COM 209: Highest office(s) in the land

We'll pause today in the leadup to next year's presidential race in order to take a look at coverage in The Chicago Tribune of the election for the highest office in the land -- mayor of Chicago -- and the second highest -- seats on Chicago City Council.

Mayor Richard Daley won. That was expected. Here's a link to the Trib's story on the mayoral race. Read the first few grafs and ask yourself, "How much of this could have been written a long time before the votes were counted?" Best answer: Most of it. I'd guess it was written over the weekend. Look at the paragraph that begins, "Daley's victory came despite an ongoing federal investigation into City Hall contracting and hiring fraud ..." I'll bet that's where the "B matter," or previously written background, began.

[Stories like this are sometimes called "Lede to Come" stories, i.e. they're written so they start in the middle with the lede to come later. It's abbreviated "LTK," by the way because newspaper people have notoriously bad handwriting and "C" could like like just about anything.]

Here's another "LTK" story, concerning 42nd Ward Ald. Burton Natarus, who lost his re-election bid last night. Here's the lede, by Rick Pearson and David Kidwell. Pearson, BTW, is the Trib's top political writer:

After 35 years and nine consecutive victories, Ald. Burton Natarus was defeated Tuesday by challenger Brendan Reilly in a contest that measured whether downtown's 42nd Ward had grown tired of the colorful antics of the City Council mainstay.

With 97 percent of the precincts counted, unofficial results showed Reilly with 55 percent of the vote to Natarus' 45 percent.

Reilly claimed victory.

"We're thrilled with the results, and I'm looking forward to working with Mayor Daley to make downtown Chicago an even greater place to live and work," Reilly said.

But Natarus wasn't conceding the race. Supporters greeted the alderman at the Bella Lounge on North State Street with two minutes of raucous applause. Instead of election results, TV screens showed a PBS underwater documentary.

"I concede nothing," Natarus said later. "I'm going to wait for the vote to come in."

Late Tuesday night, Natarus left his party, telling reporters, "If I don't make it, just remember, I'm going to apply for my pension.

"I've had a good run," he said. "I've had my time."

Great quotes! Notice how Reilley, the winner, comes first. Then the ever-quotable Natarus.

Then the transition to "B matter," a couple of throwaway grafs later:

Natarus, 73, had the second-longest tenure on the council, behind only Ald. Edward Burke (14th), in a ward known as the public face of the city, encompassing the Loop, North Michigan Avenue, River North, Streeterville and the Gold Coast. ...

And so on to the end of the story.

Why write it that way? Why not begin at the beginning and take it from there? Time, mostly. If you have most of your election story written before the polls close, all you have to do is write a new lede when the returns come in and you're ready to put it in the paper. Sometimes in a major election, they'll write two ledes.

One might sound like this: "As expected, Mayor Daley cruised to an overwhelming victory over two contenders ..."

The other might begin, "In a stunning upset, Mayor Daley was defeated by ..."

Either way, you're ready to go as soon as the returns come in.

COMM 150 -- midterm hints

Our midterm, as you know if you were in class Monday, is at 1 p.m. Monday, March 5. It will be an open-book (which also means notes and anything you can find on the Internet) essay exam. There will be a 50-point essay (shoot for 750 words or two to three typed pages) and two 25-point essays (shoot for 250 words or a page to a page and a half). Here are some hints:

Have you noticed the way we've talked in class about the difference between entertainment values and the social responsibility that the media owes to society -- i.e. to report on public policy issues, keep a watchdog on government and others who abuse the public trust, and so on? Columnist Dante Chinni of the Christian Science Monitor calls it a conflict between "hard" and "soft" news. And you'll find references to the same tension linked to earlier posts to The Mackerel Wrapper. But some people, including Sue and Dean Barr writing for a website called COOLSchool in Oregon, say both entertainment and informing the public are legitimate functions of the press in a free-market system. The Barrs also have a webpage on theories of the press that explains the social responsibility theory (among others). Anyway, we'll have a question on the midterm that touches on these issues, and you'll want to quote from the book, the Barrs, Chinni or whoever else you want to. Read especially the chapters on print media in our textbook, and be ready to trace this conflict between the profit motive, entertainment and the social responsibilty function of the press for a 50-point essay.

There will be 25-pointers, too. A couple of them. One will be a self-reflective essay in which you talk about what you knew about the media when you started the class, what you know now (clearest point so far) and what you want to learn next (or the most confusing point). Here's what I say in a tip sheet on reflective essays linked to my faculty page. It mentions other courses I teach, since it's written for all my students, but you can adapt it to our course content in COMM 150:

A "content" course is a course in which you learn about a subject area -- like American Indian cultures and the history of their interaction with European-Americans, for example, or the basic principles of advertising and public relations. So you focus on the course objectives: What did you know about the mass media, U.S. history, the newspaper business, advertising, public relations or integrated marketing strategies at the beginning of the semester? What, specificaly, do you know at the end? What, specifically, have you learned? How does it fit in with what you already knew, as a media consumer or a college student?

