News Review Assignment
Choosing articles:
· Choose an article that discusses a
conflict over an environmental issue.
Conflicts may be between groups of people, or between people and some aspect
of the environment.
· Articles should come from
newspapers, either in print or online; links to some sources are provided on
the class web page.
· Articles should be at least 8-10
paragraphs to provide enough information for you to review.
·
Choose articles
discussing current events. They should be no
more that one month older than the assignment due date.
· Avoid using articles published as
editorials (opinions, columns) or press releases. While often interesting and informative,
these tend not to be as thorough or present only one opinion on a topic.
· Attach a copy of the news item to
your review.
News Review Format:
Your reviews will be typed, single-spaced, 1-1.5 pages. I encourage you to conserve resources when
you do this assignment by doing one or more of the following:
· reuse paper already printed on one side,
or
· use recycled and/or unbleached
paper, or
· use no paper.
On a trial basis, I will accept news reviews by email.
Follow the same formatting guidelines.
·
Place your name, class, and assignment in the subject
line.
(Example
subject line: Susie Student, ENVS 150 News Review #1)
·
To be sure I can read
your assignments on my computer, send them within an email message, or as a
Microsoft Word document, with the article copied into the same document. You may attempt to email a link to an
article, but know that it is not always successful.
·
Points will be deducted for not following these format
guidelines.
In addition to your own name
and date of your assignment, the header of your review must include the proper
citation for the article:
Publication:
(include both where you saw
the article as well as where it was originally published, if applicable)
Date
published:
Author:
(indicate wire
service if author is not given, for example: AP, author unknown)
Title:
The
body of your review should be a paragraph addressing each of the following six
questions. Number each paragraph
according to each question. (Please do
not include the questions with each paragraph.)
1. What is the central issue or problem in this news
item? What is the location or setting of
the issue?
2. Who are the parties involved in or affected by this
situation? Discuss how they are involved
or affected. Non-human species and
ecosystems may be included here.
3. What actions were taken or proposed, and what were the
actual or expected consequences of the action(s)? How effective was (or might be) each action
in dealing with the issue?
4. What is missing from this article? Is the story one-sided? Are there any parties whose interests are not
covered in this article?
5. What are the financial issues? Are there economic or political interests in
this issue? These may or may not be
addressed directly in the article.
Speculate on what you think the economic or political impacts may
be.
6. How was
science or the scientific method used or cited in the article? Explain and give
examples.
6. What is your opinion on the situation? What suggestions can you offer to improve the
situation? Do you think this situation
is or can be resolved? (Note: "They
are doing everything that can be done" is not an acceptable answer.)
Examples are available for viewing on the class web
page.