Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thoughts on Teaching Agents
I feel so far removed from the possibility of using teaching agents in my classroom that both articles appealed to me mainly as presenting curiosities and future potential. As both articles implied that the prevailing view toward the use of teaching agents is one of skepticism, so too am I unsure of how this would improve student learning. More importantly, many schools are still contending with student populations with little access and less fluency with technology than popularly suggested. This in mind, teaching agents undoubtedly are a part of the future, but I am most interested in what will help this moment. Even if teaching agents were available and my students not plagued with access issues, I still place a premium on face-to-face(s) interaction over mediating communication with an avatar. None of this is to suggest that there are not limited situations in which this would be a good idea, but for the majority of classrooms - even ideal ones - I am not convinced this would represent little more than a repackaging of the old in a novel medium. As I have been taught in technology-related courses in my master's of education, we must check our enthusiasm for new tools with the understanding that new is not always better, and the bottom line must always be how it will improve student learning.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Lesson Plans
Lesson Plan One
Identifying the fifteen basic appeals
Students will need to have spent at least a class period familiarizing themselves with Jib Fowles' fifteen basic appeals, a copy of which may be found here: http://www.cyberpat.com/shirlsite/education/essay2/jfowles.html
The teacher should gather around forty print advertisements from a variety of sources. After identifying the basic appeal(s) used in each ad, the ads should be divided evenly between eight stations. Students should then be split into groups of three or four. Their task is to circulate around the room and reach a consensus within their group as to the basic appeal(s) used in each print ad at each of the stations. Upon conclusion of the task, the class will come back together as a group to discuss discrepancies between what basic appeals each group associated with each ad. In all likelihood, some trends will emerge - e.g. lots of appeals to sex, etcetera - this can serve as a segue into what all this material is communicating to and about the culture in which it is found.
Lesson Plan Two
Journalistic ethics
Students will need to have spend at least a class period familiarizing themselves with the basics of journalistic ethics, e.g. libel, provisions in the constitution, etcetera.
The teacher should procure four or five codes of ethics from major newspapers and magazines. Students will be given time in expert groups to review these codes. The teacher should then hand out four or five ethical dilemma scenarios. Working from their expert groups, students will need to use their assigned code of ethics to determine the ethical line of action. After arriving at consensus, students will reassemble into groups with other students with dissimilar codes of ethics. As a followup discussion, students may consider what sorts of specific guidance for journalists is not legislated and how codes of ethics do or do not fill the void.
Identifying the fifteen basic appeals
Students will need to have spent at least a class period familiarizing themselves with Jib Fowles' fifteen basic appeals, a copy of which may be found here: http://www.cyberpat.com/shirlsite/education/essay2/jfowles.html
The teacher should gather around forty print advertisements from a variety of sources. After identifying the basic appeal(s) used in each ad, the ads should be divided evenly between eight stations. Students should then be split into groups of three or four. Their task is to circulate around the room and reach a consensus within their group as to the basic appeal(s) used in each print ad at each of the stations. Upon conclusion of the task, the class will come back together as a group to discuss discrepancies between what basic appeals each group associated with each ad. In all likelihood, some trends will emerge - e.g. lots of appeals to sex, etcetera - this can serve as a segue into what all this material is communicating to and about the culture in which it is found.
Lesson Plan Two
Journalistic ethics
Students will need to have spend at least a class period familiarizing themselves with the basics of journalistic ethics, e.g. libel, provisions in the constitution, etcetera.
