Preamble:

Most of you said you "tuned in" to the news media (broadcast & print) on September 11 in ways you hadn't before then. Think back to your experiences with the media last Fall.

Write:

In 2-3 pages, what, if anything, did you "discover" about the news media on and after September 11. Write this as a memo summarizing your observations of the news media.

• Did the media tell you what you wanted to know?
• Did they frighten you? Was this justified by the circumstances, or was it excessive?
• Did they inform you about things you hadn't known?
• Did the media strike the right "tone" as far as you're concerned? (Think about "tone" as something encompassing these characteristics: "compassion," "hard-headedness," "national loyalty," "independence," "fairness," "bias," "completeness.")
• Were there shortcomings? Like what?

Remember:

This assignment and this course are about the news media. Please don't use your time and space writing about late-night TV shows (Leno, etc.), Oprah-like talk shows or entertainment programs which referred to Sept. 11 events.

This is not a "research" paper. I want to hear what's in your head about the news media. However, if you make specific references to incidents you observed in media coverage, give me a clue about your source for this information (date? channel/network?). You can use the web to search news items referring to these incidents to nail down your specifics. (Use a separate "notes" page to list any such references.)