To get ready for this, think about what we've learned so far. What was the clearest point? What still needs to be explained?

Wait, there's still one more 25-point question. It will have to do with the way radio and popular music have influenced each other over time. Here's what to look for: In the 1930s and 1940s, network radio broadcast a lot of "potted palm music," nice, inoffensive stuff that a dance band might play in an old-fashioned hotel ballroom of the period (the kind that had potted palms next to the windows). Mass market schlock, in other words. That gave way to the "Top 40" format. More schlock. When FM came along, it allowed more small stations with specialized formats to find an audience. So they could appeal to more specialized audience segments. Be able to show how the technology and the marketplace influenced the kind of music available to us as consumers over time.

Don't know what schlock is? It comes from Yiddish, and this website will tell what it means. Reader's advisory: The definition refers to other Yiddish words, some of which are body parts. Don't use them unless you know what they mean, and you know who you're talking to! Your Jewish friends -- or their parents or grandparents -- might consider them offensive and/or highly insulting.

COMM 317: Jack v. Jill

Courtesy of the Attorney General's Office for the state of Arizona, here is the way lawyers might describe a familiar nursery rhyme. Note the precision of language.

The party of the first part shall hereinafter be referred to as Jack, and the party of the second part shall hereinafter be referred to as Jill.

The parties ascended or caused to be ascended an elevation of undetermined height and degree of slope. Their purpose was to obtain, attain, procure, secure, or otherwise gain access to a receptacle suitable for the transport of a liquid consisting of hydrogen and oxygen.

The proportions of which shall not be greater than nor less than two parts of the first mentioned element and one of the latter. This composition shall hereinafter be called water. On the occasion stated above, it has been established beyond a reasonable doubt that Jack did plunge, tumble, topple, or otherwise was caused to lose his footing in such a manner as to thrust his body in the downward direction.

As a direct and proximate cause of these combined circumstances, Jack suffered fractures and contusions to his cranial region. Jill is said to have fallen after Jack. Whether after is used in the spatial or time passage sense has not been determined.

It's on a kids' page. But for my money, it could be on an adults' page just as well.

COMM 317: Assignment for Tue. (Feb. 27)

Here are the links to tomorrow (Tuesday) night's assignment. I announced it in class last week, but the links will make it easier for you to find the readings ... and class discussion questions ... in class.

It's all on University of Missouri Kansas City law professor Doug Linder's webpage on prior restraints. Well, not quite all of it. You'll want to do a Google search on the two new cases ... New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) and United States v. Progressive (1979).

Pentagon Papers
This case is styled New York Times Co. v. United States, but it's commonly known as the Pentagon Papers. It dealt with the publication of "leaked" documents by The Times and The Washington Post showing that parts of the case for the Vietnam war were trumped up by the government, issues that are back in the news today. The case itself is pretty straightforward, and you should be able to find good summaries. I'd start with Wikipedia's summary of the Pentagon Papers and the litigation over their publication that culminated in New York Times Co. v. United States. Of particular interest might be the U.S. State Department's summary of the case in the February 1997 issue of its Issues of Democracy electronic magazine. It's good on the First Amendment issues, less so on why the Pentagon Papers were so controversial in the first place.

Progressive story on H-bomb
You'll find less written about this case, but it raises some interesting issues. So I'll help you with links. Here's a link to an article in Time magazine on the Progressive H-bomb case. It was written right after the Milwaukee district court decision that is reproduced on Linder's page, and it gives a good summary of his reasoning and the case up to that point. In plain English, no less!

And here's a link to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story 20 years later. It sums up the court action, which ended not with a bang but a whimper when the government dropped the case and The Progressive published the story six months later. (The government dropped it because another publication, located outside the U.S., published the H-bomb recipe in the meantime. So the case, as lawyers say, was moot.) The Journal Sentinel's headline, IMHO, says it all: "Two decades later, little fallout from H-bomb article."

But the issues are fascinating. In a way, it's a good thing the U.S. Supreme Court never ruled on it. That way we can keep discussing them.

If you had been on the Supreme Court and the case was appealed to you, how would you have ruled? Here's one that's even more to the point: If you were editor of The Progressive, would you have run the story? Why? Or why not? What are the arguments in favor? Against? How do they balance out?

In addition to the questions above, be ready to answer the questions on prior restraint at the bottom of Linder's webpage, too.

COMM 317: Research proposals due March 20

Instead of a midterm exam, I am assigning you to write a research proposal. It should be at least 750 words in length, and it is due at the beginning of class Tuesday, March 20. In this proposal, you will address two questions:

What is your topic, and what do you plan to say about it?

How are you going to research the topic?

There are more tips on how to do a proposal for my classes on my SCI/Benedictine faculty page. Since COMM 317 is an upper-division course, you should incorporate some of the standard headings into your research proposal.

