COMM 209: Friday's class, Monday's assignment

While we watched the 21-minute 49-second video on The Rocky Mountain News' final home page, I emailed this writing assignment to myself and announced it to the class at the end of the video:

Write a first-person reaction to the news of the closing of The Rocky Mountain News. How do you feel about it as a student taking a course in newspaper journalism? What does it tell you about the economy? About the future of the mass communications industry? About your own career choices?

Length = 500 to 750 words. Due in class Monday. Short sentences. Short grafs. Try to make it sound like a newspaper column.

If you missed class, you can make it up by watching the video and writing the reaction piece (sometime known as a "reax" in the trade). Due Monday.

If you want to see a good example of a column to pattern your story after (whether you were in class or not), here's one by business editor Rob Reuteman

And one by opinion columnist Mike Littwin

And one by ...

Oh, hell, just read them all. I've been clicking through the "Columns & Blogs" at the upper right corner of The Rocky's home page, and they're all well written. Several reflect back over their career and tell how they feel about being a reporter. "All I have ever wanted from this life is to tell its stories," said feature writer Bill Johnson:

The Rocky gave me that. It gave me this year's inauguration, stories too many to mention here. I have, though, always tried to write commensurate with the gift of those opportunities.

And since we are here, just talking, let me tell you that I have derived my utmost joy from talking to and writing about the stories of everyday people who otherwise would never make the paper.

They are the desperately poor and homeless, little kids whose lives were irreparably marred by their being placed in police handcuffs, everyday people whose stories otherwise would not be told.

It is what I do. ...

Johnson and Littwin have been hired by The Denver Post, until today The Rocky's broadsheet competition and now the only daily newspaper in Denver.

The Rocky Mountain News, April 23, 1859-Feb. 27, 2009

The Rocky Mountain News publishes its last edition today. Instead of what I'd planned for COMM 209, I want us to visit their website at http://www.rockymountainnews.com/. We'll see how a great newspaper covers its death throes, we'll learn more about some unsettling trends in the news business and we'll read some very, very good journalistic writing while we're at it.

The Rocky, as the paper was known, was a tabloid. It was the No. 2 paper in Denver the market, which is dominated by the Denver Post. It was like The Chicago Sun-Times in that respect, a scrappy little paper working harder (in my opinion) to catch up with the dominant Chicago Tribune.

Finally as we go along, we'll pause to make note of some examples of cross-platform convergence journalism as the lights are going out in newspaper newsrooms across the country.

Live blogged by Rocky staff at http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/26/live-coverage-official-announcement-rocky/

The Denver Post is the surviving daily. It has text and video at http://www.denverpost.com/ ... when I Googled into it this morning, it carried a splash page directed to The Rocky's readers, who will receive The Post to fill out their subscriptions.

COMM 390: Friday and Monday

(Thanks, Claire, for making a note of these on your blog.)

For Friday -- Read Chapter 6 pg 109 and 110 in particular and look at role of emotions in advertising and how that relates to branding issues that we're talking about? Think about politics.

On Monday read chapter 7 on a marketing society.

COMM 309390: Run up the flagpole for Wednesday

Read Chapters 4 ("Running it up a Flagpole and Seeing if Anyone Salutes") and 5 "Sexualty and Advertising"), and we'll run them up the flagpole and see if you salute.

COMM 209: Monday's profile assignment (w/ important tangent on editing)

Due at the beginning of class ...

750 to 1,000 words

In class Friday, you were asked to interview a classmate about a time he or she learned something valuable from making a mistake. I asked to incorporate that incident into a profile of the person.

My focus in giving you the assignment was primarily on the psychology of interviewing someone about something that could be potentially embarrassing and reporting it, i.e. writing it up, in a way that doesn't unnecessarily embarrass the fellow student who trusted you with this information. But in grading your story, I will also be looking for how readable it is, how well written it is and how interesting it is. In other words, I will be evaluating it as a piece of journalistic writing.

Before you turn it in, be sure to check back over your story for things like:

-- sentence length

-- spelling (always!)

-- use of interesting, active words

-- good attribution of quotes

If you see things you want to change, use standard proofreader's symbols to make the changes.

Take the time to do some edits. (I know, I know: You'd think people who write for a living wouldn't use "edit" as a noun. But we do. Get used to it.) I won't count off for messy papers if you do. In fact, I'd rather see hard-copy edits in your papers. It shows me you're taking them seriously, and it shows you realize a little bit of mess is often required to get things right. You will find most of the editing symbols you need on line, and I'll show you a couple of others. Nancy Edmonds Hanson of Minnesota State University at Moorhead has a short list of the more common copyediting symbols on the Web ... and the The University of Colorado has a good summary of both editing (on the left) and proofreading (on the right) marks in two columns. They're no longer used much in the daily production of newspaper copy, but you still will need to know them for marking up hard copy in more complex editing situations. And if you should know I want my students to make handwritten edits. I've even been known to give extra credit for them,

COMM 309: Consumer cultures -- how far do we want to go with this?

