Instructions
1. Select a news story about an issue related to social work from a major Canadian news provider (i.e. National Post, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star or CTV)
2. Compose a four to five page paper that answers the following questions about the news story you choose:
• What lexical choices did the writer make and how did they affect the overall meaning of the text?
• Are issues represented in a binary fashion (i.e. good versus bad) or are readers given multiple and nuanced options for understanding the news story? Explain/justify all elements of your response.
• Who is quoted in the news story? Whose voices are excluded? Are those most affected by the events in the news story given voice (i.e. social work clients, welfare recipients, Indigenous people, single mothers, etc.)? Explain the impacts for those that are included and for those that may be excluded.
• If the news text references statistics, numbers or quantitative measures, can you think of other statistics, numbers and facts that, if included, would have given readers other ways of interpreting the article? If the news text doesn’t reference statistics, numbers or other scientific facts, can you think of some that, if included, would have given readers other ways of interpreting the article? Explain/justify all elements of your response.
• Is the meaning conveyed by the headline consistent with the substance of the story? If not, how does this impact readers’ understanding of the issue? Who is most affected by that? Explain/justify all elements of your response.
• If you wrote the story, how would it be different? Explain/justify all elements of your response.
• How is the social issue referenced in the news story mediated through social media? How is it similar and how is it different?
3. Submit the properly formatted paper, along with a copy of the news story on or before the due date