The headings are explained clearly in a "Beginners' Guide to the Research Proposal" prepared by the Centre for Advancement of Health at Canada's Calgary University. While Calgary's guide is specific to health sciences, the basic scientific method behind it is the same in the field of communications, the social sciences and much research in the humanities. For COMM 317, your proposal should at minimum address these headings:

1. Title and research question. What are you going to write about, and what are you going to say about it? In other words, what's your working hypothesis? As you read the Calgary guide, pay particular attention to the checklists on quality of the proposal and presentation, the study rationale, the problem (or purpose) and working hypotheses. They'll give you ideas and help you think through your study.

2. Method. How are you going to go about doing your paper? Read the two seconds sections on methodology in the Calgary guide. They address questions of experimental design and statistical analysis more often encountered in the sciences, but the discussion will help you think through the research design of your project. What is your hypotehesis? How will you test it? What are your variables?

For most of you, the project will be descriptive and the research method will involve tracking down court cases -- and news coverage that explains the cases -- on the Internet and in the library. You will take some principle of law and/or ethics and study how it is carried out in practice -- or how it was carried out in some real-world case.

For example, you might want to do a paper on the degree to which gangsta rap is protected speech under the First Amendment. After reading up on the subject a little, I would consult the University of Calgary guide and figure out some tentative research objectives, purpose and hypothesis. I might, for example, say that even though some of it is pretty exuberant, rap music doesn't present a clear and present danger to society and some of it offers criticism of society that is specifically upheld under the First Amendment. I would do a preliminary literature review, mentioning specific articles and court cases. That would get me through Part 1, the statement of title, hypothesis and so on.

Then I would consult Parts 2-3 of the Calgary guide on method. Since my paper would be based mostly on researching articles and court cases, I wouldn't have to worry as much about things like statistics, experimental design and so on. But I would want to think about some of the possible intervening variables -- for example, is race a factor in the public reaction to gangsta rap? Is the attitude toward women sometimes expressed in the lyrics a factor? Does the music incite violence? Even though I'm not doing a laboratory experiement, in other words, I would want to use the scientific method to think through the topic and make sure I'm not lumping apples and oranges together.

In class Tuesday (Feb. 27), we will choose topics and begin to think through some of the research design issues. That will occupy the second half of the period. I will post some questions about the first half, the page and cases on prior restraint on the Doug Linder website, later tonight. Stay tuned.

COMM 150: U.S. media: View from Mars?

Matt Frei of BBC News in Washington has a cute take on some current obsessions of the American news media. Read Frei's column, answer the questions below and post your answers as comments to this blog. Explain your reasoning in 4-5 well chosen sentences.

First, the questions. How do does the celebrity "news" that Frei complains of square with the social responsiblity theory of the press (and other media)? What does it tell you about American society? What is your own opinion of this stuff? Do you read it? (I do.) Why? Or, if you don't, why not? Should you? Why? Or why not? Here's another question: Are people like Lisa Nowak, Britney Spears and Anna Nicole Smith entitled to a little compassion? Why? Or why not? How much? Why?

Here's how Frei begins:

When little green men from Mars eventually descend on our planet and unearth America's time capsule dating back to the beginning of the year 2007, it could skewer their whole view of our great civilisation.

"What's with the viewing figures?" they will wonder.

The country was embroiled in a losing war in Iraq, a festering war in Afghanistan and a looming war at the presidential polls.

But the issues that glued the nation to their flickering screens involved an astronaut who wore a nappy while driving across the country, a pop star who was so vexed by celebrity life she shaved off all her hair and a dead stripper whose burial tested the wits of Florida's finest legal minds.

Read the rest of it. It'll remind you about the great issues of the day. . Then comment to the board.

COM 150 -- Friday's in-class question / FM radio

Today's question --

How did the technology of FM radio pave the way for today's formats that appeal to different market segments?

Post your answers as comments to this blog post.

COMM 209, 150: "Alaska to Iraq" blog

Finally reporter Rich Mauer of The Anchorage Daily News is with the troops from Alaska's Fort Richardson at a Forward Operating Base south of Baghdad. He's been in Iraq for a couple of weeks now, and his reporting has been mostly a demonstration of how sterile Baghdad is for U.S. reporters who are confined in heavily guarded hotels and the even more heavily guarded Green Zone where the Iraqi government and U.S. military headquarters are. He's been blogging every few days, but hasn't had much to say you don't see in the Associated Press roundups.

Now that's changing. Mauer filed a good one from FOB Kalsu today.

Here's part of his interview with Col. Michael X. Garrett of the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), which has its headquarters in Anchorage.

With a new defense secretary, a new general in charge of the mission, an escalation in U.S. troop strength and a new security plan unfolding, Garrett’s mission is somewhat changed. It used to be “clear, hold and build” — clear the area of violent lawbreakers, hold on to it, and build on those results. Obviously it didn’t work.

Now it’s clear, control and retain.

“Can we clear areas?” he asked.

“Yes,” he said, answering his own question.

“Can we hold them?” he asked again.

“Yes,” he answered.

“Can we retain them long enough to complete the job?”

I waited for him to reply to himself again, but this time he was silent. After a moment, I pointed that out.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Is the war lost?” I asked.

