Review and share your news source

In this assignment you will reflect on recent news articles related to your career community that you have seen in the professional news source you chose to follow, and choose one of those articles to summarize for discussion.

Read this first

Amy Mitchell, Mark Jurkowitz, J. Baxter Oliphant And Elisa Shearer, "Americans Who Mainly Get Their News on Social Media Are Less Engaged, Less Knowledgeable," Pew Research Center (July 30, 2020).

Complete these steps

1. Review the recent news.  Look back through the previous days or weeks of coverage in your chosen professional news source to get a sense of what the most popular issues have been recently.  Determine which themes that are coming up again and again: new technological developments?  international trade and exchange? environmental issues?  questions over new consumer trends?  diversity and inclusion concerns?  individual profiles of entrepreneurs?  etc.  Write one full paragraph describing the two most common areas of reporting that you are seeing right now, broadly related to your career community -- and for each area, suggest why you think that topic is so newsworthy right now.

2. Analyze one particular story.  Now choose one particular article to focus on, that you find intriguing or especially important.  This article doesn't have to be precisely related to your major or the field you're interested in, but it should be relevant to the kind of work you could imagine yourself doing after college.  Look for an article that is more than just a brief report like "this happened today" or "this person said that" -- instead, try to find an investigative or analytical article that is a bit longer and has a bit more depth.  Summarize this news article in a detailed paragraph, as if you were explaining it to a coworker.  Make sure to indicate why you find this article interesting or noteworthy of comment -- how can knowing this information help you in your chosen field?

3. Turn it in.  Upload your two-paragraph essay to Canvas to get credit for this assignment.  If the article you found was online, include a link to the article in your essay.

4. Share with your classmates.  Finally, find your discussion section text board in the Discussions area of the website.  Look for a posting by your TA entitled something like "Post your news reviews here."  Now share your two-paragraph essay as a "Reply" under this posting, so other students can get a sense of what you've been reading about.  Make sure to check out the other student replies as well -- are similar themes coming up for them?

Notes on this assignment

• Following the news of your career field can be a powerful tool in a summer job or internship -- it demonstrates to your supervisor and coworkers that you're interested in the field, and you can use your knowledge of recent news stories to open up interesting conversations with colleagues in order to get to know them better.
• An awareness of the news in your career field is also a powerful tool for demonstrating your enthusiasm and interest in a job during an interview.

To learn more

• Keep reading (and listening to, and watching) the news!