Newark mayor uses Twitter to help manage snow emergency

They're not all like Sarah Palin.

Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, N.J., used Twitter to communicate with his constituents during this week's snow emergency. This article in The Cutline blog on the Yahoo! News website tells how.

Reports Michael Caldrone:

For the past two days, Booker has been responding non-stop to residents' concerns over Twitter. Booker's Twitter feed has offered a fascinating window into how a public official can harness social media to handle a city crisis.

Booker told The Cutline that Twitter has been "very, very helpful" in dealing with the situation on the snow-covered ground. "It expands my ability to make a positive impact on my constituents and meet the needs of the city," he added.

On Tuesday, one Twitter user asked: "Can we can we please have trucks on Wainwright Street ASAP? My street is terrible!" Booker quickly shot back: "On it." ...

There's more, but that one's typical of the others. Booker is getting better notices, Caldrone says, than New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The contrast with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was vacationing at Disney World during the emergency, and Lt. Gov Kim Guadagno, in Mexico, wasn't mentioned in Caldrone's post.

Michael Burlingame - unedited ms. of Abraham Lincoln: A Life on Knox College's website

Available on line unedited manuscript w/ original full documentation of Abraham Lincoln: A Life by Michael Burlingame.

On the Lincoln Studies Center website at Knox College:

Michael Burlingame's long-awaited Abraham Lincoln: A Life, published in 2008 by the Johns Hopkins University Press in two large volumes and nearly 2,000 pages, is believed by many Lincoln scholars to be the most exhaustively researched and fully documented biography of Abraham Lincoln ever written.

The work as originally submitted was even more extensive, but largely because of space limitations, it was considered necessary to condense both the narrative and the accompanying documentation. By agreement with the author and the publisher, and in the interest of giving scholars and other students of Lincoln access to references and sources not appearing in the published version, the Lincoln Studies Center is privileged to present on this site the author's original unedited manuscript. This manuscript is accessible by individual chapters, which are displayed in searchable, read-only PDF format.

The user is advised that the work presented here is copyrighted, that Johns Hopkins University Press reserves all rights, and that this material may not be reproduced without permission.

Watchdog role of the media? David Horsey of seattlepi.com explains

http://www.seattlepi.com/horsey/viewbytopic.asp?topic=National%20news&id=2099

COMM 150: PRSA Code of Ethics

Since it's the last day of classes, here's something we didn't get around to ...

It's the Public Relations Society of America Code of Ethics. It's important. Core values are as follows:

The Code, created and maintained by the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards (BEPS), sets out principles and guidelines built on core values. Fundamental values like advocacy, honesty, loyalty, professional development and objectivity structure ethical practice and interaction with clients and the public.

Translating values into principles of ethical practice, the Code advises professionals to:

• Protect and advance the free flow of accurate and truthful information.
  
• Foster informed decision making through open communication.
  
• Protect confidential and private information.
  
• Promote healthy and fair competition among professionals.
  
• Avoid conflicts of interest.
  
• Work to strengthen the public’s trust in the profession.

Code guidelines, like tactics supporting strategies, zero in on putting value and principles into play for working professionals facing everyday tasks and challenges. Among them, professionals should:

• Be honest and accurate in all communications.
  
• Reveal sponsors for represented causes and interests.
  Act in the best interest of clients or employers.
  
• Disclose financial interests in a client’s organization.
  
• Safeguard the confidences and privacy rights of clients and employees.
  
• Follow ethical hiring practices to respect free and open competition.
  
• Avoid conflicts between personal and professional interests.
  Decline representation of clients requiring actions contrary to the Code.
  
• Accurately define what public relations activities can accomplish.
  
• Report all ethical violations to the appropriate authority.

There's more, geared like the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, toward helping working professionals meet on-the-job challenges. You may have these from other classes. Now you have them again.

COMM 150: Macy's, regional brands and a "random act of culture"

Macy's has had mixed success with its efforts to establish itself as a national brand. In Chicago, people still want to bring back Marshall Field's five years after the name was changed to Macy's. But Macy's scored a public relations coup this fall in downtown Philadelphia when the Opera Company of Philadelphia and members of 32 local choirs joined in a “Random Act of Culture” (funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation) in the center city Macy's, formerly Wanamaker's department store and for many years a Philadelphia icon. Dressed as shoppers, they burst into Handel's "Messiah" in what seemed to be a random outpouring of song but must have been very well rehearsed. Here's the first story in the Philadelphia Inquirer and here's a follow-up on how the YouTube video went viral. The video, in case you haven't seen it or would like to see it again, follows:

COMM 387 syllabus 2011

COMM 387: Literature and Journalism
Benedictine University at Springfield
Spring Semester 2011

None of the worst French novels from which careful parents try to protect their children can be as bad as what is daily bought and laid upon the breakfast table of every educated family in England, and its effect must be most pernicious to the public morals of the country. -- Queen Victoria (1859)

Communications 387 meets from 2 to 3:15 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday (TR) in Dawson 220 (third-floor computer lab) on the Benedictine campus in Springfield. Instructor is Pete Ellertsen, 2125 South Lincoln, Springfield IL 62704, email: eellertsen@ben.edu. Conferences TBA by appointment. Home: 2125 South Lincoln, Springfield, IL 62704. tel. 793-2587.

I. COURSE DESCRIPTION

Course Title: The Literature of Journalism
Course Number: COMM 387
Credits: 3.00
Description
Traces the development of the literary genre in journalism from the 18th century essays of Defoe, Steele and Addison to the "new journalism" of Wolfe and Capote.

II. TEXTBOOKS
You have two: (1) Kevin Kerrane and Ben Yagoda , "The Art of Fact"; and (2) Carl Hiaasen, "Lucky You." All written work will follow the conventions of "The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual," so if you don't already have one, consider COMM 397 as an opportunity to purchase one for all your very own. Also required are the readings on the World Wide Web linked below in the Tentative Calendar and our class Web log, The Mackerel Wrapper at . You should be thoroughly familiar with the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Statement of Journalistic Principles of the Project for Excellence in Journalism (linked to the online version of this syllabus on my blog The Mackerel Wrapper. We will watch "His Girl Friday" (1940), starring Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant.

III. MISSION STATEMENT
Benedictine University is dedicated to the education of undergraduate and graduate students from diverse ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds. As an academic community committed to liberal arts and professional education distinguished and guided by our Roman Catholic tradition and Benedictine heritage, we prepare our students for a lifetime as active, informed and responsible citizens and leaders in the world community.

