Your assignment is to write a research essay that responds in some way to Censored 2018: Press Freedoms in a "Post-Truth" World

Here are some possibilities:

Choose one of the articles and research the subject yourself to see if it was fairly researched here the first time. What are they relying on as solid information or a good source and do you agree that this is a good source? Why? Do you think the writers of the book have misrepresented the story in any way? Is it truly not receiving the attention it should be receiving nationally and if not, why not?

Choose the article that you think represents the biggest threat to democracy and research it further, explains why and making connections between this story and stories that have been reported on or are getting more press. For example, connect the article about voter suppression in the 2016 election to other problems like gerrymandering that insure that some people's votes count less than others.

Write and research your own candidate for Censored 2019: go digging and find a story that you think is not getting enough attention on the national stage, and write about why you think its very important and why you think it is not currently getting enough attention. Take a look at the kinds of places that did report the stories in Censored 2018 and see what else is happening that you wouldn't hear about it you only watched the news and read the headlines.

You will need to do three smaller assignments as well, though this is the place to turn in the essay:

a topic proposal for this essay that states what you intend to write about and gives your initial thoughts about how you intend to research it.

a documentation exercise aimed at helping you understand and master MLA style academic documentation

and an annotated bibliography that is designed to help you get evaluate your research and strengthen your sources as well as working on documentation. Materials will be provided in the modules to help you with these assignments.