“It’s not my feeling,” he responded quickly. “We’re all Type A personalities in the Army. We don’t like to fail at anything we do.”

There's no way a reporter could sum that feeling up and do it justice. You have to quote it.

COMM 209 students note the dialog, the short sentences and short paragraphs, both in and outside of quotation marks.

COMM 150 students click on the "Alaska to Iraq," read some of Mauer's blog posts from FOB Kalsu and compare them to his posts from Baghdad. My guess, the Green Zone is full of gatekeepers -- public affairs officers, government types -- and the FOB isn't.

COMM 150: Theories, functions of media

For class Monday, an important supplement to the discussion of the "social responsibilty theory" of the press, or media, in our textbook ...

First, a "History of Journalism Ethics" by Stephen J. A. Ward of the University of British Columbia. It's a good, concise explanation of how the role(s) of the media have evolved since the 1450s into the 21st century.

One thing that's maddening, though. Ward summarizes an important book titled Four Theories of the Press (1956). But he only lists three:

Authoritarian. Prevailing theory when kings and inquisitors censored the press -- or tried to! -- during the 1500s and 1600s.
Libertarian. The English and American theory of a free press owned by private enterprise as a counterbalance to government.
Social responsibility. A 20th-century offshoot of the libertarian model, with more emphasis on the duty of the media to society.

OK, OK. But what's the fourth theory of the press? Read on.

An online journalism course for high school students in Oregon has an excellent summary of the "Four Theories of the Press." There you'll find out the fourth theory was called "Soviet-Totalitarian." (Remember, the book came out in 1956 at the height of the Cold War.) It's basically the same as the authoritarian model.

Also on Oregon's COOLSchool website is a thought-provoking discussion of "Four Functions of the Press." For the record, they are: (1) To Serve the Economic System: (2) To Entertain; (3) To Inform; and (4) To Influence.

How do these functions complement and/or conflict with each other?

"Knowing the functions of the press will help you understand the media and how it works in a free society," suggest Sue and Dean Barr, Eugene, Ore., authors of the curriculum. "Remember, the purpose of a free press is to guarantee free and open debate and discussion. If the media is too cautious, then people come to think the press should make them feel good and bring consensus. There should be a level of discomfort; if no one is ruffled, then the media has failed."

I would add only this: Knowing the functions of the press, and being able to discuss how any conflicts among them might be resolved, will help you write better midterm and final exam essay questions.

London Times' fresh angle on Obama

A remarkable story on The Times of London's website on Sen. Barack Obama's presidential announcement.

Written for The Sunday Times by Sarah Baxter and datelined from the paper's Washington bureau (which probably means she watched it on TV or, more likely, streaming video on Obama's campaign website), it's a fairly standard blend of reportage and analysis. But it raises a chilling angle I hadn't noticed elswhere. Here's Baxter's lede:

AS Barack Obama officially launched his campaign for president in Springfield, Illinois, the home town of Abraham Lincoln, his team was quietly beefing up his security. Mindful of the fate of the 19th-century president, who abolished slavery and was assassinated, friends say that new measures are being taken to ensure Obama’s protection on the campaign trail.

At the Old State Capitol building, comparisons with the gaunt, top-hatted president were inescapable. Springfield is where Obama, like Lincoln, served for eight years as a state legislator before entering national politics.

Thousands of eager spectators thronged the square in freezing temperatures waving Obama ’08 banners as he stepped on the stage and hugged his wife and young daughters, who were bundled up in hats and scarves.

Setting out what is likely to be his signature theme, he urged Americans: “Let’s be the generation” for change. “I know it’s a little chilly, but I’m fired up.”

Obama, 45, chose the historic setting in an attempt to lay to rest accusations that he is too inexperienced to be president. He acknowledged there was a certain “presumptuousness” and “audacity” in staking his claim to the White House, but said: “I’ve been in Washington long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.”

This is a perfect example, by the way, of a soft lede introducing a nut graf -- actually two grafs, the way I read the story -- stating the news. But notice that security angle tucked away in the first graf?

I'm not sure how I feel about raising the issue. But I think it's legitimate. Necessary, maybe. And Baxter doesn't make a big point of it. In fact, she''s careful to say it didn't arise during the campaign. Instead, it came up during an interview, apparently in Washington:

Alabama congressman Artur Davis, who first met Obama while they were law students at Harvard, said the Illinois senator would “electrify” the country. “It is a historic moment, because it is the first time that a candidate of African descent has entered the race with a strong chance of being successful.”

Obama was aware of the personal risks he was taking, Davis said. “He recognises that we have some very extreme elements in this country. His campaign is wisely not discussing their security precautions publicly, but they know Barack’s candidacy creates a dimension that is different to the others and are taking steps to deal with it.”

Baxter mentions the security angle in the context of race, and she weaves it in and out of a discussion of the personal decisions that go into a campaign for high office.

Before formally entering the White House race, Obama said he was concerned about potential violence. “Being shot, obviously, that is the least attractive option,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times, and added that security was “something that is on [his wife] Michelle’s mind”.