IV. GOALS, OBJECTIVES, AND STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

A. Common Learning Objectives

Benedictine University is committed to assist all students in the acquisition of knowledge and cultivation of skills in six major areas. Graduates of the university's degree programs will develop:

1. Disciplinary Knowledge:

a. Acquire, understand and synthesize discipline-based knowledge
b. Apply disciplinary methodologies in their qualitative and quantitative dimensions
c. Understand the content and interrelationships of specific areas of study
d. Communicate effectively within and across the disciplines

2. Communication Skills:

a. Express oneself clearly and concisely in multiple forms
b. Appreciate and develop creative expression

3. Problem-Solving Skills:

a. Reason and communicate informed judgments
b. Identify and solve problems, independently and cooperatively
c. Understand the nature of and evaluate evidence

4. Social Responsibility:

a. Confront and resolve ethical issues and contribute to the work of peace and social justice
b. Exhibit stewardship of self and environment
c. Develop good citizenship

5. Global Perspectives:

a. Benefit from diversity of opinion, abilities, and culture
b. Recognize the importance of the interdependence of cultures and nations
c. Communicate effectively within and across cultural boundaries

6. Self-Direction and Personal Growth:

a. Develop a sense of intellectual curiosity and a desire for lifelong learning
b. Strive for a life lived in balance
c. Develop leadership potential
d. Foster spiritual growth

B. Course Goals/Objectives/Outcomes

COMM 387 was designed with the above Common Learning Objectives in mind. Thus, upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to demonstrate mastery of the following objectives and student learning outcomes:

Goals. Students will understand the historical development of professional journalism in England and the United States; appraise journalistic principles and craftsmanship in authors who made the transition from journalism to literature; assess the professional attitudes, values and craft agenda of professional journalists writing today; and reflect on how these attitudes, values and principles can inform their own professional writing.

Student Learning Objectives and Outcomes. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Trace the development of journalism in the English-speaking world, from 18th-century magazines to the "new journalism" of the 1970s and mass-market media writing of the 20th and 21st centuries

• Formulate a set of journalistic values, including such principles as accuracy, objectivity, readablity, and the exposure of wrongdoing in powerful institutions; and to compare these values with commonly accepted benchmarks of literary merit

• Reflect on how the values, principles, practices and lessons learned from the daily work product of journalists through history can help in the formation of their own values, principles and writing style


V. TEACHING METHODS/DELIVERY SYSTEM

The classroom is a writing and discourse community. This course is a combination of lecture, in-class discussion, and posting to the class blog and students' individual blogs, individual conferences, and formal evaluations. Regular, brief quizzes will be administered to ensure that readings have been completed; these quizzes may take place on paper or in discussion Q&A. This class is very interactive. In order to complete the course successfully, students must come to class and must be prepared to discuss the reading assignments and to do the in-class work.

VI. COURSE REQUIREMENTS

A. Attendance is required during all class sessions. Quizzes and other in-class work that are missed for any reason may not be made up. If the final exam is missed for any reason, it may not be made up. If the absence occurs on the date an assignment is due, the late penalty for assignments (outlined below) still applies.

B. Reading Assignments. Please see the Tentative Calendar below.

C. Written Assignments. (1) Both the midterm and final exam will be take-home essay examinations. (2) Students will create a web Log (blog) and post weekly 750- to 1,000-word journals analyzing selected reading assignments to the blog. Assignments for these analyses will be posted a week ahead of time; typically they will require students to research the writers on the Internet or in print sources. (3) Students also will be assigned to post discussion of readings to the blog during class. Many of these assignments will not be announced, and they ordinarily cannot be made up.

Assignments are due on the date indicated on the assignment sheet.

Benedictine University at Springfield Student Academic Honesty Policy
The search for truth and the dissemination of knowledge are the central missions of a university. Benedictine University at Springfield pursues these missions in an environment guided by our Roman Catholic tradition and our Benedictine heritage. Integrity and honesty are therefore expected of all University students. Actions such as cheating, plagiarism, collusion, fabrication, forgery, falsification, destruction, multiple submission, solicitation, and misrepresentation are violations of these expectations and constitute unacceptable behavior in the University community.

Student’s Responsibility
Though there is no formal honor code at Benedictine University at Springfield, students are expected to exhibit academic honesty at all times. Violations against academic honesty are always serious and may result in sanctions that could have profound long-term effects. The final responsibility for understanding the Academic Honesty Policy of the institution, as well as the specific policies for individual courses normally found in syllabi, rests with students. If any doubt exists about what constitutes academic dishonesty, students have the responsibility to talk to the faculty member. Students should expect the members of their class to be academically honest. If students believe one or more members of the class have been deceitful to gain academic advantage in the class, students should feel comfortable to approach the faculty member of the course without prejudice.

Violations of the Academic Honesty Policy will be reported to the Office of the Dean of Academic Affairs. Along with a verbal warning, the following are consequences a student may face for academic dishonesty:

• a failing grade or “zero” for the assignment;
• dismissal from and a failing grade for the course; or
• dismissal from the Institution.

VII. MEANS OF EVALUATION
Your final grade will be based on assignments weighted as follows: (A) class participation and journals, including the blogged analyses of professional writing, worth 50 percent of the total grade; (B) reporting assignments, including coverage of noontime events as well as the 1,500-word article and query letter, in total worth 25 percent of the total; and (C) quizzes and tests including the midterm and the final exam, worth 25 percent. Note the heavy emphasis on class participation; if you're absent, you can't participate. If you don't participate, you don't get credit for something you didn't do.

The instructor's grading scale is as follows: A = 100-90. B = 89-80. C = 79-70. D = 69-60. F = 59-0.

Grade Appeal Process
Grade appeals must be initiated 90 days prior to the end of one semester after the course in question has been completed. The process for appealing a grade is outlined below.

First, contact the Instructor.
1. A student must appeal to his/her instructor in writing (e-mail is acceptable) and provide specific reasons why his/her grade should be changed.
2. The instructor must respond to the student in writing (e-mail is acceptable) and provide a copy to the Division Chair.

Second, contact the Division Chair.
3. If the student wishes, he/she may then appeal to the Division Chair in writing (e-mail is acceptable) and provide specific reasons why his/her grade should be changed without the instructor’s permission. The student should understand that overwhelming evidence must be presented to the Division Chair to prove that the current grade is incorrect.
4. The Division Chair must respond to the student in writing (e-mail is acceptable) and provide a copy to the academic dean.
Lastly, contact the Academic Dean.
5. If the student wishes, he/she may appeal to the academic dean in writing (e-mail is acceptable) and provide specific reasons why his/her grade should be changed without the instructor’s or the Division Chair’s permission. The student should understand that overwhelming evidence must be presented to the academic dean to prove the grade is incorrect.
6. The academic dean must respond to the student in writing (e-mail is acceptable). The academic dean’s decision is final.

Add/Drop Dates
Please refer to the current Academic Calendar for add/drop dates.

