Extra Credit--Peter Sussman - Committing Journalism

DUE: No later than March 19 LENGTH: About 750-1,000 words POINTS: Up to 10 PRISONS IN THE MEDIA ASSIGNMENT The purpose of this assignment is to examine how the prisons and prisoners are portrayed by the media. You are to look at newspapers, magazines, movies, television, and similar news outlets, and do the following: look for issues relevant to prisons. Which issues seem to be currently important (e.g., prison violence, administration, recidividism, programs/education, prisoner rights) How are these issues formulated by the media? How do "official spokespersons" tend to portray these problems (as quoted by media)? Is there a slant or a bias? What policy resolutions are suggested? How do resolutions differ from current policy? What obstacles (e.g., social, ethical, fiscal, organizational) can you identify to implementing these policies. Although you need not turn in clippings or exercises, you might want to keep these for your own reference and to take notes on media in cases where you can't clip an article. In your paper, you will summarize your key ideas, and cite your references when you state "facts." The purpose of the paper: The instructor has claimed that, despite the importance and costs of prisons for the public, the media does not really lay out the issues very well. Using your own research as data, do you agree or disagree? (Hint: take a look at back issues of newspapers in the library, or use the Net to track down old stories (since january 1 is fine).

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