As a class, you will analyze comparatively a news event and its treatment at a set point in time. You will examine how this news event is reported and treated from your two countries' perspectives. Your general goal is to engage in comparative analysis of cross-cultural communication in order to begin to understand how the filters of your different cultures affect perceptions of information. More specifically, you will determine the differences and similarities in news communications for each of your countries' cultures and understand the significance of the differences or similarities.
You will engage in pointed collaborative group work with international partners representing both countries, focused on treatment of a news event in the press (newspapers), on television, or in websites. The class as a whole will then have a basis of comparison for each of the news communication genres that you study.
The result of your collaborative work will be a formal analytical report on your topic, which will follow your international group project proposal (described in detail here). Your overall goals are to study the cultural differences in news communications in Russia and America, identify the differences and report on them, and present supported speculation for the reasons that news communications in Russia and America differ.
Note that we provide the questions here to help you begin your research. Answering these questions does not exhaust the extent of research required to study your topics adequately. Instead, these questions are to be used as an aid for initiating the work in your projects.
You should use the following questions to help guide your research:
What is your news event choice and what led to your choice of this event? (Why choose this event for analysis?)
What makes your chosen event a significant piece of news? Does "significant" necessarily mean "important?"
What reported news events can you see that led up to the event you've chosen for analysis? What led to this topic as a significant piece of news? How did it become news? What makes it news?
How does the presentation of this news event differ from country to country?
How does the interpretation of this news event differ from country to country?
How are the presentations and interpretations similar?
Who is reporting your chosen news event? (What news agency, ownership, controlling entity, etc?)
What are the epistemological/political/social stances taken by the reporting agencies that present the events you're analyzing for your study?
Are these reporting agencies credible? Why or why not? Do they display a rhetorical bias? What is the bias and what might be its source?
What are your reasons for why news reports differ in Russia and America? Can you provide supported speculation for your reasons?
What is the overall significance of your findings?