Incomplete Request
To qualify for an “I” grade, a minimum of 75% of the course work must be completed with a passing grade, and a student must submit a completed Request for an Incomplete form to the Registrar’s Office. The form must be completed by both student and instructor, but it is the student’s responsibility (not the instructor’s) to initiate this process and obtain the necessary signatures.

Student Withdrawal Procedure
It is the student’s responsibility to officially withdraw from a course by completing the appropriate form, with appropriate signatures, and returning the completed form to the Advising Office. Please refer to the Student Handbook for important financial information related to withdrawals.

VIII. TOPICAL COURSE OUTLINE
Please also see Tentative Calendar below.
A. Literature and journalism, 'new' and old

1. purpose
   
2. stereotypes
   
3. history

B. 'New journalism' and creative nonfiction

1. 'literary' narrative techniques
   
2. style as substance?

C. Principles and practices of journalism

1. discipline of verification
   
2. Watchdog role: 'afflicting the comfortable'
   
3. Defining community: goals and heroes
   
4. Voice for the voiceless

D. Examples of journalism and satire

1. Jonathan Swift
   
2. Carl Hiassen

IX. AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA)
Benedictine University at Springfield provides individuals with disabilities reasonable accommodations to participate in educational programs, activities, and services. Students with disabilities requiring accommodations to participate in campus-sponsored programs, activities, and services, or to meet course requirements, should contact the Director of the Resource Center as early as possible.

If documentation of the disability (either learning or physical) is not already on file, it may be requested. Once on file, an individual student’s disability documentation is shared only at that individual’s request and solely with the parties whom the student wishes it shared. Requests are kept confidential and may be made by emailing jharris@sci.edu or by calling (217) 525-1420, ext. 306.

X. ASSESSMENT
Goals, objectives, and learning outcomes that will be assessed in the class are stated in this syllabus in Sections IV and VI. Instructor will use background knowledge probes, one-minute papers, reflective essays and/or other Classroom Assessment Techniques as deemed necessary in order to provide continuous improvement of instruction.

Tentative Calendar

Please note: Reading assignments will be supplemented by updates to the HTML version of this syllabus and/or subsequent posts to the The Mackerel Wrapper. You are responsible for keeping up with any changes to the schedule.

Week 1

Principles of journalism, 'new' and old. In Kerrane and Yagoda, read Yagoda's preface and Kerrane's "Making Facts Dance" (13-20). On the Web, read the Committee of Concerned Journalists' Principles of Journalism at http://www.journalism.org/resources/principles; University of North Carolina-Pembroke journalism prof Mark Canada's Introduction to Literary Journalism; and retired college English teacher Robert Harris' introduction to satire. We will compare statements on the writer's purpose by William Faulkner and a character in the play "The Front Page." Choose a name for your Web log and open it; if you have already created a blog for one of my 300-level courses, you may use it to blog for COMM 387. I will post more detailed instructions to the class blog.

Week 2

Stereotypes, values and principles. Read up on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's play "The Front Page"; Notre Dame journalism prof Robert Schmul's article on its place in newspapering lore; and the 1940 movie remake "His Girl Friday," including the original reviews in Variety and selected newspapers of what The New York Times called " the maddest newspaper comedy [movie] of our times." on a Cary Grant fansite. We will watch the movie in class. A transcript of the shooting draft for "His Girl Friday" is available on line. I
will assign Paper No. 1, an analysis of how the movie reflects and/or satirizes journalistic principles; I will hand out a detailed assignment sheet and supplement it to the class blog.

Week 3

Beginnings: Coffeehouses. In Kerrane and Yagoda, read Daniel DeFoe, "Jonathan Wild"(23-28); On the Web, we'll read an article by Jamie Pratt in History magazine about The Tatler and The Spectator, magazines written by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in the early 1700s; an breif excerpt by Addison; a survey of 18th-century periodical satire; Jonathan Swift's "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift"[yes, that's right] on the 18th-century literary scene; and Swift's "Description of a City Shower" [be sure to check out the 18th-century magazine layout]. Paper No. 1 on "His Girl Friday" is due.

Week 4

Correspondents and news. In Kerrane and Yagoda, read Charles Dickens, "Great Tasmania's Cargo" (K&Y 38-45); and Times of London correspondent William Russell's Crimean War dispatches on the Charge of the Light Brigade and conditions at a military hospital. If you're interested in a transcript and manuscript version of Lord Tennyson's poem inspired by Russell's article, the University of Virginia has one on line. Abraham Cahan's stories on immigrants (K&Y 76-82).

Week 5

Innovation and continuity: Telegraph to HTML. In Kerrane and Yagoda, read Richard Harding Davis, "Death of Rodriguez" (71-75) John Steinbeck, "Once There Was a War" (458-60); and Times correspondent John Simpson's dispatch "Tiananmen Square" (347-53). On the Web, we will read an early wire report, by
Henry Villard of The New York Herald on the Union defeat at Bull Run, and compare it to today's online news from Iraq, Afghanistan and/or whatever trouble spot is in the news this week.

Week 6

Literary journalism 101: Narrative. On the Web, we will read Marc Weingarten's survey essay "New Journalism: Capturing the Mad, Hulking Carnival of American Life." In Kerrane and Yagoda, we will read excerpts from Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" 169-82; and "The Girl of the Year" (469-79); Truman Capote, "In Cold Blood" (161-68); John Hersey, "Hiroshima" (111-14); and Joan Didion, "Los
Angeles Notebook" (K&Y 480-84).

Week 7

Literary journalism 102: Reporter as gonzo fashion plate. In Kerrane and Yagoda, we will read Lillian Ross, "Portrait of Hemingway" (129-38); Ernest Hemingway, "Japanese Earthquake" (411-16); Hunter Thompson, "Scum Also Rises" (290-301); and Michael Herr, "Dispatches" (494-506). I will assign the midterm, a take-home essay due next week.

Week 8

Literary journalism 103: Style and substance. In Kerrane and Yagoda and on the Web, we will read James Agee, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" (K&Y 417-20) and his deadline account "The Bomb" at the end of World War II; and two articles about Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, (a) Martha Gellhorn, "The Third Winter" (422--32) and (b) George Orwell, "Homage to Catalonia". Your midterm is due.

Week 9

Principles: A discipline of verification. In Kerrane and Yagoda, we will read Walter Bernstein, "Juke Joint" (104-07); A.J. Liebling, "Earl of Louisiana" (258-70) and John McPhee, "Pine Barrens" (485-93). [Did you notice the reading assignments are a little short this week and next week. That's so you can start reading "Lucky You." You'll write a paper about it between now and the end of the semester.]

Week 10

Principles: Afflicting the comfortable. In Kerrane and Yagoda, we will read W.T. Stead, "If Christ Came to Chicago" (49-57) and compare it to the hard-copy printout I will give you on the glory days of Springfield's levee district. On the Web, read a report on a Poynter Institite seminar on on the "watchdog culture" in journalism.

