News Media Literacy

Read the net neutrality article in the box below.  

Then, complete the following exercise:

1. Determine what other news outlets reported the Burger King advertisement;  see what is found in search of Google News; then try searching a news database such as Nexis Uni.

2. What was published in The New York Times or the The Washington Post regarding net neutrality repeal?

3. Read Boston Herald article about Ed Markey:

 Boston Herald, January 10, 2018 "Ed Markey Leads New Bid to Ensure Net Neutrality" http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2018/01/ed_markey_leads_new_bid_to_ensure_net_neutrality

4. Search Facebook and Twitter for postings on the issue of net neutrality

5. After completing these steps, list three of the news reports you read (on the issue of net neutrality). Please include one that you found posted on Twitter or Facebook. Also include an active link for easy retrieval.

6. Examine one of these stories using the Center for Media Literacy's Five Key Concepts (Q/Tips)

Authorship: All media message are constructed. 
         Question for media consumer: Who created this message?

Format: Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. 
      Question for media consumer: What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

Audience: Different people experience the same media message differently.
      Question for media consumer: How might different people understand this message differently?

Content: Media have embedded values and points of view.
      Question for media consumer: What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in or omitted from 
       this message?

Purpose: Most media messages are organized to gain profit and/or power.
      Question for media consumer: Why is this message being sent?

         How do your answers to the above 5 CML Q/Tips differ based on which media outlet posted the story?

7. Identify and evaluate the sources which are mentioned in each news story. Start by answering some questions used in lesson eight of the Digital Resource Center's GetNewsSmart course on Media Literacy:

• Who is this source?
• How would this person know about this?
• Is anyone else telling the same story?
• Is this person providing evidence or just making assertions?
• Does this source have a dog in the fight? / Are they affected by the story in some sort of way?

Using the IMVAIN criteria from the Digital Resource Center, evaluate the the report you selected.

I:     Independent sources are better than self-interested sources
M:   Multiple sources are better than single sources
V:    Sources who Verify with evidence are better than sources who assert
A/I:  Authoritative/Informed sources are better than uninformed sources
N:    Named sources are better than unnamed sources

Center for Media Literacy Q/Tips Chart

Digital Resource Center. GetNewsSmart course

BK Ad Explains Net Neutrality With a $26 Whopper

Some call the ad 'brilliant,' some say it's just another marketing ploy

(Newser) – If you've tried explaining net neutrality to your friends only to find their eyes glazing over, appeal to their stomachs instead. Per CNNMoney, Burger King's new "Whopper Neutrality" ad, which debuted Wednesday, illustrates the concept through the lens of Whoppers and wait times. In BK's "social experiment," customers who pay $5 for a Whopper—dubbed the "slow access Whopper pass"—are told they'll be waiting 15 to 20 minutes for their order. If they want to jump in the "fast lane" and make their Whoppers "high priority," they'll have to pony up $13 for the "fast" MBPS ("making burgers per second") or $26 for the "hyperfast" version. "The internet should be like Burger King restaurants, a place that doesn't prioritize and welcomes everyone," a BK marketing rep says in a statement explaining the ad, which comes on the heels of the FCC repeal of net neutrality protections in December.

Some call the ad "brilliant" for explaining the complex subject using fast food, but more cynical observers see it as BK capitalizing on a timely topic for its own purposes. Recode, which notes Burger King hasn't exactly been on the front lines until now lobbying for net neutrality repeal (Business Insider backs that up), calls it a "branding exercise" by a "#woke brand" that "[sees] in every social and political cause du jour an opportunity for 15 minutes of web infamy." And Engadget says the ad doesn't even explain the concept all that well (it points to its own explainer instead), though it gives the clip props for its subtle dig at FCC chief Ajit Pai: The BK King is seen at the end drinking out of a giant Reese's mug, as Pai has been known to do. Also at the end of the ad: a link to a Change.org. petition supporting net neutrality. (Montana has become the first state to protect net neutrality.) 

Link to article on Newser

Gidman, Jenn, "BK Ad Explains Net Neutrality With a $26 Whopper: Some call the ad 'brilliant,' some say it's just another marketing ploy," Newser.com, 25 Jan. 2018.