Theorizing the News

READ BELOW AND REVIEW ATTACHMENT(UPLOAD) Writing Assignment 1: Theorizing the News Assignment: Write your assignment as a .docx, .doc, or .pdf file Objectives: This assignment will give you practice in analyzing contemporary issues using sociology’s three major theoretical perspectives. Instructions: 1. Find and read a news article on a sociologically-relevant topic that interests you. It must come from an established news source (see list of examples on the next page), be fact- rather than opinion-based, and be substantial, meaning 250 words or more. (To determine word count, cut and paste text into a word processing program and use the word count function.) 2. Think about how the topic covered in the article could be viewed from each of sociology’s major theoretical perspectives: functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionism. It will help to review the perspectives in the course lecture notes and textbook. Come up with at least one idea, claim, question, or hypothesis about the topic that reflects each perspective (a total of three). Keep in mind that there are many correct answers here—theorists from each perspective would have a lot of different things to say about any topic. 3. Write up your thoughts in a five paragraph essay with the following structure: Paragraph 1: Introduce your essay by describing your topic and article and why you think they are important or interesting. Remember to cite your news article using an in-text citation when you refer to or quote from it. Paragraphs 2-4: Write a brief paragraph on each theoretical perspective, in any order. In each, start with 2-3 sentences describing the perspective in your own words (based on information from the lecture notes and text). Don’t just skim the surface: include some details, including any concepts that are relevant to your topic. Then write a few more sentences describing an idea, claim, question, or hypothesis about your topic that reflects the perspective. You may use first-person phrasing if you wish (e.g., “If I were studying this topic using the interactionist perspective, I would focus on…”) or not (e.g., “An interactionist might hypothesize that ….”). Then go to a new paragraph and perspective. Paragraph 5: Write a few sentences on the following: If you were going to do further research on this topic, which theoretical perspective would you use, and why? (Note that answering the “why” question is just as important as picking a perspective.) 4. Formatting: Write in prose (essay style), not a list or bullet points. I am expecting about 2 pages, but quality is what counts. Please use a 12 point font, double line spacing, and one inch margins. Cite your sources, including your news article and possibly the textbook and/or lecture notes—see further information below. Examples of established news sources: Newspapers, e.g., Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New York Times, USA Today Broadcast networks and their websites, e.g., CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS News magazines and websites, e.g., Newsweek, American Spectator, Harpers, the Nation News services, e.g., Reuters, the Associated Press Citation information If you quote or paraphrase from any source (news article, textbook, website, etc.), you must cite it with an in-text citation and a bibliography entry. USE MLA FORMAT Use of sources without acknowledgement is plagiarism. If I detect plagiarism, you will get an assignment grade of 50 (less than one paragraph) or 0 (a paragraph or more). Please let me know if you have questions about when or how to cite sources!