Objectivity: A Sticky Subject

A piece from CJR worth reading: Rethinking Objectivity

Minimalist Film Reviews

The following piece by Jack Shafer of Slate (an online magazine) is required reading for Tuesday, Aug. 1. It's highly relevant to our discussions about both writing reviews and writing for the Internet (because brevity is imperative in cyberspace.)

http://www.slate.com/id/2146393/

The Center-of-the-Universe Justification for Bias, or "It's good to be the Times"

Check out this response given by Gerald Marzorati, assistant managing editor at The New York Times, to a letter questioning the paper's tendency to target itself toward the affluent:

... Yours is ultimately a question (again, like so many posed by readers) about bias –- in this case, a bias toward the rich and their shopping habits. And my answer is, that while I do not think the paper, in its news section, is biased toward liberals, or biased in favor of (or against!) Israel, I do think, in cultural matters –- of which fashion and, more broadly, style, is one expression -- we are biased (in terms of space devoted to coverage, photography, and so on) toward the rich. And the reason we are is that The Times, though not to my mind a simply liberal paper or a pro- or anti-Israeli paper, is an urbane, cosmopolitan paper edited from the world capital of urbanity and cosmopolitanism, Manhattan, which means we are biased in favor of change, possibility, mobility, individual liberty and going to bed late – oh, and the rich, who are rather concentrated among us. So, philosophically, guilty as charged.

(This is an excerpt. See the letter and full response at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/media/asktheeditors.html)

Radio News Podcasts

Students not familiar with the sounds and styles of radio news might want to spend some time listening this week. WAMC, the Capital Region's National Public Radio station, has podcasts online that include hard news, features, interviews and content in other formats. They are available free, in .mp3 format, at the following link:

http://www.wamc.org/podcasts.html

As journalism students, you may want to listen to a little of "The Media Project" as well as the news and features.

Some thoughts on the state of the blogosphere

A link of likely interest to the bloggers among us:

http://www.slate.com/id/2145896/

Assignment 5: Opinion

Not all opinions are created equal; those based on facts, experience and careful reasoning are generally more convincing than those based merely on first impressions or personal tastes. That being said, don't underestimate the potential for style, wit or emotional appeal to bolster an argument.

Choose one of the following two options:

1. Write a persuasive essay explaining and defending your position on any controversial issue in the news this week. You may write the piece in any of several journalistic styles; it may resemble a newspaper editorial, a personal column, a letter to the editor, or any other format commonly seen in the opinion pages of major newspapers (pages sometimes called "Editorial," "Commentary," "Perspectives," "Op/Ed," etc.) If the issue you choose to take on is obscure, you may wish to provide a link to (or clipping of) one or more stories about it for the professor's benefit, but the piece should stand alone so that any reasonably informed reader will be able to follow your argument. Before you start to write your piece, do some reading; see how a range of professional opinion writers craft their arguments. For example, read editorials in the Daily Gazette and The Boston Globe, read columns by George Will and Molly Ivins, read letters to the editor in The New York Times, and observe a few debates by pundits on cable TV news stations such as CNN and MSNBC.

2. Write a review (or a comparable piece of personal commentary) on any new or recent product or performance. Your subject could be a book, a film, a television program, a concert, a video game, a CD, an art exhibit, a consumer product, a play, etc. Be certain to choose a subject about which you are knowledgeable, so the opinion you offer is an informed one. Before you start to write your piece, do some reading; see how a range of professional reviewers write about comparable subjects. For example, if you're going to review a new music CD, read some reviews of other CDs from Rolling Stone, Metroland, the Times Union, the New York Times, National Public Radio, slate.com, and other media outlets.

Whether you choose option 1 or 2, your piece should be the equivalent of 2-3 typed, double-spaced pages. It is due online or in hard copy form at the start of class on Tuesday, July 25.

Open Meetings and Freedom of Information Laws

The following is assigned reading for Thursday, July 20:

Your Right to Know

This is a publication of the New York State Committee on Open Government, and it covers the state's laws on open meetings and access to government records.

Assignment 4

Grammar emergency?

Purdue University has an excellent online writing lab for help with all those dangling participles, comma splices and other grammatical hobgoblins:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Keeping up to date on Porco trial

The Times Union has a running report on the Porco murder case at the following link:

http://www.timesunion.com/specialreports/porco/

And here's a column by TU Editor Rex Smith on the paper's use of multiple platforms to present the coverage:

New Ways to Give You Latest News

Interested in podcasting?

Here's a link to a Poynter story about a newspaper that has offered podcasts of some of its news coverage.

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=101918

Any students interested in experimenting with the podcast format in this course are encouraged to discuss it with me; send an e-mail to ackerink@aol.com .

Change to course calendar

Just a reminder: Assignment 3 is now due on Thursday, July 13. See the previous post for instructions.

Assignment 3

Assignment 3: Analyze a News Story

Write a short essay (1-2 pages) describing and analyzing a news story (hard news or feature) from any textual source in print or online. If posting the essay on your blog, be sure to include the link to the story you’re analyzing. If turning in a hard copy in class, be sure to include the clipping or a photocopy of the story, including the entire text and any accompanying photos or other graphic elements.

In addition to briefly summarizing the content of the story, your essay should address the following questions, but not necessarily in this order:

1. What sort of story is it? A hard news story? Breaking or developing? A feature? A profile? Do you think much research went into it?

2. Does the headline accurately summarize the story? Does it grab the reader’s attention?

3. How many sources (people) are mentioned in the story? How effectively does the writer use quotations? Give an example of at least one quotation and discuss whether it is a good one or not. (See handout from class on quotes.)

4. Do you detect any biases or unfair assumptions in the story? Are there any passages that reveal the writer’s personal opinion?

5. What, if anything, about the piece is especially entertaining or interesting?

6. Does the writer use any unusual stylistic devices that catch your attention? If so, describe them.

7. Does the story leave any key questions unanswered? Are any perspectives ignored that might have been relevant to the story (i.e., is a facet of the story left untold)?

Note: Your essay should not be a mere list of answers to these questions, but a carefully constructed analysis written in the third person.

Your essay is due online by noon on Thursday, July 13, or in hard-copy form at the start of class that evening.

All Aboard

Sandy is now online at http://insomniacgrl.blogspot.com/

If I'm not mistaken, this means the whole class has opted to participate in the great blog experiment. I appreciate your willingness to try something new. As the summer term rolls on, let's be sure to compare notes on how the blog format is treating us.

Have a great Fourth of July, and don't blow off any body parts with those fireworks that your cousin Melvin bought on the side of the road in South Carolina. ;)