Week 11

Principles: Community, goals and (essentially middle class) heroes. In Kerrane and Yagoda, we will read Jimmy Breslin, "It's an Honor" (466-68). On the Web, we will read stories by Mike Royko of The Chicago Tribune and WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle.

Week 12
A moral center? Journalism and satire. Re-read retired college English teacher Robert Harris' introduction to satire and Jonathan Swift' spoem "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift." Also his essays "On the Death of Esther Johnson" and "An Essay on Modern Education." I will assign paper No. 2, on how Carl Hiaasen's novel "Lucky You" satirizes the newspaper industry and what you can learn from it about the
principles of journalism.




Week 13

On the Web, we will look at columns by Mike Royko and John Kass of The Chicago Tribune. But we will focus on Carl Hiaasen's recent columns on The Miami Herald's website and the introduction to "Kick Ass," a 1999 collection of his earlier columns. Be ready to discuss similarities and differences between Dean Swift's satire 20th- and 21st journalists who also write in a satirical mode. Paper No. 2 is due.

Week 14

We will discuss "Lucky You" in class. Review and assessment.

Final exam schedule TBA.

COMM 150: Gatekeepers, the wisdom of crowds and Wikipedia

Content advisory: Some language in the song below is offensive.

One last concept I want to leave with you this semester ... and one I think I need to because I don't like the way John Vivian's "Media of Mass Communication" handles the idea of gatekeepers. Not that he's wrong. He isn't. But I like the Wikipedia article on gatekeeping better. For one thing, it's more recent. And it's more detailed. Says Wikipedia:

A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something, for example via a city gate. In the late 20th century the term came into metaphorical use, referring to individuals who decide whether a given message will be distributed by a mass medium.

But it's not limited to mass media:

Gatekeepers serve several different purposes such as academic admissions, financial advising, and news editing. Academic admissions plays a vital role in every student's life. They look at qualifications such as test scores, race, social class, grades, family connections, and even athletic ability. Where this internal gatekeeping role is unwanted, open admissions can externalize it.

Various gatekeeping organizations administer professional certifications to protect clients from fraud and unqualified advice, for example for financial advisers.

A news editor picks out what stories would be most informative and popular. For example, a presidential resignation would be on the ffront page of a newspaper rather than a celebrity break-up except for those specializing in the latter.

Wikipedia is an example of gatekeeping in action, by the way. It began as a way of getting around the gatekeepers -- the experts -- by relying on everyday people to correct each other. Now it has gatekeepers, in the form of editors, discussion boards and procedures for making corrections and ironing out disputes.

Here's another example of gatekeeping. It's a Christmas story, even.

In 2007 the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) censored one of Great Britain's chart-topping Christmas songs. And, of course, the story went world-wide. The song is "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues, an English-Irish punk band featuring the late vocalist Kirsty McColl, and it was No. 1 in holiday charts even before the controversy.
A little back story. The Pogues -- and still are -- were a punk Irish band of the 1980s, fronted by Shane MacGowan. Sort of an early version of bands like Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys today. In 1987 they cut "Fairytale" as a duet between MacGowan and Kirsty McColl, who later died in a boating accident. "Fairytale" has become a very popular Christmas novelty song in the U.K. and Ireland. It's about two musicians who tried, but failed to make it in the big city and how it destroyed their relationship.

Some of the humor is teddibly British, but the tune is catchy in an Irish pub band-ish sort of way. And the video is a nice bit of black-and-white pastiche ... mostly scenes of New York, incuding pipers in an NYPD band, and shots of MacGowan's and McColl's characters, both obviously drunk, shouting obscenities at each other. The BBC objected to this verse a duet in which McColl sings:

You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last.

Musically, it's not bad. The melody is sort of an Irish jig, and lines like "You scumbag, you maggot" go rolicking along in 6/8 time. The internal rhyme is appealing, too.

But, to make a long story short, BBC decided "faggot" would be offensive to listeners and took to playing an edited version.

Reaction was swift.

Interviewed on another BBC station, McColl's mother, Jean McColl, told another BBC show host she thought the decision to pull the original version was "pathetic ... absolute nonsense ... too ridiculous."

And a spokesman for the Pogues put it in perspective for The Guardian, a London broadsheet.

"This song now goes with Christmas like the Queen's speech and mince pies, and all of a sudden it's offensive," she told The Guardian. "It strikes me as very odd and I'm sure the band will be very amused."

The upshot: The BBC reversed its decision as soon as the story got out. But in the meantime, it was picked up worldwide. The BBC, which ordinarily argues against censorship, hurt its brand image. And, apparently nothurt a bit by all the publicity, the song stayed on at No. 1 on the Christmas charts.

COMM 150 -- fall 2010 -- final exam

Communications 150: Intro to Mass Comm.
Benedictine University at Springfield
Instructor: Pete Ellertsen eellertsen@ben.edu

Final Exam, Fall Semester 2010

Below are one 50-point essay question and two 25-point short essay questions. Please write at least four pages (1,000 words) on the 50-point essay and two pages (500 words) on each of the 25-point essays. Due at the regularly scheduled time for our exam, 10:30 a.m., Friday, Dec. 17.

• Question 1 (50-points). An NYU professor named Neil Postman said "Americans are the best entertained and quite likely the least well-informed people in the Western world" because the mass media blur the line between information and entertainment. He also suggested the media are complicit in a politics of "image" in which "charm, good looks, celebrity and personal disclosure" outweigh public policy issues. How can the media balance their need to entertain viewers -- and thus make the profits they need to stay in business -- and the role suggested in their codes of ethics as "watchdogs"/"zookeepers" who give citizens the facts they need to function in a democracy?

• Question 2A (25 points). Self-reflective essay: What do you consider the most important thing you have you learned in COMM 150 that you didn’t know before? Why do you say it is the most important? Be specific in your discussion of how it might fit into your career decisions, or your plans for further study (whether you plan to major in communication arts, another field or are undecided). Consider it in the context of what you knew at the beginning of the course 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 specific detail you cite to support or illustrate your points; and the specific connections you make.

• Question 2B (25 points). In "Media of Mass Communication," John Vivian says since the 1980s, "sophisticated low-cost recording and mixing equipment gave garage bands a means to control their art" because they were less dependent on studios (120-21). "The result," Vivian says, "was liberation for creativity." Since Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, new technologies have given writers and artists new ways to get around the "gatekeepers" and get information to the public. How has the effect of the internet been similar to that of the printing press? How has the 'net given content creators more direct ways of reaching their audiences? Cite specific examples.

COMM 150: Celebrity politics -- a two-edged sword? A two-way mirror?