In his chapter on consumer cultures, Arthur Berger says in a mass consumer society, we no longer have a fixed identity from family, social class, religion and other markers that influenced people in more tradition-bound societies.

So, he says, we go out and buy our identity.

Quoting the French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard (pp. 34-35), Berger says "... the world in which we live, in which -- without any rules that everyone accepts -- we all create and change our lifestyles and identities whenever we feel like doing so." A little later on (pp. 61-63), he creates a composite character, Lisa Greatgal, whose identity is created basically by the products she wears, eats or consumes and the media she watches.

Does she sound like anybody you know? Does Berger's world sound like the world you/we live in? Or does he go a little bit overboard? If so, where? And where is he on solid ground? (I know, I know, I'm mixing metaphors. But you know what I mean.) How much of this is due to advertising and how much of it is due to the nature of a mass media society? (Or is that just two ways of saying the same thing?) Be ready to discuss in class.

COMM 209:In class Friday

The Good Interview by Laurie Hertzel, writing coach at The Star Tribune in Minneapolis, who compiled these tips on interviewing for her monthly newsletter, Above the Fold. She has a couple of good things to say about surprise ... how to ask questions that surprise your source, get answers that surprise you, too, and surprise your readers.

Something to know about your journalism teacher: He likes surprises.

Something else to know: So do readers!

* * *

Scribbling with Purpose by Steve Buttry, writing coach at The Omaha World-Herald, who compiled this handout for a workshop he developed on taking notes. Good advice. Always timely.

Followed by interviews for the profile of your classmate that's due Monday (to be posted above over the weekend).

COMM 390: Things to look for in the Vatican's "Ethics in Communications" (and a refresher on skimming, scanning and reading strategy)

The statement I assigned for Wednesday, "Ethics in Communications" issued June 4, 2000, by the Pontifical Council on Social Communications, comes to just under 8,000 words or 15 single-spaced pages printed out from the Internet. It's closely reasoned, too. Not an easy read, by any stretch of the imagination.

But one of the skills you'll need as communications professionals is the ability to abstract information quickly from lengthy documents.

And get it right when you do.

How do you do that?

Let's start by saying what you don't do. You don't try to read every word. Instead, use a technique that is sometimes known as "search reading" and skim the text you want to read. According to a tip sheet on search reading from the Birkbeck School of Geography at the University of London:

Search reading consists of running your eye over the page(s) looking out for words which signal discussion of your questions. When you find such a word, you stop and read more closely the surrounding paragraphs and take notes as needed. You may not bother about the rest of the text.

Search reading is closely allied with skim reading. The Birkbeck School explains:

Skim reading consists of running your eye over the page as a whole, taking in key words which indicate what the paragraphs are about. You can use the skim reading technique for rapidly getting the meat out of a book. Skim reading is used in conjunction with search reading, as, while you skim, you may find a section that you need to read more closely. The French call it ‘diagonal reading’, but the idea is the same: you run your eye in somewhat random fashion over the page looking for signposts.

In a word, you're just eyeballing the text.
* * *Below are some passages that jumped off the computer screen at me when I noticed key words I was looking for ... words like media, advertising, marketing, popular culture ... [The numbers are from the original. Every subsection of three to four grafs is numbered. Makes it easier to find what you've looking for.]
* * *7. The market is not a norm of morality or a source of moral value, and market economics can be abused; but the market can serve the person (cf. Centesimus Annus, 34), and media play an indispensable role in a market economy. Social communication supports business and commerce, helps spur economic growth, employment, and prosperity, encourages improvements in the quality of existing goods and services and the development of new ones, fosters responsible competition that serves the public interest, and enables people to make informed choices by telling them about the availability and features of products.

In short, today's complex national and international economic systems could not function without the media. Remove them, and crucial economic structures would collapse, with great harm to countless people and to society.* * *
13. The media also can be used to block community and injure the integral good of persons: by alienating people or marginalizing and isolating them; drawing them into perverse communities organized around false, destructive values; fostering hostility and conflict, demonizing others and creating a mentality of "us" against "them"; presenting what is base and degrading in a glamorous light, while ignoring or belittling what uplifts and ennobles; spreading misinformation and disinformation, fostering trivialization and banality. Stereotyping—based on race and ethnicity, sex and age and other factors, including religion—is distressingly common in media. Often, too, social communication overlooks what is genuinely new and important, including the good news of the Gospel, and concentrates on the fashionable or faddish.