Alma Powell, the wife of former secretary of state Colin Powell, was fearful for her husband’s safety when he was encouraged to run for president in the 1990s and is thought to have influenced his decision not to stand.

But Michelle Obama said in an interview to be broadcast on CBS television tonight: “I don’t lose sleep over it, because the realities are that ... as a black man ... Barack can get shot going to the gas station. You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.”

Avis LaVelle, a Chicago friend of Michelle, said it was Obama’s ideas rather than his race that presented a danger. Citing the example of President John F Kennedy and his brother Robert, who were assassinated in the 1960s, she said: “These are perilous times for candidates. Think of the history of people who have stood for change and sparked this level of passion.” Michelle, 43, earns nearly twice her husband’s $165,200 (£85,000) Senate salary as vice-president for community affairs at the University of Chicago hospitals. The mother of two girls, Malia, 8, and Sasha, 5, she says she often feels like a single parent because Obama is away so often, but she makes sure he performs his share of household tasks.

According to LaVelle, Michelle would be an inspirational first lady. “She’s an incredibly compelling person in her own right — smart, loyal and very grounded. She’s also physically attractive and that makes a wonderful package.”

Obama said he was delighted to have the “100%” support of his wife. “We tend to be pretty private people, we don’t like a lot of fuss,” he said last week. “The difficulty in just going out and taking a walk or taking my kids to the zoo — the inability to do that is a major sacrifice, but we think the sacrifice is worth it.”

From there, Baxter goes on to a hard-headed analysis of what Obama will have to do to get the black vote nationwide and other campaign issues. She writes:

Obama left Springfield immediately after his speech for a weekend swing through Iowa and Chicago and on to New Hampshire tomorrow. After a meteoric start to his early, unofficial campaign, his momentum has been checked by [Sen. Hillary] Clinton, who currently has a double-figure lead in the polls for the Democratic nomination.

He warned last week: “I learnt my politics in Chicago, a place not known for producing push-overs. If somebody goes at us, we’ll respond. I am not averse to drawing sharp contrasts between myself and other candidates.”

And Baxter ends with another interview, this one with an unnamed Clinton backer, and a nice "kicker" at the end that just about sums up the story -- with a twist:

With at least a year to go before the Democratic race is decided, one veteran of the Clinton White House said of Obama: “He has been riding a huge wave because he is a dream candidate, but what goes up goes down. The magic can only last so long without the organisation, money and nuts and bolts of a campaign that the Clinton camp is so good at.”

On reflection, he added: “He is no fluke either” — as the former first lady may soon discover.

COMM 317: assignments update

Hi everybody --

I'm going to announce this in COMM 150 and COMM 209, but please make an effort to get the word to your other classmates who aren't in those classes. I stand in awe of the SCI/Benedictine student grapevine, and I know you'll get the word around.

As you follow the links on the First Amendment webpage by University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor Doug Linder that I assigned Tuesday night, you'll find references to Josh Wolf. He's a freelance photographer who has been in jail for contempt of court since Sept. 22 for refusing to turn his film of a 2005 demonstration over to a grand jury. The Society of Professional Journalists has a timeline and an explanation of why they have raised $31,000 for Wolf's defense fund on its website.

In addition to the questions on Linder's page, be ready to discuss this one in class as well: What is it about the First Amendment that is so important that a guy would spend 170 days (as of today) defending it?

Wolf's case is important, and it is current -- i.e. it is happening now, and in the real world. See what else you can find before class about the facts of his case and the law that governs it. We will add it to the ongoing cases we are following.

Research Projects
Those of you who stayed for the entire class Tuesday night already know some of this, so I'll update you. Others will be able to get the background from students who were there.

While I don't have the details finalized yet, I intend to have the required research project count 25 percent of your final grade, 20 percent on a 10- to 12-page documented research paper and 5 percent on an oral presentation that you give during the last weeks of April. It will be on a court case or legal doctrine related to the First Amendment, ethical and/or intellectual property issues we study, and it will replace the written case briefs stipulated under "Means of Evaluation" in your syllabus.

So count on doing a documented research paper and a formal presentation of your findings in April. I will have more detailed instructions for you as soon as possible.

Attendance policy

Crossposted to to my class blogs, The Mackerel Wrapper for communications students and Hogfiddle for students in my interdisciplinary humanities courses.

Last night several students walked out of Communications 317 (mass media law and ethics) during the break without notifying me ahead of time that they had other commitments. Accordingly, they received grades of zero (0%) for class participation; to count them as present would not be fair to those students who did attend for the full class period. The attendance policy is outlined in Section 6, Paragraph A of the syllabus:

Attendance is mandatory. To avoid class disruption, students in COM 317 must be on time. If a student misses class, it is the student's responsibility to get class notes, assignments, etc., from classmates. Missed in-class work, by its very nature, cannot be made up. Absences will hurt your grade.

(Boldface type in the original.)

Similar policy statements are incorporated in my syllabuses for Communications 150 and 209, and Humanities 221. All contain the warning that unexcused absences will hurt your grade.