On Monday, I posted several links to articles and sound clips discussing Sarah Palin's manipulation of her image -- and her manipulation of the media -- along with a passage from Neil Postman's book "Amusing Ourselves to Death" in which he compared the politics of image to the old Bell Telephone ads, "reach out and touch someone" with a long-distance phone call. It all has to do with the way media cover politicians like they were celebrities, and the politicians encourage it by acting like celebrities themselves. Palin is a past master of the game.

But she isn't the only one. President Obama got where he is by doing much the same thing. He's been having a rough time lately, but he's pretty good at it, too.

Amy Chozwik of the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article in April 2009 headlined "The Making of a Celebrity President" and she made some good points. Her lede:

In the past 100 days Americans have watched Barack Obama drink a beer at a Washington Wizards game. They have seen him give the queen of England an iPod and thank Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie for her rendition of the national anthem. They've laughed (or groaned) at the jokes he cracked with late-night talk-show host Jay Leno.

All these may seem like the usual personal tidbits that the public demands from its pop-culture icons. But Mr. Obama's stardom is no chance obsession. It's part of a White House media strategy to pitch the president as a person ... and then sell his policies. The idea evolved from the campaign, when chief strategist David Axelrod led an effort to get voters comfortable with a little-known, biracial candidate who spent his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia.

The White House press team has worked to familiarize the country with Barack Obama -- how he meddles in the first lady's fashion choices; treats himself to "some mean waffles and grits" for breakfast, according to Mrs. Obama; and enjoys watching his young daughters feast on a supply of Starburst candy on board the Marine One helicopter. ...

Politicians have been doing this sort of thing since Abe Lincoln talked about splitting fence rails, of course, and long before. But what would Postman have made of Obama's public relations gambits?

Obama does something else, at least in his campaign speeches, that makes me think of Postman's aside about Snow White and the mirror. Obama turns his rhetoric back on his audience ... who's the fairest in the land? You are. Here he is in his 2008 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, from the transcript in The New York Times:

... If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things.

And you know what? It's worked before, because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping and settle for what you already know.

I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.

But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me; it's about you.

(APPLAUSE)

It's about you.

(APPLAUSE)

For 18 long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said, "Enough," to the politics of the past. You understand that, in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same, old politics with the same, old players and expect a different result.

How many times does he use the word "you" in that passage?

You have shown what history teaches us, that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington.

The politics of celebrity came up in the 2008 election, when Republican presidential candidate John McCain ran an an ad attacking Obama as "the world's biggest celebrity." Reported Jill Zuckman of The Chicago Tribune's blog "The Swamp":

With a new television spot comparing Barack Obama to bubble-gum celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, John McCain is launching a new campaign aimed at portraying Obama as an international star without the heft necessary to become the American commander in chief.

A 30-second television ad that hit the airwaves Wednesday calls Obama "the biggest celebrity in the world," then asks ominously, "Is he ready to lead?"

We'll see a clip in the Associated Press story:



Responding to this foray into the politics of celebrity was ... a bona fide celebrity. Amid some truly inane studio chatter, an ABC affiliate's news story aired part of Paris Hilton's response on a comedy network to the McCain ad. Watch for her energy policy ... we're going to come back to it in a minute:



What happens when the politicians sound like celebrities? Let's compare. Here's the Associated Press' daily "Campaign Minute" round-up the day Hilton's spoof came out.



The "AP Minute" show didn't quote Hilton's energy policy, but it's no less detailed than the summaries of McCain's and Obama's that viewers were able to watch. An overseas observer, Tim Reid of The Times of London, took this notice of Hilton's energy policy:

With the country's energy crisis dominating the campaign this week, Ms Hilton then lays out an impressive plan to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, combining elements of the strategies outlined by Mr McCain and Mr Obama.

“Energy crisis solved,” Ms Hilton says. “I'll see you at the debates, bitches.”

I think I'm going to have to agree -- her energy policy is no less impressive than McCain's and Obama's. Reid's report continues:

Last week Mr Obama said that people would use less petrol if they kept their tyres properly inflated. Mr McCain has since mocked the idea, even though it is official Bush Administration advice.

He told a huge rally of motorcyclists in South Dakota that America was not going to achieve energy independence “by inflating our tyres”. His aides have even been handing out tyre gauges inscribed with “Obama's Energy Plan”.

“It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant,” Mr Obama said on Tuesday. “Instead of running ads about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, they should go talk to some energy experts and actually make a difference.”

When the politicans start sounding like celebrities, the celebrities make make as much sense as the politicians.

And for the life of me, I can't help thinking Paris Hilton came off looking best in the exchange of views.

COMM 150: Next to final final exam

This is pretty near the final draft ... should be ready to download and print out Wednesday.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at my home email address: peterellertsen-at-yahoo-dot-com [I'm writing the address that way to reduce spam; you'll have to "connect the dots" to get the email message to me.] Questions not quite yet in final form, but I've worked on them [as of Monday evening] to focus them better, especially the last question (2B). Not quite there yet, but closer ... keep watching this space. - pe

Below are one 50-point essay question and two 25-point short essay questions. Please write at least four pages (1,000 words) on the 50-point essay and two pages (500 words) on each of the 25-point essays. Due at the regularly scheduled time for our exam, 10:30 a.m., Friday, Dec. 17.

• Question 1 (50-points). An NYU professor named Neil Postman said "Americans are the best entertained and quite likely the least well-informed people in the Western world" because the mass media blur the line between information and entertainment. He also suggested the media are complicit in a politics of "image" in which "charm, good looks, celebrity and personal disclosure" outweigh public policy issues. How can the media balance their need to entertain viewers -- and thus make the profits they need to stay in business -- and the role suggested in their codes of ethics as "watchdogs"/"zookeepers" who give citizens the facts they need to function in a democracy?

• Question 2A (25 points). The same self-reflective essay you get on all my finals. Here’s one from when I taught COMM 317 in 2008: 2a. Self-reflective essay (25 points). What do you consider the most important thing you have you learned in COMM 317 that you didn’t know before? Why do you say it is the most important? Be specific in your discussion of how it might fit into your career plans, or your plans for further study. Consider it in the context of what you knew at the beginning of the course 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 specific detail you cite to support or illustrate your points; and the specific connections you make.

• Question 2B (25 points). In "Media of Mass Communication," John Vivian says since the 1980s, "sophisticated low-cost recording and mixing equipment gave garage bands a means to control their art" because they were less dependent on studios (120-21). "The result," Vivian says, "was liberation for creativity." Since Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, new technologies have given writers and artists new ways to get around the "gatekeepers" and get information to the public. How has the effect of the internet been similar to that of the printing press? How has the 'net given content creators more direct ways of reaching their audiences? Cite specific examples.

COMM 150: Postman, Palin, celebrities and the politics of image

So the question is: Is ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin acting like: (A) a celebrity these days? Or (B) a politician?

Or (C): Is she acting like both?