Abuses exist in each of the areas just mentioned.

14. Economic. The media sometimes are used to build and sustain economic systems that serve acquisitiveness and greed. ...
* * *
16. Cultural. Critics frequently decry the superficiality and bad taste of media, and although they are not obliged to be somber and dull, they should not be tawdry and demeaning either. It is no excuse to say the media reflect popular standards; for they also powerfully influence popular standards and so have a serious duty to uplift, not degrade, them.

The problem takes various forms. Instead of explaining complex matters carefully and truthfully, news media avoid or oversimplify them. Entertainment media feature presentations of a corrupting, dehumanizing kind, including exploitative treatments of sexuality and violence. It is grossly irresponsible to ignore or dismiss the fact that "pornography and sadistic violence debase sexuality, corrode human relationships, exploit individuals—especially women and young people, undermine marriage and family life, foster anti-social behaviour and weaken the moral fibre of society itself" (Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Pornography and Violence in the Communications Media: A Pastoral Response, 10).

On the international level, cultural domination imposed through the means of social communication also is a serious, growing problem. Traditional cultural expressions are virtually excluded from access to popular media in some places and face extinction; meanwhile the values of affluent, secularized societies increasingly supplant the traditional values of societies less wealthy and powerful. In considering these matters, particular attention should go to providing children and young people with media presentations that put them in living contact with their cultural heritage.

Communication across cultural lines is desirable. Societies can and should learn from one another. But transcultural communication should not be at the expense of the less powerful. Today "even the least-widespread cultures are no longer isolated. They benefit from an increase in contacts, but they also suffer from the pressures of a powerful trend toward uniformity" (Toward a Pastoral Approach To Culture, 33). That so much communication now flows in one direction only—from developed nations to the developing and the poor—raises serious ethical questions. Have the rich nothing to learn from the poor? Are the powerful deaf to the voices of the weak?
* * *
And this, from the conclusion:

27. As the third millennium of the Christian era begins, humankind is well along in creating a global network for the instantaneous transmission of information, ideas, and value judgments in science, commerce, education, entertainment, politics, the arts, religion, and every other field.

This network already is directly accessible to many people in their homes and schools and workplaces—indeed, wherever they may be. It is commonplace to view events, from sports to wars, happening in real time on the other side of the planet. People can tap directly into quantities of data beyond the reach of many scholars and students just a short time ago. An individual can ascend to heights of human genius and virtue, or plunge to the depths of human degradation, while sitting alone at a keyboard and screen. Communication technology constantly achieves new breakthroughs, with enormous potential for good and ill. As interactivity increases, the distinction between communicators and recipients blurs. Continuing research is needed into the impact, and especially the ethical implications, of new and emerging media.

28. But despite their immense power, the means of communication are, and will remain, only media—that is to say: instruments, tools, available for both good and evil uses. The choice is ours. The media do not call for a new ethic; they call for the application of established principles to new circumstances. And this is a task in which everyone has a role to play. Ethics in the media is not the business only of specialists, whether they be specialists in social communication or specialists in moral philosophy; rather, the reflection and dialogue that this document seeks to encourage and assist must be broad and inclusive.

29. Social communication can join people in communities of sympathy and shared interest. Will these communities be informed by justice, decency, and respect for human rights; will they be committed to the common good? Or will they be selfish and inward-looking, committed to the benefit of particular groups—economic, racial, political, even religious—at others' expense? Will new technology serve all nations and peoples, while respecting the cultural traditions of each; or will it be a tool to enrich the rich and empower the powerful? We have to choose.

There's more. In fact, you should go through the paper for yourself -- you'll probably find other passages that seem more important to you than the ones I pulled out. That's the way it goes. Each of us sees things a little differently.

'Nothing to see here, move on': One of the all-time great ledes, w/video clip

Jimmy Orr of the Christian Science Monitor's "the vote" blog has the perfect lede to the latest wrinkle in Illinois' political troubles. It's on the website today.

Roland Burris clears everything up: Nothing to see here, move along

Remember that scene in Naked Gun where that guy runs his car into a gas tanker, miraculously survives only to hit an Army tank carrying a missile (which just happened to be in the area), surviving that fiery explosion only to plow into a fireworks stand causing yet another fiery explosion?

Trying to dismiss the crowd’s interest, Lt. Frank Dreben says, “Move along. Nothing to see here. Please disperse. Nothing to see here.”

Some cynics might say this sounds a little like U.S. Senator Roland Burris.

And so it goes. [To see a YouTube clip of the scene, follow the link in the story.] Orr's point: Burris isn't doing himself any favors as he tries to persuade reporters there's no inconsistency between his stories about conversations with people in former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's policical operation.

