Essay 1, Media analysis. Students should select one article about religion that derives from popular media (newspaper, magazine, online newspaper, reliable TV news source). The information must be topical to *the past 12 months* from the date of the assignment. Once the story has been read/reviewed, please do the following:
1) Give a BRIEF (1 paragraph) description of the main points outlined in the piece.
2) Analyze the work: Is there a bias presented? If so, what is it? Is it pro- or anti- religion? Why did you select that choice? (Support your choice with examples).
3) Research the information presented. Does your research match what was described by the news article? [Hint: Your textbook is one source of research for this project!]
4) Analysis: What did you learn from this project about media portrayal of religions? What insights did you gain?
5) Be sure to include a works cited. There should be a minimum of three sources including the article and your text. This should be 2 – 3 pages in length (a minimum of 500 words and a maximum of 700, not including the works cited page).
The textbook is the world religions by Houston Smith
