This is an example of a NewsFrames Exploration Outline (for in-depth information about the NewsFrames exploration process, look at this section.

Our example outline has several parts:

Think of an interesting topic

We are interested in exploring the term “teens” – How are teens being represented in the media? Is there a difference between the representation of teens, youth or adolescents?

Brainstorm search terms and do some some

In this case, we have brainstormed these terms: youth; teens; adolescents; Youth AND teens AND adolescents; Youth AND Teens; Teens AND Adolescents.

Next, we'll use Explorer to explore media searches and document your results.

Create an outline

You create your outline after doing some research and thinking. To help you reach the outline-writing stage, here is a step-by-step process for creating an outline and then writing your first draft:

NewsFrames Story Outline:

Step 1) Write 1-2 sentences explaining the main point of the story.

Think about the information you found in your search. What themes or ideas are you going to write about? Write 1-2 sentences explaining the main point of the story.

EXAMPLE: In this first story in our new WordFrames series, we explore media conversations about teens and examine whether or not the coverage around these topics varied in comparison to other terms like adolescent and youth.

How is the media framing issues around young people and does that framing have any effect on the way we think about teenagers?

*Tip: It never hurts to discuss your idea with someone on the NewsFrames team.

Step 2) Think about the NewsFrames story type that you want to write.

In this case, we're going to use the ‘WordFrames’ story type. Someone on the NewsFrames team can help you figure out which article is right for you.

Step 3) Think about the length of the post (i.e. How many words long?)

It will take about 1200-1500 words to cover this material.

Step 4) List the queries you are planning to use. Summarize the data insight you see in each query:

Query 1: https://dashboard.mediacloud.org/#query/[“teen*”,”adolescent”,”youth”]/[{“sets”:[9272347]},{“sets”:[9272347]},{“sets”:[9272347]}]/[“2017-07-01″,”2017-07-01″,”2017-07-01″]/[“2018-02-07″,”2018-02-07″,”2018-02-07″]/[{“uid”:4,”name”:”teen*”,”color”:”e14c11″},{“uid”:5,”name”:”adolescent”,”color”:”a65628″},{“uid”:6,”name”:”youth”,”color”:”1c4554″}]

The keywords used to reference “Adolescent and Youth and Teen” have a common thread that links them which are words with relatively negative connotations like abuse, suicide and crimes.

Whereas the keywords associated with Adolescent seem basically neutral or academic in tone and the keywords associated with Youth also seem neutral or reference civic engagement.

*Tip: Once again, it never hurts to get some insights from someone on the NewsFrames team.

Query 2: https://dashboard.mediacloud.org/#query/[“teen*”]/[{“sets”:[9272347]}]/[“2017-09-01″]/[“2017-10-01″]/[{“uid”:3,”name”:”teen*”,”color”:”e14c11″}] — this has the time article,

https://cloud.globalvoices.org/index.php/f/85350

The search for teen brings up keywords with relatively negative connotations across the board. The articles about these keywords reference a general sensation of either a fear for teens or a fear for teens which is a strange/interesting trend.

Step 4) Begin story outline:

What are the main paragraphs going to be about? Follow this link to see what an example outline looks like:

Introduction:

What do you think when you hear the word teen? For many people, teens are a complete mystery. It is an age group that is often talked about and frequently misunderstood, especially by those of us who are no longer teens.

In this first story in our new WordFrames series, we explore media conversations about teens and examine whether or not the coverage around these topics varied in comparison to other terms like adolescent and youth. How is the media framing issues around young people and does that framing have any effect on the way we think about teenagers?

By paragraph: analyze word clouds

You'll have several word clouds to analyze, so an effective outline would be analyzing them one by one. For example:

• Analysis of Teen Word Cloud and teen article examples.
• Youth AND Teen Word Cloud; Adolescent AND Teen Word Cloud
• Analysis of Youth AND Teen Word Cloud with youth article examples
• Analysis of Adolescent AND Teen Word Cloud with adolescent article examples

What are your conclusions?

You'll want to wind up with an overall analysis and conclusion, which includes, for example, general observations about the differences and similarities between the use of the word teens.

Step 5) Send to an editor for review

Once you've finished the first draft, send to an editor for review. For more in-depth information about the NewsFrames exploration process follow this link).

Got Questions?

As always, if you have any questions, contact NewsFrames on Slack. If you aren't set up with Slack yet, use the contact form and one of us will get back to you to help you out.