“When we got the transcript, it was determined that I had said ‘yes’ in the transcript to all those names, but we had not addressed those names,” he explained. “So that prompted me then to make the decision to file a separate affidavit that would show who we talked to and what we said.”

He pretty much said the same thing yesterday in a press conference.

“The ‘yes’ was for the names,” he said. “Please, media people, the ‘yes’ response - I said I talked to my friends, and ‘yes.’ The ‘yes’ was for all of those names.”

OK. He said, “yes.”

Nothing to see here. Move along.

And he's able to use the resources of the World Wide Web in a way the old print Monitor never could have, by linking to that YouTube clip of the scene in "Naked Gun."

COMM 309: Pop culture -- in-class links

Find a website that tells you something important about popular culture, how it works, how advertising helps define it, reflect it or create it -- post link as a comment to this blogpost.

Here's how:

1. go to the "comments" field at the bottom of the post.

2. quote or paraphrase a sentence of two that sums the webpage you found.

3. copy and paste link from the address field on your webpage into the comment field

4. publish your comment

COMM 209, 390: The future of journalism?

Students who have been in my other classes know one of my favorite editorial cartoonists is David Horsey of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. And those who are taking me this semester are no doubt beginning to figure it out.

Here, offered without comment, is a link to today's (Sunday's) cartoon:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/viewbydate.asp?id=1903

Founded in 1863, the P-I was put up for sale Jan. 9 by its publisher, the Hearst Corp. If a buyer isn't found by the end of February, the paper will close its doors for good.

Horsey's cartoon is apparently prompted by his thoughts on the National Press Foundation's 26th annual awards dinner ... which he also blogged on last week. It's not happy reading, but, then, Horsey's about to lose his job in a couple of weeks.

COMM 390: Reorienting ourselves; three points of view we'll consider ... and an upcoming speech (which may be assigned if it takes place)

Since I was out sick most of last week, we'll need to reorient ourselves a little to make up for lost time. That's the bad news. The good news is I took enough steroids to qualify for a career in minor league baseball, and you guys are all rested up and ready to read. (How do you like the 'lliteration?) We were going to do this anyway: I want to frame the rest of our reading and class discussion in COMM 390 in terms of examining the effects of advertising in light of different opinions that have been expressed about it. I don't want to present you with one guy's opinion and call that reality.

Here are three that we'll deal with so far in a big way in the next few days:

1. Arthur A. Berger. I'll let you read this for yourselves as we finish our textbook "Ads, Fads, & Consumer Culture." Please keep reading it as fast as you can, and I will be thinking of ways I can give you the opportunity to express yourselves in writing (cough, cough, if you get my drift) on the issues he raises and unintended consequences he discusses before midterms.
2. Kenneth E. Clow and Donald E. Baack. Authors of "Integrated Advertising, Promotional and Marketing Communications," they're advertising professionals who explain how consumer attitudes are affected psychologically by ads in an IMC campaign. I gave you a very brief summary last week, but it's so abstract I hardly understand it. (Not a good sign, if I'm going to try to explain it.) So I'll photocopy a longer explanation this week (week of Feb. 16) and get it to you ASAPest.
3. The Vatican. The Pontifical Council for Social Communications issued a paper called "Ethics in Communications" in 2000. I do not regard it as a "message from our sponsor" that cuts off discussion; it invites dialog with "professional communicators—writers, editors, reporters, correspondents, performers, producers, technical personnel" (and management). Is advertising necessarily inconsistent with the Pontifical Council's vision of "a body of moral truth based on human dignity and rights, the preferential option for the poor, the universal destination of goods, love of enemies, and unconditional respect for all human life from conception to natural death...?"

Next month we'll get into a fourth point of view -- that of media critic Jean Kilbourne, author of our other assigned text, "Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel." As you can guess from the title, she'll have a point of view.

Kilbourne may speak in Springfield early next month. All I can find is an item posted to a blog for Wednesday, March 4:

“Deadly Persuasion: Advertising and the Corruption of Relationships,” with Jean Kilbourne, 7:30 p.m., Brookens Auditorium, University of Illinois at Springfield; free.

I couldn't find the events listing on the Journal-Register's website and I couldn't open either of the press releases UIS posted to the Web. Nor did I find a speech in Springfield listed on Kilbourne's schedule, either. So I can't confirm it. If she's in town, try to go to her talk. And whatever else you do, read her book.

COMM 209: Assignment for FridayMonday ... plus: notes on a quietly effective interviewing style

Read the story of Jenny Deadline in Harrower, pp. 20-21, and come to class ready to discuss it. Ask yourself: Who did Jenny interview? What did they tell her? What more could they have told her if she'd known to ask? (Maybe nothing. Who knows? But let's think about it.) And let's move on. But I like the story of Jenny Deadline. There's something very true-to-life about it. We'll come back to it several times.

