The Mackerel Wrapper

A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

COMM 209: Links to Blagojevich interviews by Cynthia McFadden and Geraldo Rivera

Governor Blagojevich's interview by co-anchor Cynthia McFadden Monday night on "Nightline." Transcript and eight-minute video clip.

Ask yourself and be ready to discuss in class:

-- How effective was her questioning?

-- What's the purpose of asking questions of a news source anyway? To show what a good questioner you are, or to get them talking? How good were the quotes she got from the governor?

And here's a 10-minute clip of Rivera's interview with Blagojevich earlier in the day.

Same questions:

-- How effective was his questioning?

-- Again, did he get Blagojevich talking? How good were the quotes? Some of his questions sounded sympathetic -- "I agree with you ... I've met him [Senator Burris], he's a good guy," etc. -- and some of them come out of the blue. "Are you broke now?" Does Rivera get good quotes this way?
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About Me

Springfield (Ill.), United States
I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.