Find a major incident of an ongoing issue and compare the coverage of the incident by the different media over a period of time.

the present continuous is a verb tense which is mainly used to indicates that an action is in progress at the moment of speaking.  

it is formed using: person + verb to be (am/is/are) +verb + - ing form  

example: i am studying at this moment .

in addition, the present continuous is also used in order to express things that will or will not happen in the near future.

example: i am having dinner with some friends tonight.

the speaker sometimes   uses it   to express that an action is repeated and it causes irritation on the part of the speaker

example: my sister is constantly complaining about everything.

what excerpt? i would generally think a.

a. to introduce the audience to important characters .

b. to inform the audience where the story takes place .

e. to lay out specific details about different plot points.