1.  Where do you get your news? Do you read a newspaper or news magazine regularly? Do you think you should? Are you more interested in local, state, national, or international news? Which has more impact on your daily life?

2.  The U.S. government was highly criticized for restricting media coverage of the Persian Gulf War. In the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, reporters were “embedded” with U.S. troops, yet the press was forbidden under the George W. Bush administration to photograph coffins of personnel killed in action. (This ban was lifted in 2009 under the Obama administration.) Can we have a free press in war time? What problems and benefits do you see with allowing the press to cover whatever they want in a war zone?

3.  To what extent are the media biased? Has the increase in the number and availability of news sources led to more or less bias in the media?  What impact might the Internet have on American politics?

4.  What is media concentration? Is it a serious problem? Why or why not?