Preparation for the media assignment about "Mister Pip" by Lloyd Jones:

Research the civil war in Bougainville. Use a wide variety of media sources including video, print, internet. Maintain good notes from your research, including direct quotes that you may be interested in using for your media assignment and source information.
View the documentary The Coconut Revolution. The documentary can be viewed on Youtube. Consider the source when viewing this documentary. What can you find out about who made the film? How might this documentary differ if the mining company funded the creation of it?

Research feature articles and their use in the media. What different types of feature articles are there? What is the difference between a feature article and a regular news story? You might start here for some information on feature articles

Feature Article Writing Using your research about Bougainville and the civil war there, and your knowledge of the novel Mister Pip, complete the following.

PART A

Prepare a feature article about the war in Bougainville using the characters and events in Mister Pip as the focus of the article. Keep the article focused on the war and the effects of the war on the people of the island. Use the events and the character dialogue from the novel within your article to add interest and human perspective. Be sure to make your article interesting and informative, while at the same time offering entertainment value through its storytelling and creativity. A feature article should be as much about creative writing as it is about investigative news. Your article must have a strong angle and an interesting story to encourage the readers to read on

PART B

There are always at least three sides to any story - one side, the other side, and the side of the truth. Media - be it radio, television, or print, is a powerful tool that always presents a viewpoint, even though it may claim to be objective. Keeping this in mind, your task is to create media items from two different perspectives - from either side of the war in Bougainville. You have creative reign in your formatting - create a propaganda poster and a script for a radio broadcast or brief newscast. The only stipulation is that you choose two different formats for your two different viewpoints, and that one of them is either audio (transcript) or visual (poster).