1) Critical Report 50% (2,000 words) Write a 2,000 word paper that compares two recent news articles (chosen by you)

1) Critical Report 50% (2,000 words)
Write a 2,000 word paper that compares two recent news articles (chosen by you). The first news article
should reflect high standards of journalistic tradecraft. In contrast, the second article should be an example
of fake news. Your paper should include a critical analysis of the following qualities for each article:

e Accuracy of the title (Does the title accurately describe the content of the article? Or is it clickbait?
How is the article presented on social media?)

e Consistency of logic (Are quotes, evidence, and observations presented impartially and in context?
Does the article make sense? Does the article contain any obvious logical fallacies? Is its conclusion
plausible?)

e Use of evidence (What primary sources does the article rely on? Does it attribute its source/s
correctly? Does it acknowledge what information is unknown or unclear? Does it use multiple
sources? What are the credentials of its source/s?)

e Reliability of the publisher (Does the publisher have a significant bias? If so, how severe is its bias?
Are its editorial boards and/or parent organisations easy to trace?)

e The author/s (Is the writer a professional journalist? Does he/she have a track record of publishing
good quality articles? Is his/her writing grammatically correct?)

e The intended audience (Who is the intended audience of the article? Does it aim to challenge and/or
impart real knowledge to its intended audience? Or is it more concerned with reinforcing pre-
existing prejudices and/or manipulating the audience's emotions?