I think the answer is C, if you buy Neil Postman's theory that political candidates, like product commercials, "provide a slogan, a symbol or a focus that creates for viewers a comprehensive and compelling image of themselves," something that "touch[es] and sooth[es] the deep reaches of our discontent." Like the queeen in "Snow White," we look into the mirror and we see reflected not ourselves as we are ... but as we'd like to be. Palin is a master of that, because she articulates a lot of people's discontents -- with liberals, with President Obama, with "blue bloods," the list goes on -- and presents a down-home, folksy image of the way they'd like to be.

And her reality TV show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska, has been criticized as nothing but a glorified political ad.

Here's a review of the latest segment in "Ken Tucker's TV," a review column in EW.com, an Entertainment Weekly website. Tucker described it as "a two-day, father-daughter trip to a remote area of Alaska, settin’ up camp and eatin’ 'Spam out of a can'." Here's the image, or "version of Palin," that Tucker saw: "The plucky gal with the brown hunting cap whose pink stitching read, 'Girls and Guns,' scrambling over hills and high brush with her father, toting what her dad called 'a varmint gun' and helping to skin and gut the caribou that the hunting party collected." Tucker thought a lot of the show was hokey, but

While Palin’s straight-at-the-camera bragging was to be both expected and ignored (“This is what has given me a desire to be tough and independent”), it was difficult to resist the charms of her father as he said proudly, “I’m glad I raised her that way.”

How does this image reflect back what we'd like to be ourselves? Bonding with family? Check. Outdoorsy? Check. Tough? Independent? Straight-talkin' (droppin' them final G's)? Yep.

Next question. How does President Obama present a slogan, a focus we can relate to? Hope? Change? Shooting baskets on Saturday morning? What if it's not just Palin? What if they all do it?

When U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Highland Park, met defeated Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulis after the election, why did they have a beer at a famous tavern on Michigan Avenue in Chicago? What image did that project? What, if anything, did it have to do with public policy issues facing the U.S. Senate?

COMM 150: Jon Stewart on "lamestream media" and "America's Tweetheart"

I'm going you an excerpt in dead-tree format from Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" that compares American politics to the iconic Bell telephone (AT&T) ads of the 1980s. The ads were designed to increase long-distance calling, and the theme was "reach out and touch someone." We'll watch one.

Postman was arguing that American "image politics" boiled down issues to slogans that would fit in a 30-second TV ad. And he titled his chapter on politics "Reach Our and Elect Someone." Says Postman:

This is the lesson of all great television commercials: They provide a slogan, a symbol or a focus that creates for viewers a comprehensive and compelling image of themselves. In the shift from party politics to television politics, the same goal is sought. We are not permitted to know who is best at being President or Governor or Senator, but whose image is best in touching and soothing the deep reaches of our discontent. (135)

Which leads us back to Sarach Palin. She's merely the most successful practitioner of image politics. And she's able to compress her message -- her sales appeal as a candidate -- even more. Instead of a 30-second spot, she's using 140-character Twitter messages.

And the media are eating it up. Why? She's good for ratings. Love her or hate her, people connect with her.

Jon Stewart got into this over the weekend with a segment on "America's Tweetheart" in which he made two points: (1) The media suck up everything she Twitters, "like a teenage boy with a crush on the stuck-up girl who hates him;" and (2) the Twitter format is perfect for broad-brush slogans like Palin's. He demonstrates this by showing up what Lincoln's "Twittersburg Address" would have looked like.

Why do people connect with Palin? What's the image she projects? One of the most astute things I've read was a column by Andrew Halcro, who ran against her in a three-way race for Alaska governor in 2006. Halcro wrote:

Palin is a master of the nonanswer. She can turn a 60-second response to a query about her specific solutions to healthcare challenges into a folksy story about how she's met people on the campaign trail who face healthcare challenges. All without uttering a word about her public-policy solutions to healthcare challenges.

It's the "folksy" part that I want to focus on. When Postma died in 2003, Palin was still a small-town mayor in Alaska's Matanuska Valley, but he would have recognized her appeal as a candidate. We hear her, or see her on TV, and it's like looking into Snow White's mirror at ourselves the way we'd like to be. Folksy. Meeting challenges. Who's the fairest one of all? Yada yada yada.

In an op-ed piece in the Christian Science Monitor shortly before she debated Joe Biden in 2008, Halcro recalled a three-way debate with Palin and candidate Tony Knowles:

On April 17, 2006, Palin and I participated in a debate at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks on agriculture issues. The next day, the Fairbanks Daily News Miner published this excerpt:

"Andrew Halcro, a declared independent candidate from Anchorage, came armed with statistics on agricultural productivity. Sarah Palin, a Republican from Wasilla, said the Matanuska Valley provides a positive example for other communities interested in agriculture to study."

On April 18, 2006, Palin and I sat together in a hotel coffee shop comparing campaign trail notes. As we talked about the debates, Palin made a comment that highlights the phenomenon that Biden is up against.

"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?' " Palin said.

While policy wonks such as Biden might cringe, it seemed to me that Palin was simply vocalizing her strength without realizing it. During the [gubernatorial] campaign, Palin's knowledge on public policy issues never matured – because it didn't have to. Her ability to fill the debate halls with her presence and her gift of the glittering generality made it possible for her to rely on populism instead of policy.

So ... does any of this really matter? Do the facts and figures, do the issues matter? Postman would have said it the politics of image he blamed on TV, they don't. What do you think?

COMM 150: Students warned to stay away from WikiLeaks / UPDATED

This just in ... and I'm serious about it.

The Wall Street Journal and MSNBC are reporting that "students considering diplomacy careers are being warned to avoid linking to or posting online comments about the leaked cables." The warning came from a Columbia University graduate who works for the State Department, who had been warned -- like other government employees -- not to access the WikiLeaks documents.

Update: As of Monday, both Columbia and the State Department are backtracking a little from the earlier warning. Only government employees are directed not to read the classified documents.

Writing Saturday in an online magazine called The Tech Herald, Steve Ragan said the Columbia University Office of Career Services has warned students in the School of International and Public Affairs about WikiLeaks. He quotes the Career Services email as follows:

The documents released during the past few months through Wikileaks are still considered classified documents. He recommends that you DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter. Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government.

I've thought about this: In class we're been discussing the way the media have handled the information made available by WikiLeaks to The Guardian and the other four newspapers, not the raw documents. So we're OK there. The same goes for comments you may have posted to this blog.

But if I were on Facebook, I wouldn't post anything about WikiLeaks. A lot of federal jobs, and they're not just with the state department, require security clearance, and I wouldn't want anything to turn up in an FBI background check.

Monday morning. Huffington Post, a blog with a liberal slant, has more detail from the State Department ... which denies that it's official policy. It quotes a spokesman, a PR guy, as saying , "If an employee of the State Department sent such an email, it does not represent a formal policy position." It's an important distinction. But staying away from the raw documents still looks like good advice.

