EXTRA CREDIT OPTION FOR 2412

You can do the following for up to 5 percentage points of extra
credit on your final grade.  The assignment is due no later than
Wednesday November 24, either to your TA or
the instructor.  It must be typed.


(1) Carefully read the article
Boykoff, Maxwell T and Jules M. Boykoff. 2004
 "Balance as bias: global warming and the US prestige press" Global
Environmental Change, 14, pp. 125-136.

(2) Write a 4-6 page (double-spaced, typed, 12 -point font) critical review or
reaction paper to this paper.  This should include a brief summary of
the arguments presented in the paper, as well as your assessment
of whether or not the arguments were well supported. 
  Make sure you explain what the authors mean by "balance as bias."
You should also address the following questions:
- Did this essay change your idea of what constitutes "bias" and what
constitutes "balance" or "balanced reporting" (or the relationship
bewteen the two)? If so, how? If not, why not? Either way,
how would you now define "bias" when applied to a complex
scientific issue like anthropogenic climate change?

-- Can you give an example of another issue where a similar
journalistic norms prevail, to similar effects? What is the
phenomenon and what is your analysis of the results?

(3)  Whether or not you agree with their argument, locate
another example of what the authors call "the balance-as-bias
phenomenon" from a newspaper article (you can find one from
the web if you wish, but it must be from a newspaper or magazine)
and attach it to your paper.
Briefly explain in ONE paragraph (separate from your essay)
how this fits their argument/the phenomenon they are describing.


The number of extra credit points you receive will depend on
the mechanics of your essay (grammar, etc.) as well as the content
(whether and to what it extent it reflects your careful analysis about the
data and issues raised by the article.)