Newspaper Values Assignment CMN101: Mass Media This assignment requires that you pick up a recent copy of a regional or national daily

newspaper (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Times of Trenton, Philadelphia Inquirer,

etc.) and analyze the front page. The newspaper you select must have a minimum of four

separate articles printed on the front page; in other words, you should NOT use a newspaper

printed in tabloid format (Tentonian, NY Daily News, etc.). You should also avoid weekly and

small-town papers (Hopewell Valley News, Ewing Observer, Princeton Packet, etc.) The

newspaper issue you select should be from the last two weeks. You must use a physical copy of

the paper. Read and carefully consider all the stories on the front page of the paper as well as

any continuation of those articles inside the paper. Specifically, locate every example of Gans’

basic journalistic values (textbook pages 152-155) that you can identify in those articles. You

should be able to find at least one value from each article on the front page. Some articles may

have several values present and individual values might be common to more than one article.

In a brief (approximately 400 words) essay, explain which journalistic values you found and

what specific evidence of those values you see in the articles. Minimize the amount of article

summary you provide; the essay should focus on how the articles fit within Gans’ journalistic

values, not on the news stories themselves. For each value you identify, provide an explanation

of why the article(s) would fall into that value. In a short summary paragraph, consider the

implications of your findings. Which values seem most prevalent? Why do you think that is? Are

there any values that you think could be added to the list? What are they? What can we learn by

examining journalistic values?

In addition to the essay, you should also provide complete references for all the articles on the

front page in APA format (see example below). You will NOT submit a copy of the newspaper or

its front page.

All submissions should be typed in standard font and size with 1” margins and double spacing

(like this assignment sheet). Multi-page submissions should be printed double-sided or stapled

together. Newspaper names should by italicized. Article titles should be in quotations with

proper capitalization. Essays should be written clearly with proper grammar, punctuation, and

paragraphs. Do not include a title page or abstract. You do not need to include in-text citations.

Below are example references in APA format. Make sure they are listed alphabetically by last

name. First names are always shortened to the initial. Article titles only capitalize the first letter

of the first word and any proper nouns. Newspaper names are italicized. Nothing is underlined.

Entries are not numbered. Be careful using automated reference creators as they tend to suck.

For more on APA references, type “OWL APA” into a search engine for the Purdue Online

Writing Lab.

References

Associated Press. (2017, September 30). Four dead in California plane crash. The Washington

Post, pp A1, B3-B4.

Barker, D. (2018, September 30). Man bites dog. The Washington Post, p. A1.

Schwartz, J. (2018, September 30). Jury finds Bruce Wayne guilty of vigilante crime spree. The

Washington Post, pp. A1, A4.