Web Research Activities



1. Search for information on the 2000 presidential election night media coverage. What happened that night? What changes came about because of the mistakes that were made? Consider the factors that encouraged the mistakes that were made and whether those factors are better or worse currently.

2. Search for reports on the media coverage concerning Hurricane Maria. Examine the ways in which race and class factored into how the survivors were depicted by the media, as compared to how survivors of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were depicted.

3. Examine media coverage of Ebola and ISIS in the lead-up to the 2014 midterm elections. Examine the degree to which politicians (particularly Republicans seeking to gain a majority in the Senate) were encouraging the examination of these issues. To what degree did fear factor into the reporting on these issues? Examine the degree to which these topics were discussed in the media in the days and weeks after the election. What do your findings suggest about how the media was used in relation to these political issues?

4. Search for information on President Trump’s relationship with the news media and his administration’s strategies to delegitimize news sources not in line with the messages they want to transmit to the public. Compare this to other attempts by presidents to control the messages available in the news media.

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