Class Presentation Guidelines

CLASS PRESENTATION GUIDELINES

For the class presentation, you must select a specific issue relating to government or politics that has been the subject of media coverage in the prior two to three weeks. You must research the issue by using at least three “traditional” media sources (newspapers, magazines, or radio or television networks, including their on-line versions) and at least two political “blogs” (ideally two blogs taking different positions on the issue). This is to make sure you have several sources of information on the issue.

The class presentation should be brief (3-5 minutes), and provide the following information:

(1) A general description of the issue (who, what, when, where, why, how)

(2) A summary of the opposing or different views on the issue … how do different political parties, interest groups, etc. line up on the issue?

(3) A brief discussion of ideas and principles from the textbooks or from our class discussions that relate to the issue.

(4) Your opinion on the issue – if you were the Supreme Lawmaker, how would you decide the issue?

(5) The reasons for your opinion.

You are free to add other information as well. The general idea is to share with the class what you’ve discovered about the issue, and your opinions on the issue. You should strive to make your presentation interesting, informative, and clear. Creativity is encouraged.

Along with the presentation, you will need to provide a written list of the sources you used, and, for each, an evaluation of whether you thought the source presented the issue in a neutral or biased manner, and why you came to that conclusion. Internet citations should follow the Columbia Guide to Online Style, available at:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos2006/basic.html.

The presentation will be graded based upon how well it conveys information about the issue in a clear, informative mannner.

RESEARCH HINTS

An excellent resource site that aggregates news stories by issue, and provides links to both on-line media and blogs covering that issue, is http://www.memeorandum.com/. It’s a good place to start for links. A site with a lot of links to opinion pieces is http://www.realclearpolitics.com. You can also find lists of “liberal/left” and “conservative/right” blogs at http://politics.blogniscient.com/.

There are a number of good “traditional media” sites on line, including

The New York Times
The Washington Post
The Economist (an excellent English magazine; unfortunately many of the articles are pay-per view, but some are free)
The Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal

The National Review Online (conservative)

The Nation (liberal)

The local paper (the Press Democrat) has excellent local coverage, and the Sacramento Bee has good coverage of state politics.

I also encourage you to be creative and do internet searches to find your own sites … there are a multitude of them easily locatable with a Google or Yahoo search.