ABSTRACT
The out-of-class assignment that helps students discover for themselves the extent to which environmental and animal protection issues are addressed in the mainstream news media, as a way to explore media agenda setting and news construction and framing. It may result in a critique of agenda setting priorities in cases where important environmental issues are being ignored or marginalized by trivial topics or solely anthropocentric concerns. Students' findings will vary based on the news cycle at the time. In cases where an environmental story dominates the news cycle, instructors could discuss the need for variety/diversity in stories across a wide spectrum of issues. The chapter describes the assignment instructions for students: news media topic selection and news story construction and framing. The assignment also serves as an opportunity to debate what counts as "environmental" as well as how environmental and animal protection angles could factor into many existing news stories where they are currently left out.
