Chapter 6 Exercises: The Evolution of Traditional Media

Instructions

These exercises develop analytical skills in media history, institutional analysis, and contemporary media critique. They range from historical research tasks to data analysis and policy design. Many exercises build on primary sources in addition to the chapter content.

Part A: Historical Analysis Exercises

Exercise 6.1 — Penny Press Economics

The penny press transformed the business model of American journalism by shifting from reader-supported to advertiser-supported news. Analyze this transformation's epistemic consequences using the following prompts:

a) In a subscription-based newspaper, what are the incentives of the publisher in relation to reader satisfaction? How do these incentives affect content selection?

b) In an advertiser-supported newspaper, what additional principal (besides the reader) must the publisher satisfy? How might this affect content selection?

c) Describe a specific type of story that the advertising model would incentivize that the subscription model would not, and vice versa.

d) Many digital journalism ventures have sought "reader-supported" models (Substack, The Guardian's membership approach, ProPublica's nonprofit model). Based on your analysis of the penny press model, what are the potential epistemic advantages of reader-supported models? What are the potential disadvantages?

e) Write a 300-word assessment of whether the penny press model, on balance, improved or degraded the epistemic quality of American public discourse.

Exercise 6.2 — Yellow Journalism Primary Source Analysis

Read or find the following historical document: The New York Journal's February 17, 1898 front page coverage of the sinking of the USS Maine (reproductions are available in many journalism history texts and digitized newspaper archives). Alternatively, use the description of Yellow Journalism conventions in Section 6.2.

Analyze the coverage using these criteria:

a) Headline analysis: Describe the headline typography, wording, and emotional framing. What claim does it make, and what is the epistemic status of that claim?

b) Attribution: Are specific sources cited for factual claims? If so, what is their credibility? If not, what effect does unsourced assertion have on the reader?

c) Framing: What narrative does the coverage construct about causation, responsibility, and appropriate response? What alternative narratives does it exclude?

d) Comparison: Identify three specific techniques used in this historical coverage that you also see in contemporary digital misinformation.

e) Counter-question: What would responsible coverage of the same event look like? Draft a 150-word alternative lead paragraph that meets contemporary journalistic standards.

Exercise 6.3 — The Objectivity Norm: A Debate

Walter Lippmann advocated for an objectivity norm grounded in scientific method. His contemporary, John Dewey, argued for a more participatory, community-oriented journalism that would help citizens develop their own analytical capacities rather than deferring to expert-produced objectivity.

a) Research and summarize the Lippmann-Dewey debate (sources include Jay Rosen's "What Are Journalists For?" and various journalism history texts).

b) Identify three specific editorial decisions a newspaper editor would make differently depending on whether they followed the Lippmann or Dewey model.

c) Which model better describes contemporary practices at: (1) The New York Times; (2) The Guardian; (3) A successful local nonprofit news outlet of your choice?

d) Are there elements of both models that could be combined into a superior alternative? Describe what this combined model would look like in practice.

Exercise 6.4 — Fairness Doctrine: Regulatory Analysis

The Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to present contrasting viewpoints on controversial public issues but was abolished in 1987. Conduct a regulatory analysis:

a) State the constitutional basis for the Fairness Doctrine. Why was this basis available for broadcast regulation that would not be available for print regulation?

b) The FCC's 1987 decision argued that the Doctrine actually chilled speech. Explain this argument. Is it plausible? What evidence would you look for to evaluate it?

c) Describe the changes in the radio landscape between 1987 and 2000. Is the correlation between repeal and the rise of partisan talk radio evidence of a causal relationship? What alternative explanations exist?

d) Construct the strongest case for restoring some version of the Fairness Doctrine for broadcast media. Then construct the strongest case against it. Which do you find more persuasive, and why?

e) Could the logic of the Fairness Doctrine be applied to social media platforms? What would be the legal and practical obstacles? Draft a 200-word proposal for a "digital fairness" regulation and identify its two most serious weaknesses.

