Department of Philosophy.
Theories of Justice
Length: 300 words.
Referencing: You can use any major system of referencing you wish (e.g. Harvard, Chicago, etc.), as long as you do so consistently.
Aim: The aim of the Justice in the News assessment item is to get you to start connecting some of the theories of justice we will look at in the

unit with real-world justice issues. This should help you to connect theory with practice.
Task: Find a news story which raises a justice issue that interests you. Some justice issues include: Poverty, income inequality, refugees,

punishment, treatment of minorities, climate change, war, treatment of animals, feminism, worker’s rights, etc. Provide a reference to the new

story you find. Then in 300 words critically analyse the new story by answering the following questions. Write in paragraphs. Include a word

count at the end.
• What justice issue or issues are raised? What does the article say about it? • How does the article deal with the justice issues? Does it take

a stand on them? • What claims or arguments are made? Are those claims or arguments plausible? • Are there any problems with the article? • Does

the article relate to any of the theories of justice we are looking at in the unit?
Important Note: you should use these questions to guide and structure your analysis of the article. You do not necessarily have to answer each

and every question or answer them in order. Do NOT structure your response in a question and answer format. Use these question to guide your

response. Write in paragraphs.
An example is given on the next page.

Example Response:

Page 2 of 2
Reference:
Jana Kasperkevic (27 November, 2015). Who are the Walmart workers protesting this Black Friday? The Guradian. Retrieved from:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/nov/27/black-friday-protest-walmartemployees.
Analysis:
This article profiles some Walmart workers protesting the 2015 Black Friday sales in the US. The workers are protesting about low wages. They

are demanding a “living wage” of $15 an hour and full-time schedules. Walmart claims that it is investing enough in wages and training for

workers. All of the workers profiled are women and most earn less than $10 an hour. They struggle to live a decent life on their wages, despite

working hard.
This article raises a number of important justice issues, such as income inequality, the importance of ensuring a social minimum for all

citizens (including lowly paid workers) so that everyone can live a decent life, as well as sexual inequality and the fact that women tend to

more often occupy low paying and insecure positions because of unpaid caring responsibilities. This relates to a number of topics we will look

at the unit, including: feminism and justice, the social minimum conception of justice, and the link between effort and reward.
The article does not itself take a stand on the issues raised by the women. Instead it adds a number of profiles to give context to the protests

so that we can get a better idea of what life is actually like for the women living on low wages.
An important weakness in the article is that it fails to investigate Walmart’s response that it is paying workers enough. Does Walmart’s really

pay its full-time workers $13 an hour on average? Is this average skewed by a few highly paid executives? What is the median per hour rate? And

what about part-time workers? Providing this extra context would help the reader to assess how representative the workers profiled are of the

average Walmart worker.
Word count (not including reference): 290 words.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR PROMOTIONAL DISCOUNT DISPLAYED ON THE WEBSITE AND GET A DISCOUNT FOR YOUR PAPER NOW!