Truth in the Media Report

Truth in the Media Report
Overview
The media often misreports or misrepresents the findings of scientific papers. In this
assignment you will compare and contrast the media report of a study with the actual
peer-reviewed journal article of that same study. Your final paper will be ~3-4 pages
double-spaced.
Student Learning Outcomes
● Students will demonstrate psychology information literacy, including their ability to
do the following:
○ identify and navigate psychology databases
○ summarize general ideas and conclusions from psychological sources
○ identify what kinds of additional information beyond personal experience
are acceptable in developing scientific arguments
● Strengthen writing and critical thinking skills through their application to specific
course content
Detailed Instructions
Assignment Part 1: Media Article and Scientific Article
1. Choose a media article from the list below. These media articles discuss the
findings of a psychological study. The easiest way to find one is to search a
psychology topic that you’re interested in.
a. Watching Too Much TV can KILL You.
b. Lack of Sleep May Shrink Your Brain.
c. Scientists Urged to Stay out of Pajamas.
d. Drinking any Amount of Alcohol Causes Damage to the Brain, Study Finds.
e. Mediterranean Diet May Prevent Memory Loss and Dementia.
f. Study Shows how Drinking Coffee Changes Brain Connectivity.
g. Smart Phone Use is Contagious, Study Finds.
h. Internet Use in Class Leads to Poorer Test Scores
2. Provide an APA formatted reference for the media/popular press article that you
chose.
3. Find the scholarly article that the media report is reviewing. In order to get access
to it for free (you shouldn’t have to pay anything) go to the Campbell Library
website and do a search for the article title.
4. Provide an APA formatted reference for the scholarly article.
5. Submit in Canvas your APA reference for the media report and corresponding
scientific article and the pdf of the scientific article for approval prior to writing
your report.
Truth in the Media Report
Assignment Part 2. Article Summaries.
1. Summarize the media report. How was the study conducted (e.g. sample,
correlation or experimental, how were variables measured? — just based on info in
the media report) and what did they find? Make sure to put everything into your
own words and do not copy and paste from the article.
2. Summarize the scholarly article. What was the aim or point of the study? How
was the study conducted (e.g. sample, correlation or experimental, how were
variables measured?) and what did they find? Make sure to put everything into
your own words and do not copy and paste from the article.
3. Make sure to include your intext citations when summarizing the articles.
Assignment Part 3. Evaluation.
Evaluate the media report by comparing and contrasting the media report to the scientific
article that it was summarizing. Make sure to include your in-text citations. Questions to
consider:
1. Did the media article make leaps to make the scientific findings more “attractive”
and “attention-grabbing”? If so, how?
2. Did the media accurately report the findings of the study? Why or Why not?
3. Did they leave out important details that would change the accuracy of the media
report? If so, explain.
Assignment Part 4. Complete Report.
For this last assignment you’re putting it all together in one APA-formatted paper.
Combine assignments #1-#3 into a final Truth in the Media Report. You should make
sure to address any necessary changes based on feedback from your instructor.
1. Paper Formatting & Submission
a. Should be written in paper format – using complete sentences in
paragraphs.
b. No title page is needed.
c. Use 11 or 12-point font and double-space. Use 1” margins.
d. Proofread your paper for any grammatical, spelling, and formatting errors.
2. APA citations and references
a. When discussing the media report and scholarly article make sure to use
APA in-text citations. See Purdue Owl for examples.
b. Include a references page that lists the APA formatted reference for your
media report (with direct hyperlink) and the scholarly journal article.
3. Submitting your paper
a. Submit your paper to Canvas by the due date.
b. Submit your file as either a word document or pdf.
Truth in the Media Report
Grading Rubrics
Assignment Part 1
Criteria Beginning Approaching Meeting Exceeding
Article Selection
Student does not
choose an article
from the list (0
points)
Student chooses a
media article from the
list but does not find
the correct scholarly
article and/or is
lacking APA
formatted references
(6 points)
Student chooses and
article from the list,
finds the correct
scholarly article but
fails to either attach the
pdf of the article and/or
has errors in the APA
formatted references (8
points)
Student chooses and
article from the list,
attaches the correct
scholarly article, and
provides the correct
APA formatted
references for each
(10 points)
Assignment Part 2
Summary
Student does not
accurately
summarize the
articles, or may
contain plagiarism
and lack of in-text
citations
(10 points)
Student attempts to
summarize both
articles; missing
several important
points; issues with
APA formatting or
writing (15 points)
Student accurately
summarizes both
articles; may be missing
some important points
(25 points)
Student expertly
summarizes both
articles and includes
all relevant
information with
correct in-text APA
citations and no
plagiarism (30 points)
Assignment Part 3
Evaluation
Student does not
accurately
compare/contrast
the two articles;
may contain
plagiarism (10
points)
Student attempts to
compares/contrasts
both articles; missing
several important
points; APA in-text
citation issues (15
points)
Student accurately
compares/contrasts
both articles; may be
missing some important
points; contains APA
in-text citations
(25 points)
Student expertly
compares/contrasts
both articles and
includes all relevant
information and
correct APA in-text
citations (30 points)
Assignment Part 4
Final Project
Student failed to
include many
parts of the report
(0 points)
Student attempted
to complete all parts
of the report
(Assignments
#1-#3), but was
missing some
information and/or
did not address
instructor feedback
(6 points)
Student adequately
completed all parts of
the project
(Assignments #1-#3)
and addressed most
of the instructor
comments on prior
assignments (8
points)
Student accurately
completed all parts
of the project
(Assignments #1-#3)
and addressed any
instructor comments
on prior
assignments
(10 points)
Overall Writing
and APA
formatting &
citations
Many writing errors
that impede
understanding;
lacks APA intext
Some writing errors
that impede
understanding; lacks
APA intext citations
Occasional writing
errors that are minor
and do not impede
understanding;
No writing errors –
paper is easy to read,
and well organized,
includes accurate
Truth in the Media Report
citations and
references (5
points)
and references
and/or has many
errors (10 points)
includes APA intext
citations and
references with minor
errors (15 points)
APA intext citations
and references (20
points)
*If a section is missing then it will receive a 0.