For pre-professional students in communications, it is especially important to attend classes or to notify your instructors ahead of time if you will not be able to do so. Professional standards of behavior are just as important for your future success in the field as writing and editing skills. For SCI students taking my classes for General Education or elective credit, it is ordinary courtesy to let your instructors know when you will not be able to attend class.

COMM 209: Next week's assignments

You'll have two:

1. Obama's presidential announcement. U.S. Sen. Barak Obama, D-Chicago, will announce his candidacy at 10 o'clock Saturday morning at the Old State Capitol downtown. The national and international press will be there to cover it. Your assignment: Compare the coverage of the event in The State Journal-Register and The Washington Post. If you are able to go yourself, compare your observations to both. This paper should be 750-1,000 words, including quotes. It is due at the beginning of Class Monday, Feb. 12.

2. Profile an event. You will have several to choose from. Senator Obama's presidential campaign announcement Saturday morning, two rallies for his supporters Friday night and the poetry slam in the Presidents Room on the SCI/Benedictine campus Friday night. Details below. This will be due at the beginning of class Wednesday, Feb. 14.

I will post more suggestions to the blog between now and Monday.

To get ready for the Obama announcement, read the stories in the J-R. Today's says "gates will open at Sixth and Adams streets at 9 a.m., and ... the Obama campaign has said the program will begin about 10 a.m." Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin is quoted:

“We’d invite everybody to carpool as much as they possibly can because parking in the street is going to be at a minimum,” Davlin said, although several downtown garages will be open, providing more than 1,000 spaces. The parking lot below the Old Capitol, however, will close at 5 a.m. Saturday.

The mayor said the forecast indicates it will be cold, but it is “99.9 percent certain” that the event will be outdoors, on the lawn of the Old State Capitol.

He encouraged people to dress warmly but avoid bringing backpacks or large bags.

“More than likely they’ll have to go through somewhat of a checkpoint,” he said, although he said he doesn’t expect metal detectors to be employed.

Most of the crowd will have to stand for the event. Handicapped seating will apparently be available.

Other events you may choose to profile instead include two receptions for supporters in town Friday night and the poetry slam on campus. There are bound to be other events taking place in the area, too. So the subject matter is open. I think you'll get the most, however, out of going to the Obama announcement and watching the national press corps. They'll probably be herded onto a flatbed trailer with a clear TV shot of the candidate and the Old State Capitol in the background.

On writing profiles, read this tip sheet linked to my faculty page. Especially the part on "Gathering your information" toward the bottom. But it's all brilliant. Has to be. I wrote it.

COMM 209: Obama announcement, rallies

This from Bernie Schoenburg's story on U.S. Sen. Barak Obama's presidential announcement in today's State Journal-Register:

Bundle up, Obama watchers.

Wind-chill readings could be near zero Saturday as people go to the Old State Capitol to watch Sen. Barack Obama announce his intentions in the 2008 presidential race.

And if it's really cold, what advice can the Illinois Democrat's campaign give?

"We're encouraging folks to dress as warmly as possible," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton via e-mail.

Nice lede! Schoenburg goes on to give details of Obama's speech Saturday morning and two campaign rallies the night before. I'll get back to them, but first I want to change the assignment for this weekend's festivities: If you can't cover the candidate's speech Saturday morning, go to one of the rallies Friday night and write it up. Shoot for 500-750 words (two to three typed pages). Whichever you write up, it's due in class Monday.

I'll give you some suggestions below, but first the details.

Saturday morning. Obama is expected to speak around 10 a.m. Spectators should be at the corner of 6th and Adams at 9 a.m. to get in. There will be considerable security, although details were not yet available today.

Friday night. Schoenburg lists two events, as follows:

A salute to Obama is planned for 5-7 p.m. at the Firefighters Lake Club, 940 West Lake Shore Drive. Organizers include Fire Capt. Chris Richmond and Neil Calderone, who has a political action committee called Progressive Leadership PAC. Local 37 of the International Association of Fire Fighters is renting the building, and the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois is paying for refreshments.

The event is open to the public, and donations to Obama's exploratory campaign fund will be accepted.

Dan Shomon, a former Obama campaign manager who is a Chicago-based lobbyist and political consultant, is hosting an informal "get-together for friends" at The Alamo, 115 N. Fifth St., from 8 p.m. Friday to 1 a.m. Saturday. The event is open to the public, and there is no cover charge.

I wouldn't blame any students who choose to write up an inside event (which is what I may do myself). Here's how to do it, whether you're inside at a reception or ourside at the Old State Capitol. Bring a notebook. Keep your eyes and ears open. Take down what you see and hear so you'll remember it. If anybody makes a speech, take it down. Lead with what they say, and weave your descriptions around it. See the tip sheet on writing profiles linked to my faculty page for more tips. Scroll down the page to the part on "gathering information."

If you're going to be outside, Schoenburg's story has some good advice on how to dress for an outside media pop:

The wind speed is expected to be 8-10 mph, said Chris Geelhart, another NWS expert. With a prediction of 13 degrees at 9 a.m. Saturday, that would make the wind chill about 2 degrees.