Exercise 6.5 — Pentagon Papers vs. Contemporary Classified Leaks

Compare the Pentagon Papers case (1971) with one contemporary case involving leaked classified information (e.g., the Snowden NSA disclosures, 2013; the Chelsea Manning WikiLeaks disclosures, 2010; or any significant recent case).

a) In both cases, identify: (1) the nature of the classified information; (2) the public interest justification for publication; (3) the potential harm from publication; (4) the government's legal and political response.

b) New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) held that the government had not met the burden for prior restraint. Apply the legal reasoning from this decision to your contemporary case. Would the same result follow?

c) The Pentagon Papers revelations are now widely credited with accelerating the end of the Vietnam War and establishing crucial First Amendment precedents. Has the passage of time similarly confirmed or revised the assessment of your contemporary case's public value?

d) What criteria should journalism organizations use to decide whether to publish leaked classified information? Propose a decision framework with at least five criteria, explaining the justification for each.

Exercise 6.6 — Investigative Journalism: The Watergate Model

Research the Watergate reporting by Woodward and Bernstein in detail (sources include their book "All the President's Men" and secondary histories).

a) Identify the specific reporting techniques they used: source cultivation, document analysis, corroboration requirements, etc.

b) What was the role of the institutional Washington Post — including Katharine Graham, Ben Bradlee, and the paper's legal team — in making the reporting possible?

c) Identify three specific moments in the investigation when the reporting could have been stopped or derailed. What protected it?

d) Compare the resources available to the Post in 1972-1974 to those available to a major metropolitan newspaper today. What is the ratio of investigative reporters, legal support, and financial resources? What does this comparison imply about the probability of a contemporary Watergate-style investigation?

e) Is it possible for the Watergate model of investigative journalism to migrate to digital-native outlets? Identify a digital news organization that has conducted major investigations and compare its institutional structure to the Post model.

Exercise 6.7 — 24-Hour News Cycle Effects Analysis

The launch of CNN in 1980 transformed news production. Analyze the following hypothetical:

Imagine the Watergate investigation occurring in 2024 rather than 1972-1974. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and social media all exist; the story is being covered continuously.

a) How would continuous coverage change the investigative process? (Consider: source protection, the development of evidence, political dynamics, public attention management)

b) Would continuous coverage make it more or less likely that Nixon would have been held accountable? Consider both the advantages (more public pressure, more eyeballs) and disadvantages (premature disclosure, story fatigue, partisan framing).

c) Identify three specific ways that a contemporary White House would attempt to manage the story differently than the Nixon White House could in 1972-1974.

d) Would Woodward and Bernstein have had to use social media? What would be the advantages and risks?

Part B: Media Trust and Data Exercises

Exercise 6.8 — Trust Data Analysis

Using the synthetic Gallup-style data visualized in code/example-02-news-trust-analysis.py, or using actual Gallup polling data if available, answer:

a) At what year did overall media trust peak in the available data? What political and media events might explain high trust at that point?

b) Identify three "inflection points" — years where trust changed sharply. For each, identify the most plausible explanatory events occurring in that year or the preceding year.

c) The partisan trust gap widened dramatically after 2016. Graph this gap over time. What shape is the trend (linear, accelerating, step-change)?

d) Design a regression analysis that would test whether specific events (major media scandals, political campaigns, economic crises) are associated with trust changes. What variables would you include? What would be the main confounds?

Exercise 6.9 — Media Consolidation Research

Using the visualization in code/example-01-media-consolidation-viz.py as a starting point, research actual data on media consolidation:

a) Research the FCC's media ownership reports or academic studies of media consolidation. How many independent daily newspaper owners existed in the U.S. in 1945, 1980, 2000, and 2020 (approximately)?

b) Research the current ownership structure of the five largest U.S. television broadcasting groups. Create a simple diagram showing which corporate parents own which broadcast networks and cable news channels.

c) Research the concept of a "local news desert" (see also Case Study 2). Using available data from the Hussman School of Journalism's "State of Local News" report or similar, estimate: how many U.S. counties had no local daily newspaper as of 2023?

d) What is the demonstrated relationship between local newspaper coverage and: (1) voter turnout in local elections; (2) municipal bond interest rates (a proxy for corruption risk); (3) awareness of local government actions? Summarize research on each relationship.

