Assignment 1 – News Article Evaluation
Worth 10% – Due date 12th April
Overview
This assignment will focus on the coverage of stories related to evolutionary biology in the
popular media.
You need to find a total of four different news stories that cover four different scientific
discoveries that are related to evolution, and comply to the following rules:
• Do NOT use news outlets that specialise in science reports such as Evolution News,
Science Daily, The Conversation, or Science.com.
• You MUST use the following news outlets to find your stories, as these represent
mainstream outlets that are available to most of the population: Sydney Morning Herald,
The Economist, USA Today, Time Magazine, The Guardian, Washington Post, The
Telegraph (UK), The Daily Mail, BBC, CNN, NBC News, ABC (news online, Australia).
• The news story must also have been published after 1st June 2018.
These rules are important, you will not be awarded any marks for news stories that do not
comply with these rules. PLEASE CHECK CAREFULLY.
PART 1
You need to complete Table 1 (at the end of this document) providing the relevant details of the
four news stories that you have found
PART 2
You then have to report back in greater detail on just two of the news stories as described in
the below.
Identify which story you are discussing and then for each one:
1. write a 200 word description of the contents of the scientific paper and their main
conclusion/s. (Ensure that you do not copy the abstract of the article).
2. Write a 50 word description of the concept from evolutionary biology that the scientific
article helps to illustrate.
3. Rate the accuracy of the news story out of 10, in terms of how it reflects the scientific
paper on which it was based, and justify your rating in no more than 200 words.
The point of the assignment is to explore the real science behind the media stories, and identify
an evolutionary concept in them. DO NOT SHARE ARTICLES WITH EACH OTHER. Part of the
assignment is your ability to find articles yourself. It is important that you can identify and briefly
discuss the evolutionary concept of an article.
There are lots of medical articles out there, or articles about conservation, but it is often difficult
to identify a clear evolutionary concept within such stories. I am marking you on your ability to
identify an evolutionary concept.
I will not respond to anyone asking me to tell them whether an article is suitable. That is
your call and part of the assignment.
The purpose of the assessment is to:
• identify new stories that have an evolutionary concept
• conduct some simple research to get back to the peer-reviewed article underlying the
story, and cite it correctly (using Harvard style)
• evaluate that science and the media article portraying it
Once you have found a story, you should be able to trace back to the peer-reviewed article that
is the focus of the news report.
Even in the most dummed-down articles they will mention either the name of the scientist, the
university the work was done at, or perhaps the journal it was published in. That should enable
you to track down the paper. This can often be done through google scholar but more formally
is done through Scopus or ISI Web of Science.
Please note that some media stories are not focused on work that is actually published in the
peer-reviewed literature. In that case you have to find another story.
The assignment is to be submitted through iLearn and Turnitin. As usual the assignment must
be written in your own words. The assignment is due to be submitted online before 11.59pm on
12th April 2019. There will be a 5% penalty per day over the due date.
Table 1. Format of Table for compiling the details of the papers that you find. You will need to
redraw this table and potentially change column sizes etc to fit in the required information
| Source publication | URL of news story | Title of news story | Reference for the original scientific article on which the news story is based (use Harvard format) |
| 1. | |||
| 2. | |||
| 3. | |||
| 4. |
Breakdown of marking
Finding and reporting four news stories (2 marks)
Review of two of the news stories and underlying science (4 marks for each one). These marks
will be awarded for the way in which you have covered the three numbered sections identified
above (at the beginning of the section describing PART 2).