New reading and in-class discussion assignments.

Since we lost some time last week when I was sick, I want to move right into interviewing. Which I'm going to define as what happens whenever you talk to somebody, take notes on what they say and write it up. (You won't find that in a glossary, but it is what it is.) For Wednesday, skim back over Chapters 3 and 4 in Harrower on reporting and writing the news and ask yourself how much of this is really about interviewing?

Today, I want to watch clips of three TV interviews.

The first one aired Thursday on Fox News, when right-wing talk show host Sean Hannity interviewed former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Hannity's show. Click on link that says "Video: Watch Sean's interview" to watch -- it won't take long, unless you enjoy watching two bulls paw the ground and snort at each other across the pasture field.) Notice how he's not asking questions. He says he is, but he isn't. He's giving little speeches. It's all about Hannity.

The next is an interview Geraldo Rivera sprung on Blagojevich last month in a New York City parking lot. (Click on link that says "Click here to see Geraldo's interview with Governor Blagojevich." Gee, this stuff isn't rocket science, is it?) Now I don't like Geraldo any better than I do Hannity. They're both blowhards. But again, I want you to notice something else. Notice how he draws Blagojevich out, keeps him talking, disagrees with him, agrees, schmoozes, whatever, anything, everything to keep him talking. Geraldo's style as an interviewer is 180 degrees away from mine, but it works.

My preference, for what it's worth, is for a quieter style of interviewing. When I was covering courts and sheriff's police in East Tennessee, I got to know several very good criminal investigators. There wasn't much they hadn't seen before, and they weren't easily surprised. The ones I admired the most were low-key guys, very patient and unfailingly courteous.

So after watching Hannity and Rivera playing their tough-guy journalist roles, I went looking on the Internet for video clips of an interviewer whose style and tactics reminded me of the criminal investigators I used to know on the 9th and 10th Judicial Circuit in Tennessee. It took me a while, but I found one.

It's Katie Couric.

Katie Couric? The CBS news anchor?

Yep. When Couric interviewed Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin last year, she was unfailingly courteous, she was patient and she was as low-key as I've ever seen her. Usually I think of Couric as ... OK, well, perky. Her job wasn't so much to keep Palin talking as it was to get her back to specifics, to lead her along.

COMM 209: Pigs, pies, polka, NEWS! in class today

We'll start by looking at page 17 in Tim Harrower's "Inside Reporting." Read his list of "what makes a story interesting to its readers" ... and we'll discuss how the editors of a metro daily, a community weekly and a college campus paper would answer that question.

Then we'll see how selected stories linked to the Google news page stack up against Harrower's list. If you don't have your book with you, don't despair. You can find a dozen virtually identical lists on the Web. http://mtsu32.mtsu.edu:11178/171/newsvals.htm">One I especially like is by journalism prof Ken Blake of Middle Tennessee State University.

All COMM classes read: Why we call this blog The Mackerel Wrapper

To see why, click on this link http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20090216,00.html or look at the cover of this week's Time magazine on the newstand (or in SCI-Benedictine's Becker Library).

Read Times' cover story while you're at it. It's by former Time managing editor Walter Isaacson, and it's called "How to Save Your Newspaper." Isaacson's idea is to charge for Web content. My first reaction was something I can't post to a public medium. But I read on. Isaacson makes a good case.

Newspapers, he said, are going broke. Literally. (Look at the Chicago Tribune, currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.) And with the recession, advertising no longer supports a news operation. (Look at the print edition of Time. It's very thin. So are all the magazines and newspapers.) Fewer ads means less newshole. We don't need to belabor the point. It's been trending that way for years.

Isaacson's contribution to this disucssion is technological. He thinks a way can be found for readers to pay for content like music consumers pay for downloads:

... The key to attracting online revenue, I think, is to come up with an iTunes-easy method of micropayment. We need something like digital coins or an E-ZPass digital wallet — a one-click system with a really simple interface that will permit impulse purchases of a newspaper, magazine, article, blog or video for a penny, nickel, dime or whatever the creator chooses to charge.

What won me over was another idea of Isaacson's, and I think it might be intriguing to you guys as well. Producers of content, the writers and photographers and graphic designers and other "creatives," could benefit under Isaacson's business model as well as publishers. He says:

Under a micropayment system, a newspaper might decide to charge a nickel for an article or a dime for that day's full edition or $2 for a month's worth of Web access. Some surfers would balk, but I suspect most would merrily click through if it were cheap and easy enough.