Exercise 6.10 — Headline Sentiment Trend Analysis

Run code/example-03-headline-sentiment-analysis.py and analyze the output.

a) Describe the trend in headline sentiment over the period analyzed. Is the trend consistent, or are there notable reversals?

b) The exercise uses VADER sentiment analysis. Research VADER's design: what types of text was it designed for, and how well does it generalize to news headlines from different decades?

c) Propose three alternative approaches to measuring "tabloidization" in news content beyond sentiment analysis. For each approach, describe the data required and the measurement procedure.

d) Could a sentiment decline in headlines reflect greater accuracy about a genuinely more negative world, rather than tabloidization? Discuss the challenge of distinguishing "journalistic tone change" from "accurate reflection of real-world events."

Exercise 6.11 — Cross-National Comparison

The United States ranks significantly lower on press freedom indices (e.g., Reporters Without Borders) than many other democracies, despite having among the world's strongest constitutional press protections.

a) Research the current RSF (Reporters Without Borders) press freedom index rankings. Where does the U.S. rank? What factors drive the ranking?

b) Identify a country that ranks significantly higher than the U.S. in press freedom. Research the key differences in: legal protections, ownership structure, public broadcasting, and professional journalism norms.

c) Identify a country that ranks significantly lower than the U.S. Analyze the mechanisms through which press freedom is constrained.

d) What aspects of the higher-ranked country's system would be most transferable to the U.S. context? What barriers — legal, political, economic, cultural — would need to be overcome?

Part C: Content Analysis Exercises

Exercise 6.12 — False Balance Identification

Select a scientific or empirical topic on which there is strong expert consensus but public controversy (climate change, vaccine safety, evolution, the age of the universe, etc.). Collect five news articles covering this topic from different outlets published in the past two years.

a) For each article, code: Does it accurately represent the scientific consensus? Does it quote dissenting views? If so, in what proportion relative to consensus views?

b) Calculate the "balance ratio" for each article: what percentage of quoted expert voices dissent from the scientific consensus?

c) Compare your calculated balance ratios to the actual percentage of relevant scientists who hold the dissenting view (you may need to research this separately).

d) Write a 400-word assessment of how false balance in your sample creates or reinforces public misperception of the state of scientific knowledge.

Exercise 6.13 — Story Selection Analysis

Compare front pages (or online homepages) from three newspapers of different types (major national paper, regional paper, local paper) from the same day. For each front page:

a) Categorize each story by type: hard news (politics, policy, international); crime/disaster; human interest/lifestyle; business; sports; culture

b) Assess the geographic scope: international, national, regional, local

c) Assess the policy relevance: does the story have direct implications for public policy? Is that relevance explicit in the coverage?

d) Calculate summary statistics for each front page. How do the three papers differ in their story selection?

e) Evaluate the front pages against two different criteria: (1) serving democratic functions of an informed citizenry; (2) maximizing reader engagement. For which criteria does each front page score better?

Exercise 6.14 — Access Journalism Analysis

Select a journalist or news organization that covers a single powerful institution (e.g., a White House correspondent, a congressional reporter, a defense reporter, a business journalist who covers a specific sector).

Research whether the reporter or outlet has changed their coverage of the institution over time. Specifically:

a) Are there periods when coverage appears notably more favorable to the institution? Do those periods correlate with increased access (exclusive interviews, background briefings, advance information)?

b) Are there examples where the reporter or outlet appears to have been given exclusive information in exchange for favorable coverage?

c) What are the reporter's published defenses of their approach to source relationships?

d) Propose three editorial policies that would reduce access journalism incentives while maintaining the ability to gather information from powerful sources.