The teacher should procure four or five codes of ethics from major newspapers and magazines. Students will be given time in expert groups to review these codes. The teacher should then hand out four or five ethical dilemma scenarios. Working from their expert groups, students will need to use their assigned code of ethics to determine the ethical line of action. After arriving at consensus, students will reassemble into groups with other students with dissimilar codes of ethics. As a followup discussion, students may consider what sorts of specific guidance for journalists is not legislated and how codes of ethics do or do not fill the void.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Infotainment Assignments
Assignment One
Students will view an episode of an infotainment program. Examples of infotainment include the O’Reilly Factor, the Daily Show, and the Colbert Report. If students do not have cable, episodes of many of these shows are available on Hulu as well as the websites tied to each individual program. Students will choose one of the lead stories and gather coverage from three conventional news sources with which to compare to the infotainment source. Students will search for bias in all sources and make a short, comparative analysis of no less than two pages. Students may want to pay special attention to the framing of the story in each source, as well as the guests brought on to discuss the story. Prior to this assignment, students will need to be familiar with the terms infotainment, lead, bias, and framing.
Rationale: This assignment will have students consider a single story from several different sources, leading to the inevitable conclusion that there is often considerable disparity in how a politicized infotainment source will cover an issue as compared to a conventional news source. Some students may identify bias in the conventional news sources, as surely there exists some there. This can be weaved back into the closing discussion, including consideration of the role of the ombudsman to a conventional news source as well as a traditional journalist’s code of ethics, and what the lack of these elements means for infotainment sources. The ultimate understanding that students will derive from completing this assignment is that infotainment sources are only beneficial insofar as the audience takes the time to be informed on the issues on their own time, drawing from a variety of sources. In short, infotainment should not be relied upon to properly inform.
Assignment Two
Students will break into groups and spend several days preparing for a mock debate on a single current issue – see the teacher for a list of acceptable topics. Each group will have three to four students, one of whom will be the actual debater. The remaining students are charged with researching the issue and preparing short list of debating points. The debate will be staged and conducted in a manner familiar to any student who has taken part in or observed a formal debate. The one difference is that one debater will be allowed to debate with no holds barred – they may use ridicule, humor, irony, and whatever else they see fit in order to make their argument. The opposing debater may only stick with the facts and a sober delivery. It is crucial that both sides stick to the topic of debate and direct their arguments at the issue at hand, never at the opposing person. Any ad hominen attacks will be penalized in terms of points as well as consideration of the winner at the conclusion.
Students will understand the disadvantages an interview subject faces on an infotainment program and gain an intimate understanding of how this ultimately unbalances the debate. Before or after the debate, students will view in class clips of interview subjects and their treatment at the hands of Jon Stewart, Bill O’Reilly, and Keith Olbermann, and compare to their treatment at the hands of Terry Gross, Charlie Rose, and others. Students who complete the assignment will pay keen attention to the treatment of an interview upon which they are relying for credible information, and seek alternate sources when they sense a disadvantageous interview environment.
Students will view an episode of an infotainment program. Examples of infotainment include the O’Reilly Factor, the Daily Show, and the Colbert Report. If students do not have cable, episodes of many of these shows are available on Hulu as well as the websites tied to each individual program. Students will choose one of the lead stories and gather coverage from three conventional news sources with which to compare to the infotainment source. Students will search for bias in all sources and make a short, comparative analysis of no less than two pages. Students may want to pay special attention to the framing of the story in each source, as well as the guests brought on to discuss the story. Prior to this assignment, students will need to be familiar with the terms infotainment, lead, bias, and framing.
Rationale: This assignment will have students consider a single story from several different sources, leading to the inevitable conclusion that there is often considerable disparity in how a politicized infotainment source will cover an issue as compared to a conventional news source. Some students may identify bias in the conventional news sources, as surely there exists some there. This can be weaved back into the closing discussion, including consideration of the role of the ombudsman to a conventional news source as well as a traditional journalist’s code of ethics, and what the lack of these elements means for infotainment sources. The ultimate understanding that students will derive from completing this assignment is that infotainment sources are only beneficial insofar as the audience takes the time to be informed on the issues on their own time, drawing from a variety of sources. In short, infotainment should not be relied upon to properly inform.
