Journalism 50: In-Class Exercise

In the past week or so, U.S. fighter jets have shot down several airborne objects over the North American continent, including one identified as a spy balloon from China. Government officials have been tight-lipped about what some of the objects might be, but online sites have been abuzz with speculation.

Your assignment is not to try to figure out what the objects are. As a group, find five online articles about this topic from five different sites – at least one traditional news site, one non-traditional site and one blog or discussion site. As a group, you should try to find five very different sites with different approaches if you can – it should make things more interesting.

For each of these five articles:

Include the headline, name of site and URL
As a group, rank the articles from what you believe to be most credible to least credible.
Write 3-4 sentences about each piece, summarizing it and telling why you collectively believe it is credible or not.

Each story's writeup should look more or less like this sample:

1. "Does a gas pump hose really cost $3,700 to replace?", San Jose Mercury News
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/02/12/does-a-gas-pump-hose-really-cost-3700-to-replace-roadshow/

This article looks at how a reader got a bill from a gas station for $3700 when his wife drove off with the
gas nozzle still in the tank. The writer says that he has heard from other people who were charged much
less for the same issue, and he suggests going back to the station manager to see the bill. It seems credible
because the writer has specific examples of prices that other readers have had to pay in the same situation.
The writer also covers this type of topic regularly on the Mercury News website.

Work together on selecting articles and deciding on what to write about each article. Have one person within your group type it up and email it to me by the end of class with everyone's name on it.

You may talk freely amongst your group to do this. I will be available to answer questions.