Exercise 6.15 — Muckraking to Modern Investigative Journalism

Trace the lineage from Progressive Era muckraking to a specific contemporary investigative journalism project.

a) Select a major investigative journalism project from the past five years (ProPublica, ICIJ, The Intercept, or a major newspaper investigation).

b) Identify the "muckraking" tradition elements present: exposing corruption or abuse, using documentary evidence, serving a reform agenda, reaching mass audiences.

c) Identify the elements that distinguish the contemporary project from its historical predecessors: technology used, verification standards, legal environment, funding model, distribution channels.

d) Assess the impact of the contemporary investigation: did it produce policy changes, legal consequences, or other measurable outcomes? Compare this to the documented impact of a comparable Progressive Era investigation.

Part D: Policy and Design Exercises

Exercise 6.16 — Local News Business Model Design

You have been commissioned to design a sustainable local news organization for a mid-sized American city (population 200,000-500,000) that currently has only one surviving local newspaper (daily circulation: 8,000) and no significant local digital news presence.

Design a news organization that: - Is financially sustainable over a 10-year horizon - Maintains journalistic independence from governmental and commercial pressure - Serves the full demographic diversity of the community - Performs the core democratic functions of local journalism

Your design should specify: - Revenue model (what combinations of subscriptions, advertising, philanthropy, public funding, events, etc.) - Ownership structure - Editorial independence protections - Distribution strategy - Audience engagement approach - Metrics for success beyond revenue (civic engagement, information quality, community trust)

Exercise 6.17 — Media Regulation Proposal

Current media regulation in the U.S. does little to address the quality of news content, focusing primarily on ownership concentration (FCC media ownership rules) and broadcast-specific requirements (political advertising time).

Design a media regulation proposal that: - Addresses one specific documented failure of the current media environment (e.g., local news desert, false balance, sponsored content confusion, media consolidation) - Is compatible with First Amendment constraints - Includes enforcement mechanisms - Anticipates and addresses the three most likely criticisms

Assess the political feasibility of your proposal.

Exercise 6.18 — Journalism Ethics Scenario Analysis

Analyze the following journalism ethics scenarios using the codes of ethics from the Society of Professional Journalists or another major journalism ethics framework:

a) A reporter obtains documents through a source that appear to have been stolen from a corporation. The documents reveal systematic consumer fraud. Should the reporter publish?

b) A reporter's spouse works as a government contractor. The reporter is assigned to cover a story about the agency that employs the spouse's company. What should the reporter do?

c) A reporter is embedded with military forces in a conflict zone. They witness what appears to be an unlawful killing of a civilian. They are told that reporting it will end their embed and that they are the only journalist with access to this unit. What are their obligations?

d) A reporter is offered exclusive access to a powerful politician's campaign in exchange for submitting stories to the campaign's communications team for "factual review" before publication. What should the reporter do?

For each scenario, identify: (1) the competing values in conflict; (2) what the relevant ethics code says; (3) what you believe the reporter should actually do; and (4) how you would defend that decision.

Part E: Synthesis and Reflection

Exercise 6.19 — Historical Parallels Essay

Write a 700-1000 word essay arguing either:

(a) The misinformation crisis of the digital age is fundamentally continuous with historical patterns of media-driven public distortion (Yellow Journalism, McCarthyism, tabloidization), and the appropriate response should draw on historical correctives (professionalism, regulation, civic education).

OR

(b) Digital misinformation represents a genuinely novel phenomenon that historical analogies obscure more than illuminate, requiring new conceptual frameworks and new interventions that have no historical precedent.

Your essay must engage with specific historical evidence from the chapter and make a clear, defended argument.

Exercise 6.20 — Institutional Failure Analysis

Review Case Study 1 (The New York Times and WMD reporting) in detail. Then identify a different case of institutional journalism failure (suggestions: media coverage of the 2008 financial crisis leading up to the crash; media coverage of the opioid crisis; early pandemic coverage failures).

Conduct a structured parallel analysis of both cases: - What was the institutional failure? - What structural factors (ownership, access relationships, editorial culture, competitive pressures) contributed? - What early warning signs were ignored? - What would have been required to prevent the failure? - What reforms were actually implemented, and have they worked?