The system could be used for all forms of media: magazines and blogs, games and apps, TV newscasts and amateur videos, porn pictures and policy monographs, the reports of citizen journalists, recipes of great cooks and songs of garage bands. This would not only offer a lifeline to traditional media outlets but also nourish citizen journalists and bloggers. They have vastly enriched our realms of information and ideas, but most can't make much money at it. As a result, they tend to do it for the ego kick or as a civic contribution. A micropayment system would allow regular folks, the types who have to worry about feeding their families, to supplement their income by doing citizen journalism that is of value to their community.

When I used to go fishing in the bayous of Louisiana as a boy, my friend Thomas would sometimes steal ice from those machines outside gas stations. He had the theory that ice should be free. We didn't reflect much on who would make the ice if it were free, but fortunately we grew out of that phase. Likewise, those who believe that all content should be free should reflect on who will open bureaus in Baghdad or be able to fly off as freelancers to report in Rwanda under such a system.

I say this not because I am "evil," which is the description my daughter slings at those who want to charge for their Web content, music or apps. Instead, I say this because my daughter is very creative, and when she gets older, I want her to get paid for producing really neat stuff rather than come to me for money or decide that it makes more sense to be an investment banker.

I say this, too, because I love journalism. I think it is valuable and should be valued by its consumers. Charging for content forces discipline on journalists: they must produce things that people actually value. I suspect we will find that this necessity is actually liberating. The need to be valued by readers — serving them first and foremost rather than relying solely on advertising revenue — will allow the media once again to set their compass true to what journalism should always be about.

Will anything like this actually happen? It's hard to say. But it's clear the present business model, which Isaacson compares to lemmings diving off a cliff, isn't working anymore.

COMM 390: Time for a cartoon break!

Just follow this link ...

http://www.kentucky.com/947/image_media/675767.html
It's by Joel Pett of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader. What do you think? Now that we've been reading about consumption economies, do you think he's right?

For extra credit, post your thoughts as comments to this blogpost.

STUDENT BLOGS -- SPRING 2009

David Arterberry. http://www.timeisallwasted.blogspot.com/

Lauren Burke. http://laurenburke.blogspot.com/

Laikyn Cheffy. http://lak22.blogspot.com/

Erick Clark http://erickclark.blogspot.com/

Gina Collebrusco. http://ginawaffles.blogspot.com/

Cassie Dahman http://cassie-consumer-culture.blogspot.com/

Katie Davis http://katiedaviscom387.blogspot.com/

Melissa Glenn http://missy2009blog.blogspot.com/

Jeff Hall http://www.scijournalism.blogspot.com/

Shah Hasan http://shasan86.blogspot.com/

Alyssa Kauffman. http://alyssa4387.blogspot.com/

Claire Keldermans http://clairekeldermansblog.blogspot.com/

Megan Meeker http://meeker22.blogspot.com/

Nikkie Prosperini http://nikkieuntitled.blogspot.com/

Mike Pulliam http://theyawningmonkey.blogspot.com/

Amie N Suter http://amiesuter.blogspot.com/

Becky VanDyke http://journlit.blogspot.com/



Past Semesters

Cassie Dahman http://cassie-media-gov.blogspot.com/ Fall 08

Jeremy Dixon http://jeremy-dixon.blogspot.com/ 2008

Whitney Drobnack http://whitterk5.blogspot.com/ 2008

Zach Kirchner http://com317law.blogspot.com/ Spring 2008

Mitch Ladd http://thebestblognamesaretaken.blogspot.com/ Spring 2008

Dani Menser http://danimensersblog.blogspot.com/ Fall 2008

Gina Moscardelli. http://ginaslitofjblog.blogspot.com/ Spring-Fall 2008

Marqueta Stewart. http://queta-marqueta.blogspot.com/ 2008

Jill Watkins. http://jillsblog-watkins25.blogspot.com/ Spring 2008

__________. http://comm386jill.blogspot.com/ Fall 2008

Caleb Young http://calebyoungspring08.blogspot.com/ Spring and Fall 2008

COMM 390 -- discussion questions for Friday, Feb. 6

what is demographics?

how does ??? fit into advertising?

how does the demographics of advertising influence American popular culture?

did you read Chapter 2 in Berger?

COMM 209: In-class assignment

• Write a story on my presentation -- how a well-crafted news story is like a cheap necklace or a shish-kebab.
  
  
  500-750 words -- i.e. 2-3 pages double spaced -- due at the end of class today
  
  at least three (3) quotes
  
  in the body of the story, you'll want a graf or two of bio -- you can find details on my resume at http://www.sci.edu/faculty/ellertsen/resume.html
  
  organize it inverted pyramid style or in the Newsweek educational handout style with an anecdotal lede (story), nut graf or billboard, body and "kicker" at the end

COMM 390: Caroline Kennedy, sheltered celebrities ... and women in politics

When Caroline Kennedy withdrew last month from consideration for New York's open seat in the U.S. Senate, Anne E. Kornblut of The Washington Post asked "Does a Glass Ceiling Persist in Politics?" Kornblut's answer, implied more than stated outright: Well, yes, there is a gender problem in national politics. Kornblut said:

Like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin before her, Kennedy illustrated what some say is an enduring double standard in the handling of ambitious female office-seekers. Even as more women step forward as contenders for premier political jobs, observers say, few seem able to get there.

