The Journalism Project
What did we do for this project? Explain how we built background knowledge, our preparation process, and our final product.
For the Journalism Project in Humanities, we learned about the powerful role of the media in our society. Then, each student chose a topic that interested them and wrote a 400 to 1200-word article reporting on the topic. We created a website, www.sophomoresentinel.weebly.com, to present our final articles to the wider public.
Although the topics of our articles diverged in all directions, we were each given the same background knowledge through exploring the importance of the media in our democracy. We learned about the media’s role as a “watchdog” over powerful people and institutions (as was demonstrated in the 1976 film, All The President’s Men revealing the process of reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in exposing the Watergate Scandal). We also learned about biases in the press and how to manage our own biases when reporting on a controversial topic. Overall, my knowledge of the media and it’s importance in our society has been greatly broadened. As the final product, each student was tasked with writing their own article for our class publication. We were allowed to write about whatever we wanted, but we had to demonstrate our research and participate in a peer critique. Once the articles were complete, we broke into teams to get our publication off the ground. These teams consisted of editing, design, exhibition, and publicity. The students collectively decided that we wanted to create a website to display our work, and we also wrote a mission statement for our publication, which we call The Sophomore Sentinel. We all worked hard in our groups to create our final product and host the launch party.
What enduring understandings will you take away from this project? Explain how this project has shaped the way you think about journalism, the media, bias and balance.
Because of this project, I now always notice when bias is present in articles or written works that I read. I have become hyper-aware of things that may seem small, but demonstrate an author’s bias. This awareness has already changed the way I view news sources and journalists. This project also showed me the importance of the press in our society, and how bias can majorly shape the reader’s understanding of a topic. Additionally, I never understood the press’s role as “watchdog” until this project. I always assumed that the reason “Freedom of the Press” was included in our Constitution was to allow for people to express their negative opinions without repercussions. I now know that this freedom also protects the press’s right to expose major scandals of powerful institutions, including unsightly aspects of our government. This project has greatly changed the way I view reporting and the media in general, and I have also learned to be more careful about which sources are trustworthy.
How did your journalistic skills develop during this project? Explain how you were challenged, and how you grew as a journalist. You may want to consider what you would do differently next time, and what you’re particularly proud of.
As we learned about bias throughout this project, I decided that I wanted to challenge myself to be as unbiased as possible when writing my own article. The topic of my article was third party presidential candidates, so this was a fairly difficult task. However, I am very satisfied with the views presented in my article. I think it is almost entirely unbiased. When I wrote a statement that could seem biased, I asked a friend for her opinion and reworded the phrase so that it carried less partiality. I strived to be unbiased throughout the project, and I think this journalistic skill has really developed in my writing. I am very proud of this aspect of my article.
As I mentioned above, the word count that we were required to uphold for our articles was 400 to 1200 words. My final article came out to be about 3600 words. As a developing writer, I would really like to work on staying within the word count. As I write this paragraph, I am already over the recommended word count, so I want to strive to be more concise in the future. Overall, I am glad that I can finish this project with the knowledge that I did my best work. I am very proud of how my final article turned out, and I think it accomplishes my goal of providing useful and accurate information.
For the Journalism Project in Humanities, we learned about the powerful role of the media in our society. Then, each student chose a topic that interested them and wrote a 400 to 1200-word article reporting on the topic. We created a website, www.sophomoresentinel.weebly.com, to present our final articles to the wider public.
Although the topics of our articles diverged in all directions, we were each given the same background knowledge through exploring the importance of the media in our democracy. We learned about the media’s role as a “watchdog” over powerful people and institutions (as was demonstrated in the 1976 film, All The President’s Men revealing the process of reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in exposing the Watergate Scandal). We also learned about biases in the press and how to manage our own biases when reporting on a controversial topic. Overall, my knowledge of the media and it’s importance in our society has been greatly broadened. As the final product, each student was tasked with writing their own article for our class publication. We were allowed to write about whatever we wanted, but we had to demonstrate our research and participate in a peer critique. Once the articles were complete, we broke into teams to get our publication off the ground. These teams consisted of editing, design, exhibition, and publicity. The students collectively decided that we wanted to create a website to display our work, and we also wrote a mission statement for our publication, which we call The Sophomore Sentinel. We all worked hard in our groups to create our final product and host the launch party.
What enduring understandings will you take away from this project? Explain how this project has shaped the way you think about journalism, the media, bias and balance.
Because of this project, I now always notice when bias is present in articles or written works that I read. I have become hyper-aware of things that may seem small, but demonstrate an author’s bias. This awareness has already changed the way I view news sources and journalists. This project also showed me the importance of the press in our society, and how bias can majorly shape the reader’s understanding of a topic. Additionally, I never understood the press’s role as “watchdog” until this project. I always assumed that the reason “Freedom of the Press” was included in our Constitution was to allow for people to express their negative opinions without repercussions. I now know that this freedom also protects the press’s right to expose major scandals of powerful institutions, including unsightly aspects of our government. This project has greatly changed the way I view reporting and the media in general, and I have also learned to be more careful about which sources are trustworthy.
How did your journalistic skills develop during this project? Explain how you were challenged, and how you grew as a journalist. You may want to consider what you would do differently next time, and what you’re particularly proud of.
As we learned about bias throughout this project, I decided that I wanted to challenge myself to be as unbiased as possible when writing my own article. The topic of my article was third party presidential candidates, so this was a fairly difficult task. However, I am very satisfied with the views presented in my article. I think it is almost entirely unbiased. When I wrote a statement that could seem biased, I asked a friend for her opinion and reworded the phrase so that it carried less partiality. I strived to be unbiased throughout the project, and I think this journalistic skill has really developed in my writing. I am very proud of this aspect of my article.
As I mentioned above, the word count that we were required to uphold for our articles was 400 to 1200 words. My final article came out to be about 3600 words. As a developing writer, I would really like to work on staying within the word count. As I write this paragraph, I am already over the recommended word count, so I want to strive to be more concise in the future. Overall, I am glad that I can finish this project with the knowledge that I did my best work. I am very proud of how my final article turned out, and I think it accomplishes my goal of providing useful and accurate information.