Write a 600-word synthesis identifying which factors are common across both cases and what this reveals about structural vulnerabilities in journalism institutions.

Exercise 6.21 — Media Literacy Personal Audit

Conduct a one-week media consumption audit:

Day 1-7: Track every news source you consume. Note: source name, type (social media feed, direct visit, newsletter, TV, radio, podcast, print), topic, and time spent.

After the week, analyze: a) What proportion of your news consumption comes from sources with established editorial standards vs. unmediated social media? b) What is the geographic scope of your news diet? What percentage is local, national, international? c) What is the ideological diversity of your sources? d) What important categories of public affairs (local government, international affairs, science, courts) receive no coverage in your diet? e) Propose three specific changes to your information diet and assess the feasibility and likely impact of each.

Exercise 6.22 — Public Broadcasting Assessment

Research the history, mandate, and current performance of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and its principal beneficiaries (NPR, PBS).

a) What was the founding rationale for public broadcasting in the United States? How did the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 describe the purpose of public media?

b) Compare the level of public funding for public broadcasting in the U.S. (per capita) to public broadcasting funding in five other democracies (UK, Germany, Canada, Japan, Sweden or countries of your choice).

c) Research the audience demographics for NPR and PBS: who watches/listens? How do these demographics compare to the general population?

d) Critics argue that public broadcasting serves an already-informed elite rather than performing a democratizing function. Defenders argue it provides a quality alternative that improves the overall information ecosystem. Evaluate both arguments with reference to evidence.

e) Should the U.S. significantly increase public broadcasting funding? Design a proposal specifying how much, how it would be governed to ensure editorial independence, and what measurable outcomes would justify the investment.

Exercise 6.23 — Comparative Trust Analysis

Media trust varies dramatically across democracies. Research trust levels in news media across multiple countries (Reuters Institute Digital News Report provides annual comparative data).

a) Which democracies show the highest trust in news media? Which show the lowest? Where does the U.S. rank?

b) Identify three structural factors that correlate with higher media trust: consider public broadcasting levels, ownership concentration, press freedom scores, partisan media presence.

c) Does higher media trust correlate with better-informed publics? (Research studies comparing factual knowledge across countries with different trust levels.)

d) Is high media trust always desirable? Consider: in countries where media is state-controlled, trust may be high but information quality low. How would you distinguish "healthy" trust (grounded in demonstrated media quality) from "unhealthy" trust (compliance or lack of critical awareness)?

Exercise 6.24 — Future Scenario Analysis

Identify what you consider the three most significant threats to the quality of the traditional media ecosystem over the next decade. For each threat:

a) Describe the threat and the mechanisms through which it degrades media quality b) Assess its likelihood and time horizon c) Identify existing or proposed countermeasures d) Rate the adequacy of current countermeasures on a scale of 1-5

Then design a "media resilience index" — a composite measure that would allow tracking of the health of the journalism ecosystem over time. Specify what indicators the index would include, how they would be weighted, and what threshold values would signal crisis.

Exercise 6.25 — Cross-Chapter Integration

This exercise asks you to integrate content from Chapters 5 and 6.

The decline of traditional media and the rise of social media have occurred simultaneously. Design an argument for one of the following theses, using evidence and concepts from both chapters:

(a) The social psychological dynamics described in Chapter 5 (identity-protective cognition, echo chambers, moral outrage amplification) were always latent in human nature, but traditional media's gatekeeping function historically suppressed them. Their current expression is primarily a consequence of the removal of that gatekeeping.

(b) Traditional media itself cultivated many of the same pathological dynamics (partisan identity, moral outrage, in-group reinforcement) that we now attribute to social media, simply using different technologies. The continuity is more striking than the change.

(c) The interaction between social media's amplification mechanisms and the decline of trusted traditional gatekeeping has created a genuinely emergent crisis greater than either factor alone would produce.

Your argument should be 600-800 words and should explicitly cite theoretical concepts from both chapters.