How does the article relate to discussions or course materials?

Throughout the semester, you are encouraged to read and assess news reports and urban commentary from a variety of media sources. Reading the news about cities helps you understand the contemporary issues they face and helps think about how the things you learn in this class are relevant in the world around you. To structure this process of critically reading and reflecting on the news, opinions, blog commentary, reports, and podcasts we consume about the city and urban planning, the Urban Media Response assignment requires you to select a news story or opinion piece and summarize the work and critically reflect on the relationship between the story and course materials. Throughout the term, you will produce two of these assignments to help structure your reading and understanding of the media we consume about the city. The written part of assignment should be a maximum of 400 words in length and a minimum of 250 words, although strong responses will be clear, organized around a central idea, and concise.
STEPS:
1. Choose a long news article about urban planning related to the key themes of this course and read it carefully, taking notes on key points. You may need to read a few before selecting the correct article that is long enough to give you enough content to analyze carefully.
2. Summarize the article. To properly summarize:
Identify the type of article it is. For example: Is it and op ed or editorial article with the author’s opinions? Is it a current news article that covers recent events? Is it an investigative new piece that covers a longer and deeper history?
Who is the audience for this article?
Briefly summarize the relevant information contained in the article. For example: What happened? Where is the article about? Who are the main actors discussed? What are the impacts?
3. Analyze the article. To get your started with the analysis, think about the following questions:
Why is this article relevant?
How does the article relate to discussions or course materials?
Are the claims the author is making credible?
How does the article help us understand cities?
4. Include proper bibliographic citation of the article using Chicago citation style. For Information on how to cite properly, scroll down to the “News or Magazine Article” section of this website and follow the examples for “Bibliography Entries”: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html
5. Attach a PDF of the article to your completed assignment at the end.
6. Submit a PDF of your completed assignment.
TIPS TO KEEP IN MIND:
Feel free to select an article about a city or urban landscape anywhere in the world you find interesting, this is a great opportunity to write about geographies that are not otherwise represented in the course.
Select an article that was written in the past year, there are lots of great things being written about cities every week so this should not be too hard.
Selecting a high-quality article is critical to this assignment.
Include a pdf version of the article attached to your assignment.
If you’re having trouble selecting an article, look at the newspaper sources that are used as readings in the class and read other articles that they publish. There is an “Ideas for
Sources” selection below. If you’re not sure if your article is high enough quality, then feel free to ask.
Either use APA or Chicago citation style, in text or footnote format is fine, just be consistent throughout. Be sure to cite articles and video media used from the course when making connections.
IDEAS FOR SOURCES:
The Atlantic City Lab, New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Walrus, Spacing Magazine, City Lab, etc.