Update: Monday afternoon Huffington Post obtained an email from John H. Coatsworth, SIPA's dean, saying, "Freedom of information and expression is a core value of our institution. Thus, SIPA's position is that students have a right to discuss and debate any information in the public arena that they deem relevant to their studies or to their roles as global citizens, and to do so without fear of adverse consequences."

COMM 150: Every day now till final exams is a red-letter day, and every post is a red-letter post!

For the past few weeks, I've been putting items that relate to the FINAL EXAM in red type. But now as we round the corner into the last week of the semester, everything relates to the final exam!

So to save us all from eyestrain, from now on ... I'm going to go back to plain old regular black type.

COMM 150: Commentary in Irish Times on WikiLeaks

CONTENT ADVISORY: Please note FINAL EXAM HINT below in red type.

An opinion piece in The Irish Times headlined "A good week for US diplomats and blonde Ukrainian nurses" by American international energy and security consultant David Rothkopf makes the case that WikiLeaks' massive secret document dump actually reflects credit on American diplomacy. Partly, he says, that's because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has done a good job of damage control. But partly because the leaks aren't too damaging anyway.

As for the joke about Ukranian nurses, one of the documents noted that Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy is frequently accompanied by Galyna Kolotnytska, a blonde nurse from Ukraine who is less than half his age.

There. Now aren't you glad you know?

When Rothkopf isn't cheap-shotting Khadafy, his nurse or his apparent Botox treatments, he assesses "winners and losers." Among them:

• The United States. "... The US is as imperfect as any nation and guilty of countless missteps. But if there is one over-arching message to the Wiki-spill it is that for the most part, US diplomats and officials have been doing an admirable job."
  
• American diplomats. "Diplomacy necessarily involves secrets and deceptions, but an acid test of diplomacy and diplomats is whether what is done privately stands up to public scrutiny. The leaked cables for the most part show professional diplomats doing their job with intelligence, wisdom, candour and even humour. Bill Burns wrote incisively wherever he was stationed."
  
• The five newspapers. "Ka-ching. WikiLeaks is not only the gift that keeps on giving, it could go on giving for a long time. Release 250 or so cables a day and they could keep going for 3 years. But guess what, it’s not just good business, it’s actually good journalism. Provided they behave responsibly as, for example, the New York Times and the Guardian seem to have done, this is a coup for ink-stained wretches everywhere."
  
• Advocates for intelligence reform. "Let’s see: if a 22-year-old moon-faced army private with a blank Lady Gaga CD in his hand can download a mountain of classified documents and make them public, I wonder how many other slightly more sophisticated actors have been siphoning out more important secrets more discreetly over the past several years. The custodians of the US system of document classification and its intelligence knowledge management system have got to be more embarrassed by this fiasco than Col Gadafy’s plastic surgeon. ..."
  
• Voluptuous blonde Ukranian nurses. "Botox aside, Gadafy seems to be doing something right. Perhaps being a ruthless dictator isn’t so bad after all. ..." I'll spare you the rest of it.

Rothkopf's "losers" are mostly predictable. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. China. Pakistan. Khadafy and the other foreign leaders who are cheap-shotted in the cables. But also the U.S. Department of Defense. That was a surprise. And so was Rothkopf's reasoning:

Defence has always looked down its nose at the way the state department handled secrets. So all this is a bit, um, awkward. State’s computers simply wouldn’t allow the kind of siphoning-off of classified material that the military system seemingly invited. They’ve also taken months to step it up and fix security, though they are moving double-time now to make up for lost time.

Remember: This whole business allegedly started with a "moon-faced army private with a blank Lady Gaga CD in his hand." Doesn't say much for the U.S. Army's security measures.

Want something to think about between now and when you write the final exam? Rothkopf''s piece is entertaining, well, witty at least. But he makes some good, substantive points. And he's watchdogging -- he's evaluating the government and the media, too, so he's even watchdogging the watchdogs. Question: Can you be entertaining and give citizens the information they need in a democracy at the same time?

COMM 150 -- UPDATED - D R A F T final exam -- fall 2010

This is a draft so you can get started over the weekend. I've done a copy-and-paste job from an old final (COMM 317 in Spring 2008) on the the parts that don't change from year to year, i.e. the heading and the self-reflective essay, and I'll update it and polish it before I hand out the final draft (the final final?) in class next week. But the substance of the questions will be what we've got here.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at my home email address: peterellertsen-at-yahoo-dot-com [I'm writing the address that way to reduce spam; as you know, you'll have to "connect the dots" to get the email message to me.] Questions not yet in final form, but I've worked on them [as of Saturday night] to focus them better. Keep watching this space. - pe

Below are one 50-point essay question and two 25-point short essay questions. Please write at least four pages (1,000 words) on the 50-point essay and two pages (500 words) on each of the 25-point essays. Due at the regularly scheduled time for our exam, 10:30 a.m., Friday, Dec. 17.

• Question 1 (50-points). An NYU professor named Neil Postman said "Americans are the best entertained and quite likely the least well-informed people in the Western world" because the mass media blur the line between information and entertainment. He also suggested the media are complicit in a politics of "image" in which "charm, good looks, celebrity and personal disclosure" outweigh public policy issues. How can the media balance their need to entertain viewers -- and thus make the profits they need to stay in business -- and the role suggested in their codes of ethics as "watchdogs"/"zookeepers" who give citizens the facts they need to function in a democracy?

• Question 2A (25 points). The same self-reflective essay you get on all my finals. Here’s one from when I taught COMM 317 in 2008: 2a. Self-reflective essay (25 points). What do you consider the most important thing you have you learned in COMM 317 that you didn’t know before? Why do you say it is the most important? Be specific in your discussion of how it might fit into your career plans, or your plans for further study. Consider it in the context of what you knew at the beginning of the course 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 specific detail you cite to support or illustrate your points; and the specific connections you make.

• Question 2B (25 points). In "Media of Mass Communication," John Vivian says since the 1980s, "sophisticated low-cost recording and mixing equipment gave garage bands a means to control their art" because they were less dependent on studios (120-21). "The result," Vivian says, "was liberation for creativity." Since the invention of the printing press, new technologies have given the creators of content new ways to get around the "gatekeepers" and get information to the public. How has the internet given them new ways of reaching audiences? Cite specific examples.

COMM 150: Friday in class

The WikiLeaks story we've been following is turning into one of those high-tech action-adventure novels like Tom Clancy used to write, as this BBC News story doesn't quite say but certainly suggests (at least to me).

Most of the main themes we've studied this semester pop up in this story. So let's unpack some of them, relating to:

• Ethics
  
• Media and government
  
• Worldwide media
  
• Entertainment vs. news (Neil Postman)
  
• (This bullet left blank because we'll think of something else.)