In less than two months, Kennedy, 51, was transformed from a beloved, if elusive, national icon into a laughingstock in the New York media, mocked for her verbal tics and criticized for her spotty voting record.

Kornblut covered last year's Democratic primaries and presidential election, and she quotes people on both sides of the issue:

Many political observers dismissed the notion that Kennedy's difficulties had anything to do with gender, noting that she came across as a novice and sought appointment just as the national tolerance for family dynasties seemed to ebb. Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic strategist, said any suggestion that Kennedy was treated unfairly because of her sex was "nonsense." "The New York press corps is an equal opportunity candidate-basher," he said. "New York politics is rough and tumble, and she was too much of a lady for it. This is a very tough place to do politics in."

So we're dealing with a couple of roles here.

What's our image of a successful woman? Describe a "typical" upscale woman as portrayed in the media, in our popular culture. Sleek? Sophisticated? What does she look like? What does she act like? Is she feminine? Powerful? Is there a downside to her success?

What is our image of a successful politician? Again, think of the portrayals of successful pols in the news, in movies, TV shows. Obama, McCain. Try not to think of Blagojevich!

And, third, what is our image of a successful woman politician? Again, is there a downside? What's the upside? How do they balance? Think of Palin, think Hillary Clinton. Of Paris Hilton's energy policy ad. What about the sisterhood of the traveling pants suits?

Kornblut quoted some interesting opinions, including this one -- which also mentions conflicting roles and/or stereotypes of success:

Several Democratic strategists said the Kennedy conundrum was in part unique to her and in part reflective of what other high-profile women encountered this year. Dee Dee Myers, press secretary in Bill Clinton's White House, said it was difficult to untangle questions about scrutiny Kennedy faced as a woman from those she faced as a New Yorker, where attention is fierce, or as a celebrity or member of the fabled Kennedy family.

But Myers said that "questions about her résumé absolutely have to do with her gender."

"I don't see it as thin, I see it as unconventional," Myers said of Kennedy's résumé, which includes work as an author and schools fundraiser. "I don't see why running a hedge fund is better preparation for doing the people's business than writing books or working in the school system and raising a family."

MARK YOUR CALENDARS -- Feb. 12

Reported first by political columnist Bernie Schoenberg of The State Journal-Register, President Barack Obama will speak at the Abraham Lincoln Association’s annual banquet on Lincoln's birthday, Thursday, Feb. 12. As journalism students, you'll want to pay attention to the coverage.

(And if you don't want to, you'll be assigned to. Right?)

Said Rich Miller of the Capitol Fax Blog, where I saw the story, "Now that Rod Blagojevich is safely out of the picture, we have this development." The J-R and http://thecapitolfaxblog.com are the best places to keep up with plans for the event, including any public access.

COMM 390: Monday's class

Well, I guess in order to be culturally literate, we owe it to ourselves to keep up with the Superbowl ads. There's a good discussion, with links, at Slate.com ... so let's start there.

COMM 390, 209 (optional): Caroline Kennedy and images of women in politics

For COMM 390: Look for gender role stereotypes like those we have been discussing -- as well as political and class steretypes -- in this profile of Caroline Kennedy by Larissa MacFarquhar of New Yorker magazine. What roles must be juggled by a woman involved in politics? How is she stereotyped? Read for Wednesday, and we'll discuss in class.

For COMM 209, MacFarquhar is a observant, subtle reporter who is well worth reading. You can get through my basic newswriting course without reading her story, especially if you're not a communication arts major and/or you're satisfied with a "C" in the course. But this is an excellent profile that's very well reported (even though Kennedy refused to be interviewed for the story), and you will learn things from it you can use in your own writing. As you read, ask yourself how you would handle that quote, that interview, that descriptive passage, etc., if you were writing the story. If you're serious about comm. arts, you'll start asking yourself those questions about everything you read.

MacFarquhar also wrote a well-regarded profile of Barack Obama in May 2007, during the early stages of his successful presidential primary campaign.

COMM 209: An opinion column (read this after the two below)

John Kass is a columnist for the Trib. That means he's allowed to write his, well, his opinion. That's why they call him ... OK, I don't have to draw pictures! At any rate, he's certainly opinionated. A little bit of Kass goes a long way (that's another opinion, by the way: purely mine). He's awfully cynical. But he writes well, and his cynicism is often grounded in fact.