Assignment Two
Students will break into groups and spend several days preparing for a mock debate on a single current issue – see the teacher for a list of acceptable topics. Each group will have three to four students, one of whom will be the actual debater. The remaining students are charged with researching the issue and preparing short list of debating points. The debate will be staged and conducted in a manner familiar to any student who has taken part in or observed a formal debate. The one difference is that one debater will be allowed to debate with no holds barred – they may use ridicule, humor, irony, and whatever else they see fit in order to make their argument. The opposing debater may only stick with the facts and a sober delivery. It is crucial that both sides stick to the topic of debate and direct their arguments at the issue at hand, never at the opposing person. Any ad hominen attacks will be penalized in terms of points as well as consideration of the winner at the conclusion.
Students will understand the disadvantages an interview subject faces on an infotainment program and gain an intimate understanding of how this ultimately unbalances the debate. Before or after the debate, students will view in class clips of interview subjects and their treatment at the hands of Jon Stewart, Bill O’Reilly, and Keith Olbermann, and compare to their treatment at the hands of Terry Gross, Charlie Rose, and others. Students who complete the assignment will pay keen attention to the treatment of an interview upon which they are relying for credible information, and seek alternate sources when they sense a disadvantageous interview environment.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Lesson Plan
News Broadcast Storyboard Activity
The following would come toward the middle of a larger unit on journalism. Prior to this, students should have been introduced to the editing process behind putting together a single day’s news program, with some consideration given to the myriad ways in which the end product is shaped and filtered. This activity would be especially effective after the students have logged the local or national news.
Learner Outcomes:
Students will understand the effects of time constraints on news programs and what this means for the final product, i.e. edited and aired broadcast.
Materials:
Five sets of twenty news stories printed on small pieces of paper; each story should include the length of time it will require
Five grids with eighteen blocks, each block representing a minute of broadcast, to represent the eighteen minutes usually afforded to a news program – the remaining twelve minutes, naturally, are given to advertising
Directions:
Students should be broken up into small groups – no larger than three or four to a group. Each group will be given one of the five sets of possible news stories and a grid. Working together to come to a consensus, students must decide which stories to air during the eighteen minutes they are given. While one outcome for this activity is that students will understand the filtering process that raw news goes under as it winds its way to the consumer, the activity may be modified to consider issues of pacing and organization of the stories. Sponsors may be introduced as well as an additional variable to consider in selecting which stories to air. A final possible modification could be to allow students to adjust the length of time for each piece.
The following would come toward the middle of a larger unit on journalism. Prior to this, students should have been introduced to the editing process behind putting together a single day’s news program, with some consideration given to the myriad ways in which the end product is shaped and filtered. This activity would be especially effective after the students have logged the local or national news.
Learner Outcomes:
Students will understand the effects of time constraints on news programs and what this means for the final product, i.e. edited and aired broadcast.
Materials:
Five sets of twenty news stories printed on small pieces of paper; each story should include the length of time it will require
Five grids with eighteen blocks, each block representing a minute of broadcast, to represent the eighteen minutes usually afforded to a news program – the remaining twelve minutes, naturally, are given to advertising
Directions:
Students should be broken up into small groups – no larger than three or four to a group. Each group will be given one of the five sets of possible news stories and a grid. Working together to come to a consensus, students must decide which stories to air during the eighteen minutes they are given. While one outcome for this activity is that students will understand the filtering process that raw news goes under as it winds its way to the consumer, the activity may be modified to consider issues of pacing and organization of the stories. Sponsors may be introduced as well as an additional variable to consider in selecting which stories to air. A final possible modification could be to allow students to adjust the length of time for each piece.
