COMM 387: Literature and Journalism

Benedictine University at Springfield

Spring Semester 2008

FINAL EXAM – Monday, May 5, 2008

Please answer all three questions below. While I will not grade on the length of your answers, you should write at least two to three pages on the 50-point question and a page to a page and a half on each of the 25-point questions. Your exam paper is due at the regularly scheduled time for our class, at 1:30 p.m., Monday, May 5.

1. Essay (50 points). In 2002 John Carroll, then editor of The Los Angeles Times and a member of the Pulitizer Prize selection board, said all 21 of that year’s winners shared “a moral vision … an ardently held view of what constitutes right in this world and what constitutes wrong.” In much the same vein, BBC news presenter Fergal Keane in 2005 said the best reporters “had in common an ability to use words in a manner that brought the listener into the picture, and they were engaged, not as partisans, but with a clear sense of astonishment at the wrongs they were witnessing.” Evaluate Ernest Hemingway, Tom Wolfe and one other journalist of your choice in terms of his/her ability to (a) use language that puts readers on the scene, and (b) express a moral vision that aims to right, or at least expose, the wrongs of society. How important, in your opinion (backed up, of course, by evidence), is that moral vision to a journalist’s overall quality?

2a. Self-reflective essay (25 points). What have you learned in Communications 387 that surprised you the most? How, specifically, did it surprise you? What was your overall impression of the journalistic writing -- as writing -- before you took the course? How has that changed as a result of your reading, class discussion and research for the course? Consider it in the context of what you knew at the beginning of the semester and what you know now. In grading this essay, I will evaluate the relevance of your discussion to the main goals and objectives of the course; the detail you cite to support or illustrate your points; and the connections you make. Be specific.

2b. Short essay (25 points). According to conservative opinion writer P.J. O’Rourke, “Satire is technically comic writing with a moral point of view, and I think that that it is hard to do because not many people have the confidence in their moral point of view anymore.” Considering the satire on the newspaper business in the movie “His Girl Friday” and Carl Hiaasen’s novel “Lucky You,” do you find a clearly expressed moral point of view expressed in the satire? Does one stand out more than the other? What is the point of view regarding the newspaper business in each? Do you find one better than the other? If so, does your enjoyment have anything to do with moral point(s) or view, or is it just based on the comedy?