But first, read the two pieces on Governor Quinn below.

Kass' column in Sunday's Trib, headlined "Political cloud lifts; smoke screen lingers," makes fun of a statement by President Obama to the effect that a cloud has been lifted with the impeachment and ouster of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Kass continues:

Yet cloud or no cloud, we're still the same old Illinois, run the Chicago Way. Where street gangs provide political muscle in many city precincts, where the Outfit still has reach among certain politicians and judges and cops, where small-business owners fear being crushed by political bureaucrats. And where Combine lords, Democrats and Republicans, work for a common purpose:

To install their children in public office or set friends and relatives before the public trough, to gorge on government contracts, often involving asphalt and concrete, in the name of providing jobs.

A couple of words may need to be translated. The "Outfit" is what downstaters more often call the Mafia. And the "Combine" is Kass' word for corrupt political insiders. By using the word, he implies they form a conscious statewide conspiracy. Whether he knows what a combine does, in downstate usage, is a point I haven't seen him address in print.

Sunday's column is worth reading, just for two of the all-time great short grafs. I'll quote them out of context:

Blue skies. Sunny days.

And:

Bye-bye, cloud.

To put them in context, you'll have to read Kass' column. You won't be sorry you did.

COMM 209: Another Pat Quinn story (but we'll look at Saturday's first)

Part 2 of 2 --

See first Saturday's blog post "'Today a peacock, tomorrow a feather duster' -- Gov. Quinn" below.]

From today's Chicago Tribune, a profile that explores pros and cons of the new governor. I'm assigning it for two reasons. One is that it kind of balances Friday's profile in The New York Times, which was almost gushing. The Trib's, by comparison, is a pretty good "watchdog" story, a story that demonstrates the media's role of keeping government accountable to citizens and telling readers what government doesn't want us to know.

But the stories have a lot in common. Good quotes, from a variety of sources. Good reporting, in other words. Well-written, too. It's by Ray Long, the Trib's Springfield bureau chief, and Rick Pearson, its chief political writer. Their lede stretches over three or four grafs:

SPRINGFIELD — Coming after deposed and dysfunctional Rod Blagojevich, Gov. Pat Quinn is hoping to connect with an exhausted public by casting himself as an earnest reformer eager to start righting the ship of state.

"Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and organize," Quinn said on each of his first two days in office.

It's one of the favorite bromides for the slogan-slinging former cross-country captain at Fenwick High School known for his energy, modest lifestyle and unceasing devotion to his pet causes.

Political gimmickry and populist rhetoric are also part of the mix for a man who's pushed some high-profile reforms but not always lived up to the lofty image he sells voters. He's an "outsider" who's been bouncing around politics for 37 years and once left state government amid a ghost-payrolling probe. And he's an ethics advocate who defended Blagojevich from corruption accusations until after both were safely re-elected.

Now the longtime populist warrior finally gets to see if his approach measures up to the reality of having to govern Illinois at one of the state's most desperate times.

The body of the story is full of details, and obviously based on good reporting.

Long and Pearson don't just talk to people, though. They (or someone) pulled Quinn's financial disclosure records on file at the State Board of Elections. That's where they get information like this:

After the election, Quinn began distancing himself from [ousted Gov. Rod] Blagojevich's scandal. But he has taken donations from some political insiders with ties to the ex-governor.

Campaign records show convicted Blagojevich fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko donated more than $48,000 to Quinn's campaigns. Quinn said he's since donated all of that money and more to charities.

Raghuveer Nayak, an Oak Brook businessman and political fundraiser for Blagojevich, has donated $17,000 to Quinn's campaign fund, according to his reports. Nayak has come under federal scrutiny for his role in a scheme alleged in the criminal complaint against Blagojevich.

Read on and you'll see more. The reported transactions are legal, but they show Quinn in a different light than political rhetoric. And they show more iniative than just reporting what people say -- the State Board of Elections reports indicate what people do as well.

Like the Times' profile, the Trib's ends with what the Newsweek handout I gave you last week calls a "kicker." The Trib's isn't a quote though. Long and Pearson set it up by recalling Quinn was long-distance running captain at Fenwick High School, a parochial school in Oak Park, and recapping his 30-year political career up to the time he ran as a dark-horse candidate for lieutenant governor in 2002, won an upset victory in the primary and that way "joined with Blagojevich, who didn't necessarily want him as a running mate." That set them up for the metaphor they used in the kicker:

Seven years and one impeachment later, Quinn, the former cross-country runner is governor.

It's a type of running that requires stamina and hard work to go the distance. For Quinn, dealing with the state's massive problems is a race he's guaranteed just two years to finish.