Sociology 335, Social Psychology

Sociology 335, Social Psychology

Analysis of News Reporting within the Social Psychological Context
100 Points
Part 1: Newspaper Analysis (3-5 pages)
Social psychologists are primarily interested in human behavior within a social context. You
will select four news articles from different sources in 2022/23 covering the same topic (i.e.
climate change, immigration, police shootings, gun control etc.) Two of the chosen articles
should be opinion pieces. You may look online for sources, but they should be text, not videos.
Summarize and fully analyze the below bullet points for your chosen articles.
Analyze how the different news outlets cover the topic. In your analysis:
Illustrate each of the five core areas of concern for social psychologists.
Identify the instances where the reporter uses I statements to express their opinion and
any persuasion strategies (i.e. fear arousal) employed to help persuade the reader (from
the opinion pieces).
Discuss how belief perseverance may be applicable.
Include any other concepts (i.e. social influence, political bias, persuasion, etc.) within
the social psychological context.

Part 2: Daily (Television/Social Media/Internet) News Programs Analysis (3-5 pages)
Watch daily news programs and look 2 stories about helping, heroism, or
Altruism. Provide a summary of the situation. Based on the information provided, why did the helping
occur? Were the motivations egoistic, altruistic, or both? Then, based on what youve learned in Chapter
Eleven, speculate on additional reasons beyond those explicitly
described by the helper or news anchor.
Watch daily news programs and look for 2 stories about aggression or violence.
Provide a summary of the event. What elicited the violence, conflict, or aggression? Do any of the
theories from Chapter 12 clearly apply (e.g., frustration; defending ones honor; attributions of intent)?
Did features of the target or of the situation contribute to the violent act? Elaborate.

Conclusion: (2-3 pages)
Reflect on the programs you watched and the articles you read. Did any themes emerge? Did
race, class or gender play a role in the reporting? Did systemic and/or institutionalized racism
play a role? Discuss the concept of groupthink and how it applies to media bias in reporting of
the news.
Use in-text citations from your research, journal articles, websites, the text etc. to support your analysis. Include a
Reference Page. Paper will be written in APA format. No abstract is needed. Submit the paper to the Dropbox on
BeachBoard. Use in- text citations to support statements and your analysis.

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