Analyze and Share Course-Relevant Media Segment with Quantitative Content

Analyze and Share Course-Relevant Media Segment with Quantitative Content (Worth Up to 3 Points)

The purpose of this assignment is for you to increase your awareness of quantitative information presented in the mass media regarding personal finance. The assignment has four parts. First, you will find an appropriate “segment” in the mass media. Second, you will identify and discuss the role of quantitative concepts or calculations in the segment. Third, you will comment on the relevance of the segment, including its quantitative aspects, to your life and/or society. Fourth, you will share the segment and your comments with your classmates via the DISCUSSION course tool.

Step 1: Finding an Appropriate Information Segment

Quantitative information germane to personal finance takes many forms, ranging from simple percentages (e.g., a change in the Consumer Price Index) to more complex relationships (e.g., a stock’s price-to-earnings ratio or the 200-day moving average of the S&P 500 stock index). To be quantitative, information simply needs to be numeric. You can find media segments appropriate for this assignment in newspapers like the Desert News, Salt Lake Tribune, Wall Street Journal; magazines like Money, The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek, or Kiplinger’s Personal Finance; general television and radio news shows or specialized shows on finance, like Nightly Business Report or NPR’s Planet Money; or web sites such as Yahoo! Finance, CNNMoney.com or The Motley Fool. You might even find this information in television shows like The Colbert Report or The Daily Show. The purpose of this assignment is to help you notice the quantitative information in the mass media. So, step one is to find an appropriate article that you find interesting.

Step 2: Discussing the Role of Quantitative Information

Briefly summarize the most important ideas communicated in the news segment, with special attention to one or more quantitative aspects of the segment, and comment on the quantitative information. In your comment, consider addressing questions like these: Is the quantitative information easy or difficult to understand? What are the advantages of communicating information quantitatively, and what are any disadvantages? What additional quantitative information, if any, would you have liked to see in the segment? This section of your paper should be 1-2 paragraphs in length.

Step 3: Exploring the Relevance of Quantitative Information

Briefly comment on the personal or societal relevance of the quantitative information you identified. In particular, has the information changed your attitudes, motivation, beliefs, or intended behavior to any extent? In what ways, if any, has the information helped you see your community, country, or world? This section of your paper should be 1 paragraph in length.

Step 4: Sharing Your Assignment

You will submit your assignment via the DISCUSSIONS course tool by attaching your paper. In addition, for the instructor and your classmates to understand and appreciate your observations, it is necessary that you make available the original media segment on which you are commenting. You can accomplish this through by attaching a PDF of the segment, providing a web link, cutting-and-pasting the article into your assignment, and any other method that makes sense given the nature of your media segment. In summary, your assignment will typically involve two attachments or one attachment and a web link.

Your assignment will not be graded on your grammar unless poor grammar detracts from the clarity of your comments. Personally, I think it is important to strive for high quality in your writing in all situations