( http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/2019-human-development-index-ranking) and Transparency International (https://www.transparency.org). Check also the country reports from the Worlds of Journalism at https://worldsofjournalism.org/country-reports/
All sources need credit in the body of your essay and in the reference section in APA style.
Just listing the data wont get you a positive evaluation. You need to analyze the information you collect and demonstrate solid critical thinking about this countrys media development and its position according to the WST scale. Follow the instructions and the detailed rubric.
Length: 500-600 words (up to 800 words if necessary). Write in third person, use Word only (work posted on pdf format wont be graded).