Louie Rogers, emergency medical services educator with St. John's Hospital, said being outside in such temperatures calls for precautions including non-restrictive layers of clothing and definitely gloves, hats and scarves.

"It's easier to take off a layer than it is to add a layer," he said.

Products such as chemical hand-warmers could help, he said. Such products can be placed in boots or gloves and can provide a couple of hours of warmth.

"Drink your fluids," he added. "Eat a good breakfast."

And if it is allowed, bringing a warm drink with you would also help, he said.

Security details for the event have not yet been released, and it is not clear what people will be able to bring.

So if you do take a warm drink, don't put it in an expensive mug. You may not be allowed to take it onto the Old State Capitol grounds.

COMM 209 -- quotes, irony

Associated Press stories are often pretty bland. The AP has so many clients, it's sort of a lowest common denominator. But this quote was well played in an AP story about the current cold weather in the Midwest and Northeast. First, the quote:

It was so cold that Toledo, Ohio — 5 above zero at noon, up from 4 below — even closed its outdoor ice rink. "The irony is not lost on us," said city spokesman Brian Schwartz.

I might have broken that into two 'grafs, to highlight the quote a little more. But I love the way the writer, Roger Petterson of AP in New York, set it up.

Some more quotes in the same story, from northern Minnesota and the Dakotas:

Veterinarian Wade Himes wasn't too concerned as he ate breakfast at the Shorelunch Cafe in International Falls.

"We get up and go to work, and people come and see us. I don't think anything changes that much. (You) just dress warm," said Himes, 69.

Temperatures in Grand Forks, N.D., dipped to 31 below zero early Monday at the airport, 3 degrees lower than the records set in 1982 and 1967, the National Weather Service said. Meteorologist Bill Barrett described the record as "relatively mild."

"It's only 31 below," said Randy Hjelmstad, owner of Randy's Refuse in Grand Forks. "It's not that bad out."

Call it irony, call it understatement, call it typical "Minne-SNOW-ta" humor. But the quotes add a little something to what otherwise would be a routine weather roundup.

COMM 317: National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley

In class Tuesday, we'll take up National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley, a 1998 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the NEA can take "decency" into account when awarding grants for artistic projects. The plaintiffs, fronted by performance artist Karen Finley, had argued it would be an unlawful prior restraint of free speech.

The language of the case is dense. (Or maybe it's me that's dense, but I couldn't follow it.) But luckily there's an interdisciplinary online education project called Freedom of Expression at the National Endowment for the Arts, partially funded by the American Bar Association's Commission on College and University Legal Studies, that has links to newspaper stories explaining the decision. The Christian Science Monitor's and The Washington Post's are especially good. It also has links to the high court's decision, *"briefs" or legal arguments filed on both sides of the case, an unoffical transcript of the oral arguments in the case and newspaper reports on the arguments.

______________

* An appellate court brief is not the same thing as the abstract prepared by a law student, although the same kind of legal reasoning is used in both (or should be)! They are like argumentive essays that take an issue before the court and argue why the judges should hold on their side of that issue. They are anything but brief.

Your assignment

Read the newspaper coverage, and see if you can outline a student brief on the case.

Include the following:

Style of the case. NEA v. Finley.
The facts.
The law. There are two or three floating around -- free speech, prior restraint and several others raised on both sides of the case.
The issue. The yes-or-no question the court had to decide.
The court's holding. What did it decide on that issue?
The rationale. The court's legal reasoning on the facts and the law.

COMM 150, 209: Levees, news value, gatekeeping

In COMM 150 (intro to mass comm.), we've been studying the "gatekeeping" theory that identifies people and institutions that restrict the flow of information. In COMM 209 (basic newswriting), we've been studing the benchmarks of "news value" that determine whether a story is newsworthy. Here's a USA Today story on dangerous levees that illustrates both points. The lede:

WASHINGTON — Bowing to demands from news organizations, the Army Corps of Engineers revealed the locations Thursday of 122 levees nationwide that are so poorly maintained they could fail in a major flood.

Some of the substandard levees protect densely populated areas, such as Springfield, Mass., Albuquerque and Sacramento. Many others are in rural areas, where they shield valuable farmland but relatively few people.

Maj. Gen. Don Riley, director of civil works for the corps, said he does not know how many people live near the levees or what the required repairs might cost. He said communities have one year to fix the problems.

If a levee's deficiencies are not corrected, people living nearby might have to buy flood insurance.

If you're taking COMM 209, you'll notice the story has impact. If the levees aren't fixed, a lot of people will buy insurance, at best, and get flooded out, at worst. So the impact may be long-term, but it's there.

We'll get back to news values in a minute. But first, let's look at the gatekeeping angle. USA Today reports:

Some local officials first learned of the problems this week, after USA TODAY reported Monday that the corps had found 146 levees with problems so severe that floods could overwhelm them. The corps, which inspects about 2,000 levees nationally, refused at that time to list the specific levees.

USA TODAY and the Associated Press then requested the list under the Freedom of Information Act.