Logging the News
1:00
Lead: Denny Hecker raids: cut to correspondent, interviews
2:00
Denny Hecker raids continued: two more interviews, cut to correspondent
3:00
Cut back to desk, online coverage of Denny Hecker raids; Peeping Tom story, brief interview; back to desk, engineering professor’s death
4:00
Engineering professor’s death continued: interview; H1N1 victims in Minnesota
5:00
Leads: thief robs church, school bus arson, tornadoes; ads: Pawn America
6:00
Pawn America, Herberger’s, Fleet Farm
7:00
Travel Wisconsin, Herberger’s, Mercury
8:00
Back to news desk: tornadoes, correspondent, pictures, back to desk
9:00
Pictures of tornadoes; school bus arson, interview
10:00
School bus arson continued, pictures; church robbery, in-house correspondent, interview
11:00
Church robbery continued
12:00
Church robbery continued; back to in-house correspondent; back to desk; drunk driving crash; price of jail time, plan to charge inmates daily fee
13:00
Mayo clinic at the Mall of America, footage; shuttle mission aborted, footage
14:00
Weather: severe weather, tornadoes in southern Minnesota
15:00
Weather continued, temperatures, current conditions
16:00
Weather continued, forecast, satellite, tomorrow’s weather
17:00
Weather continued, forecast; return to desk; lead: sports, Vikings
18:00
Ads: Nightline, Dairy Queen, Hom, Do
19:00
Do, JC Penny, Alltel
20:00
Sleep Express/Hom, Men’s Warehouse
21:00
Coit; back to desk, sports, Brett Favre, state of Vikings address
22:00
Sports continued, Twins
23:00
Sports continued, “Twins Insider,” Timberwolves
24:00
Ads: Menards, Slumberland
25:00
Arby’s, Hyundai
26:00
Marshall’s, Qwest
27:00
Spire, Slumberland, back to desk, lottery numbers
28:00
Weather: severe. End broadcast
This news broadcast made frequent use of teasers, both at the top of the show, as well as before commercial breaks, in order to entice portions of the audience into remaining on that channel. I had my media class do this same activity this spring. One thing that we noticed as a class, and I saw it again here, was that the teasers are always in reverse order of how they will appear on the program. This is doubtlessly designed in order to hold the audience for the longest possible time. Major stories followed a predictable pattern in which the story began at the news desk, was bounced to a correspondent in the field, who then brought additional images and interviews. At the conclusion of each story, this folded back into itself, as the viewer is brought first back to the correspondent, then back to the news desk. This gives a sense of layers of information, each step out taking the viewer one step closer to the story. I found it interesting that the anchors played up the church robbery the way they did, obviously playing on the additional outrage implied being that the target of the robbery was the church. One thing that struck me was the lack of banter between the anchors. When I logged the news with my juniors and seniors, we recorded over a full minute of banter. Time was perhaps cut short due to the extra attention afforded the tornadoes in southern Minnesota.
Lead: Denny Hecker raids: cut to correspondent, interviews
2:00
Denny Hecker raids continued: two more interviews, cut to correspondent
3:00
Cut back to desk, online coverage of Denny Hecker raids; Peeping Tom story, brief interview; back to desk, engineering professor’s death
4:00
Engineering professor’s death continued: interview; H1N1 victims in Minnesota
5:00
Leads: thief robs church, school bus arson, tornadoes; ads: Pawn America
6:00
Pawn America, Herberger’s, Fleet Farm
7:00
Travel Wisconsin, Herberger’s, Mercury
8:00
Back to news desk: tornadoes, correspondent, pictures, back to desk
9:00
Pictures of tornadoes; school bus arson, interview
10:00
School bus arson continued, pictures; church robbery, in-house correspondent, interview
11:00
Church robbery continued
12:00
Church robbery continued; back to in-house correspondent; back to desk; drunk driving crash; price of jail time, plan to charge inmates daily fee
13:00
Mayo clinic at the Mall of America, footage; shuttle mission aborted, footage
14:00
Weather: severe weather, tornadoes in southern Minnesota
15:00
Weather continued, temperatures, current conditions
16:00
Weather continued, forecast, satellite, tomorrow’s weather
17:00
Weather continued, forecast; return to desk; lead: sports, Vikings
18:00
Ads: Nightline, Dairy Queen, Hom, Do
19:00
Do, JC Penny, Alltel
20:00
Sleep Express/Hom, Men’s Warehouse
21:00
