Who does the article interview? What does the article leave out? What types of imagery accompany the article? What stance does the article take on the issue? What impression does the reader come away from the article with about the topic?

Critical News Analysis Essay

News media plays an important role in shaping and reflecting public opinion and public policy in race and ethnicity. Media coverage filters information through framing: “a system of reporting wherein reporters use a particular narrative structure, rely on officials as sources, and invoke public opinion in particular ways that, taken together, serve to marginalize collective actors and their issues” (Wilkes et al 2010, p. 41). In this assignment, you are asked to analyze how the news frames an issue in race and ethnicity that you are interested in.

This essay will be a critical analysis of a news article about your topic. Your topic can be about any location (doesn’t have to be Canadian) but news articles must be in English. The topic can be about any issue in race and ethnic relations: discrimination, conflict, activism, political organizing, etc. This assignment will help students to achieve Learning Objective #4: Draw connections between scholarly work on race and ethnicity, current political events and everyday life.

Your news article must be from a reputable, mainstream news source, i.e. not blogs or niche newsletters – think along the lines of CBC News, New York Times, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, etc. Articles must be published within the last year (since July 2021).

Consult the U of T Libraries Newspaper Research GuideLinks to an external site. for how to search for news articles. I recommend using Canadian NewsstreamLinks to an external site.. These are also linked to from our course page under the “Assignment Resources” module.

Once you have your article chosen, ask yourself how it frames the topic you’ve chosen. Treat the news articles like data to be analyzed, not like research sources. Ask yourself: Who does the article interview? What does the article leave out? What types of imagery accompany the article? What stance does the article take on the issue? What impression does the reader come away from the article with about the topic?

As you write your analysis, you need to draw on at least two scholarly (peer reviewed) sources. One of these can be the course textbook. Ask yourself: How do your findings compare to other empirical articles on the topic? How do theories of race/ethnicity help explain your findings (refer to chapter 2)? How do historical/contemporary race relations help contextualize your findings?