The full list of levees can be seen at news.usatoday.com.

[Maj. Gen. Don] Riley said the corps wanted to wait to release the list until it finished notifying all communities responsible for maintaining those levees. He noted that 24 levees were dropped from the earlier count because some communities have corrected the problems. He said that the corps "will likely find more (levees) that are deficient" when additional inspections and reviews are done in the coming months.

It's a perfect example of gatekeeping in action. The corps was taking its time about getting the information out. The papers wanted it now. That gives the story an element of conflict, too, because the papers went to court to get the list.

And the other news values?

The story is timely, mostly because of this week's court action. Otherwise, it's a long-term problem. So I'd give it a B-plus for timeliness.

Proximity? I don't think the Sangamon River even has levees. But if I worked for The Quincy Herald-Whig, I'd take a look at that list. They have a levee several miles south of town that has a habit of breaking. I think it's called the Sny. If it's on the list, I've got a local story.

Prominence? Nope. Maybe to General Riley's family and friends, but not to me. I've never heard of him.

Weirdness? Not a bit. Floods are always with us. So are government officials who sit on information the public needs to know.

And finally, there's a category called currency. That's one of those things that's hard to define, but you know it when you see it. It means it's a story that everybody's talking about already.

There are several stories like that in today's news. There's a new report out on global warming. The issue has currency. So does the Super Bowl. And J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, plans to have the last novel in the series on the street -- or in the bookstores -- this summer. That's worth 892 hits on the Google news page, partly because of shrewd marketing but partly because the Harry Potter novels have currency.

COM 209: Anonymous sources and ethics

Of all that's been written so far about the "Scooter" Libby trial, media critic Howard Kurtz' column in today's Washington Post tells perhaps the most about how political reporters and their sources feed off of each other. It came in his account of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller's testimony about relationship with Libby as a journalist who granted anonymity to a news source.

"Throughout the afternoon," said Kurtz, "an unspoken question hung in the air: What do journalists give up when they agree to protect high officials in exchange for juicy information?"

I'll answer it. If they're not careful, their reputation for integrity is what they give up.

Here's how Miller's testimony went:

In a steady but slightly nervous voice, Miller described how her relationship with Libby began: with a bit of flattery. In their first meeting in the Old Executive Office Building, Miller recalled Libby saying that "he liked my reporting on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism." Libby's only quibble was that he had never received an inscribed copy of "Germs," a book on bioterrorism that she coauthored. Miller said she apologized for the oversight.

Gazing through rimless glasses at prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Miller, 59, described one of the most common transactions in journalism: how the contours of the reporter-source relationship are defined.

When she "expressed a desire" for regular conversations, Libby said "he would prefer not to see his name in print," Miller said. "We could continue meeting as long as I would identify him as an administration official or senior administration official." She readily agreed.

That kind of arrangement is common. It's known as speaking "on background," which means the source speaks with the reporter to give her (or him) background but not "on the record," or for for direct quotation. So reporters negotiate what they'll call the source in print -- the idea is to give enough information to let readers decide on the source's credibility but not to identify the source by name. (There's a fine and sometimes-not-very-subtle art involved in guessing who somebody else's anonymous source is, by the way. You ask yourself who would know that information, and then who would have the most to gain by leaking it. It's fun, and any number can play.) Anyway, Miller and Libby talked with each other on background.

Kurtz continues:

At a meeting in Libby's office in June 2003, Libby seemed "agitated and frustrated and angry," not to mention "annoyed," Miller said. He was concerned that the CIA, through a "perverted war of leaks," was distancing itself from its prewar intelligence about Saddam Hussein's illegal weapons.

So Libby would combat these leaks by leaking to Miller, she explained in a tone that indicated this was the most natural thing in the world. Miller said he told her that the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV, the former ambassador who was challenging the administration's account that Iraq had tried to buy enriched uranium in Africa, worked for "the bureau" -- prompting Miller to put a question mark in her notes until she realized that Libby meant the CIA.

During a two-hour meal at the St. Regis hotel the following month, Miller said, Libby changed the ground rules and went "on deeper background," asking to be identified only as a "former Hill staffer."

That phrase "deeper background" refers to another fine and not-so-subtle art: There's "background," and then there's "deep background," which is like "background" but with the identification more general so it's harder to play the Washington (or Statehouse) guessing game. When I took information on "deep" background in my reporting days, I'd run it with no identifying information at all. Or I would use something cheesy like "speculation at the Statehouse is ..." But I tried to not to it at all, or to use the background information to get somebody else to talk about it on the record.

But look what Libby and Miller did with it -- it's true Libby is a "former Hill staffer," which means in English he once worked for Congress, i.e. on Capitol Hill. But when he spoke with Miller, he was speaking about things we knew from working with the White House, not Congress. It's true to identify him that way, because he did have a Congressional staff job a number of years ago, but it's misleading. It may be a small point, but it's important. When she let Libby get away with pointing her readers in the wrong direction, in my mind, is when Miller stepped over a bright ethical red line.