Coit; back to desk, sports, Brett Favre, state of Vikings address
22:00
Sports continued, Twins
23:00
Sports continued, “Twins Insider,” Timberwolves
24:00
Ads: Menards, Slumberland
25:00
Arby’s, Hyundai
26:00
Marshall’s, Qwest
27:00
Spire, Slumberland, back to desk, lottery numbers
28:00
Weather: severe. End broadcast
This news broadcast made frequent use of teasers, both at the top of the show, as well as before commercial breaks, in order to entice portions of the audience into remaining on that channel. I had my media class do this same activity this spring. One thing that we noticed as a class, and I saw it again here, was that the teasers are always in reverse order of how they will appear on the program. This is doubtlessly designed in order to hold the audience for the longest possible time. Major stories followed a predictable pattern in which the story began at the news desk, was bounced to a correspondent in the field, who then brought additional images and interviews. At the conclusion of each story, this folded back into itself, as the viewer is brought first back to the correspondent, then back to the news desk. This gives a sense of layers of information, each step out taking the viewer one step closer to the story. I found it interesting that the anchors played up the church robbery the way they did, obviously playing on the additional outrage implied being that the target of the robbery was the church. One thing that struck me was the lack of banter between the anchors. When I logged the news with my juniors and seniors, we recorded over a full minute of banter. Time was perhaps cut short due to the extra attention afforded the tornadoes in southern Minnesota.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Media Representations of Protests
Portrayals of public protest in the media - speaking specifically here of the press - has interested me since coming across the book Culture Jam in high school, authored by Kalle Lasn, the founder of AdBusters. Toward the end of his book, Lasn offers some strategies for successful protest, including guidelines for ensuring the protest is framed in a manner sympathetic to the protest's goals. Below, I provide a passage from this section:
“When a reporter asks, ‘What are you protesting against, exactly?’ you answer: ‘Please, let’s get something straight right off the top. We’re not protesters. We’re citizens of this city…’ […] The reporter who had practically written her story in advance (‘…insert inflammatory quote from protester here…’) now has that word ‘protester’ yanked out from under her.”
Lasn is speaking here of reframing the narrative for the inquiring journalist. Of course, if there is need for reframing, then there must be a preexisting frame or mindset that most journalists bring to their coverage of a protest. It has been my experience - and a quick Google News image search backs this up nicely - that protests are mainly covered for the spectacle, the car-crash surreality of hundreds or possibly thousands of people turning up to decry or to lend their support to this or that cause. One of the most iconic and repeated photograph to take at a protest is the long shot between the phalanx of riot-geared police officers and the jagged lines of protesters. This and other shots usually taken at protests reinforce conceptions of protests as adversarial, rather than demonstrative events. The sober, stoic police pitted against the crazed, futile vitriol of fringe elements of society.
Naturally, there is the fact that photographs do not lie - Photoshop excepted - and that protests are portrayed as violent, unscripted, and disorganized because they in fact are. What, then, of the protests that turn out peacefully? One can imagine there is not much of a storyline to be had there. Successful protests that do not offer an adversarial storyline are not any more likely to be covered by journalists than most other bits of good news that go unaired year after year. This effect should be familiar to anyone who has heard talk about the over-reporting of violent crime on the evening news. Bad news is good news, good news is no news.
What this coverage means for the effectiveness of protest as well as peoples' views on protest is plain to see. Protests are seen as disorganized, lacking a coherent voice, and generally attended by young, glory-seeking rabble rousers. Again, this is certainly the case for some protests, but by no means do all protests fit this description, and those protests that do not frequently go uncovered by the press.
For my outside source, I came across an article in the June 2001 edition of the journal, Social Forces. As explained in the title of the article, the authors were concerned with "description bias in media coverage of protest events in Washington, D.C." Among other findings, the article authors discovered that media coverage of protests tends to be episodic (covering the protest as an event) rather than thematic (covering the issue the protest is trying to bring to light). What follows is an excerpt from their findings: “Thus, social movement actors engaging in protests as a means of attracting media coverage to their grievances ideally seek thematic framing of the reports on their protests, since social movement aims are best served by coverage that addresses the underlying structural sources of the problems they target. However, the majority of news coverage of protests is episodic or, at best, represents some mixture of episodic and thematic framing” (Smith, McCarthy, McPhail, and Augustyn 1417). This is in agreement with my initial observation that protests are generally covered for the spectacle, not for the issue.
While what is at issue here is generally an under-representation of positive protests, there is also the issue of framing, or what to focus on in covering a protest. On both counts, the media has only an incomplete picture to convey. As always seems to be the case in considering the mass media, what is most interesting is what is left unsaid.
“When a reporter asks, ‘What are you protesting against, exactly?’ you answer: ‘Please, let’s get something straight right off the top. We’re not protesters. We’re citizens of this city…’ […] The reporter who had practically written her story in advance (‘…insert inflammatory quote from protester here…’) now has that word ‘protester’ yanked out from under her.”
Lasn is speaking here of reframing the narrative for the inquiring journalist. Of course, if there is need for reframing, then there must be a preexisting frame or mindset that most journalists bring to their coverage of a protest. It has been my experience - and a quick Google News image search backs this up nicely - that protests are mainly covered for the spectacle, the car-crash surreality of hundreds or possibly thousands of people turning up to decry or to lend their support to this or that cause. One of the most iconic and repeated photograph to take at a protest is the long shot between the phalanx of riot-geared police officers and the jagged lines of protesters. This and other shots usually taken at protests reinforce conceptions of protests as adversarial, rather than demonstrative events. The sober, stoic police pitted against the crazed, futile vitriol of fringe elements of society.
Naturally, there is the fact that photographs do not lie - Photoshop excepted - and that protests are portrayed as violent, unscripted, and disorganized because they in fact are. What, then, of the protests that turn out peacefully? One can imagine there is not much of a storyline to be had there. Successful protests that do not offer an adversarial storyline are not any more likely to be covered by journalists than most other bits of good news that go unaired year after year. This effect should be familiar to anyone who has heard talk about the over-reporting of violent crime on the evening news. Bad news is good news, good news is no news.
What this coverage means for the effectiveness of protest as well as peoples' views on protest is plain to see. Protests are seen as disorganized, lacking a coherent voice, and generally attended by young, glory-seeking rabble rousers. Again, this is certainly the case for some protests, but by no means do all protests fit this description, and those protests that do not frequently go uncovered by the press.
For my outside source, I came across an article in the June 2001 edition of the journal, Social Forces. As explained in the title of the article, the authors were concerned with "description bias in media coverage of protest events in Washington, D.C." Among other findings, the article authors discovered that media coverage of protests tends to be episodic (covering the protest as an event) rather than thematic (covering the issue the protest is trying to bring to light). What follows is an excerpt from their findings: “Thus, social movement actors engaging in protests as a means of attracting media coverage to their grievances ideally seek thematic framing of the reports on their protests, since social movement aims are best served by coverage that addresses the underlying structural sources of the problems they target. However, the majority of news coverage of protests is episodic or, at best, represents some mixture of episodic and thematic framing” (Smith, McCarthy, McPhail, and Augustyn 1417). This is in agreement with my initial observation that protests are generally covered for the spectacle, not for the issue.
While what is at issue here is generally an under-representation of positive protests, there is also the issue of framing, or what to focus on in covering a protest. On both counts, the media has only an incomplete picture to convey. As always seems to be the case in considering the mass media, what is most interesting is what is left unsaid.
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