At your suggestion, I want to use today's class for us to revise the final exam questions so they'll reflect all this new stuff.

Here they areL

1. A 50-point essay: An NYU professor named Neil Postman said "Americans are the best entertained and quite likely the least well-informed people in the Western world" because the mass media blur the line between information and entertainment. How can the media balance their need to entertain viewers -- and thus make the profits they need to stay in business -- and their function as "watchdogs"/"zookeepers" in a democracy?
   
   
2. Question 2A. The same self-reflective essay you get on all my finals.
   
   
3. A 25-point essay: How do artists use the convergence of new and old media to get around the "gatekeepers" and exercise more creative control?

So let's get started.

One thing I want to focus on is this: How do WikiLeaks and the newspapers that are publishing its documents take journalistic ethics into account? In other words, how do they balance "seek the truth" and "minimize harm?" That'll do for starters.

COMM 337: Last assignment - query letter

Emailed at 3:15 p.m. to students in Communications 337 (advanced journalistic writing):

Hi guys -

One last assignment (other than the inevitable self-reflective essay) -- to write a query letter, a one-page sales pitch to the editor of a magazine. It pitches your article, and it's just as important as the article itself. So now that you've written your article for me (you *have* written it, haven't you?), it's time to read Chapter 2 of the "Writer's Digest Handbook of Magazine Article Writing" and send me a query letter. The handbook will tell you how.

If you've got a magazine in mind you'd like to sell your story to, address it to their editor. (But send it to me, at least for the course credit. I'll be happy to suggest changes to make it more saleable before you send it to an off-campus publication.) Otherwise, address it to me.

There aren't many hard-and-fast rules about query letters, but there is a definite psychology. Remember: It's a sales document, one you're using to sell your article. Keep it short. Showcase your writing skills. Demonstrate your professional skills. Remember the old advice to writers? SHOW, NOT TELL. It works. *Show* the editor what you can do for him. Or her.

Here's a common format that I like to use in my own free-lance writing. I'll outline it paragraph by paragraph, and copy below the query I used to sell my most recent magazine story to Dulcimer Players News:

FIRST GRAF: Get the editor's attention, and show why your article will appeal to the magazine's readers. Often this graf will sound like the lede of your story. Make it specific to the magazine. Show you've done your homework. (In the sample below, I said I'd been reading it. But I also referred to specific stories in back issues. It *showed* I'd been reading it.) I like to say very specifically something like, "I am offering (the story) for your consideration for publication." Again, it's a sales document and that's what salespeople sometimes call a close -- when you ask your prospect to buy what you're selling.

SECOND GRAF: Give your credentials. If you enclose your resume, mention it. In my letter, I also mention a conversation I had with one of the magazine's editors. There's more in the Writer's Digest Handbook. You can mention the research you did, any personal experience you have. Anything that demonstrates you know what you're talking about.

THIRD GRAF: This can vary. The Writer's Digest Handbook suggests you "showcase your skills and demonstrate some solutions. ... Explain what you can do to meet the magazine's editorial needs." I used mine to talk about artwork, file formats, etc. [the things that pros talk about], to demonstrate I'm a pro.

Let's make the due date for the queries -- for everything -- Friday, Dec. 10, the last day of classes. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to get back to me.

-- Doc

Here's my query:

-----

Subject line: psalmodikon article submission / attn dan landrum
Date: Sunday, July 11, 2010 7:58 PM

To: Dan Landrum, editor
Dulcimer Players News

From: Pete Ellertsen

Ralph Lee Smith says he got so excited when he heard from the folks who play a Nordic-American box zither called the psalmodikon, he nearly lost control of his car. (He was answering his cell phone at the time.) And he's had a couple of fascinating "Tales and Traditions" columns in DPN about them. I've been in touch with the psalmodikon folks, too, partly because the instrument comes out of my own ethnic heritage and partly because it's so much like the mountain dulcimer. So I visited their annual meeting in Wisconsin and started learning to play a psalmodikon. I've written an article and two sidebars from the perspective of a dulcimer player about the revival of interest in the psalmodikon, its historical background and the tablature used to play it. I've been studying back issues of DPN, and I believe the stories will be of interest to your readers. They are attached, and I am offering them for your consideration for publication in the magazine.

You may remember my work, because I had a historical overview of the Appalachian dulcimer and its European antecedents, called "Drones, Picks and Popsicle Sticks," published last year on the EverythingDulcimer.com website. I'm an old newspaper guy, recently retired from a full-time position teaching college journalism, and I'm looking for free-lance assignments. (My resume is linked below.) Stephen Siefert and I spoke briefly at the Dulcimerville workshop last month, and he suggested I contact you. When I got home, I started drafting a letter; the letter turned into an article, and the result is attached to this email message.

Attached as Microsoft Word files are: (1) a 1,950-word article on the revival of interest in the psalmodikon; (2) a 400-word sidebar on the tablature used to play the instrument; and (3) a 400-word sidebar on further reading. While pictures are embedded in the file I'm sending you, I can send you separate JPEG files in order to facilitate the editing process. The photos are mine, and the photocopies are from books in the public domain. If you're interested in incorporating a psalmodikon sound file for your CD, I'd suggest "Hils Fra Mig Deg Hjemme" for reasons explained in the text. The recording is available from Singsaas Music Ministries, P.O. Box 87, Hendricks MN 56136. If you choose to review it, I would be more than happy to write one and could turn one out quickly.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely, Pete Ellertsen

COMM 150: "Now ... this" / reality TV, media platforms and Sarah Palin

It drove media critic Neil Postman bananas when television newscasters would end a segment with "now ... this" before breaking to the commercial ... or another, unrelated story. As he said in "Amusing Ourselves to Death," the lack of continuity helps give us a fragmented view of the world.

And in that spirit, here's something about Sarah Palin. In other words: Now ... this:

Can Sarah Palin Twitter her way to the WHite House with reality TV and 150-letter sound bites (OK, let's call them text bites)? Don't be so sure she can't, writes Melissa Harris-Perry on The Nation's website. The Nation is a liberal magazine of opinion, so Harris-Perry has a political ax to grind, but she gives evidence of Palin's authentic emotional appeal. And Palin is a master at working the media. See if this rings true, and see if it echoes Neil Postman's analysis of the media that you'll write about on the final exam ... that he argued long before anybody outside of Wasila, Alaska, ever heard of Sarah Palin:

... Media, especially reality TV, encourage us to think less and buy more. They capture our emotions and silence our inner critic. They send us in search of products to fulfill our deepest desires. Palin may just be the political embodiment of our contemporary cultural moment; a presidential candidate born from TV's easy emotional draw and limited analytic capacity, a candidate who needs only 140 characters to explain policy, a candidate who attracts us even when she repulses us. As with reality TV, to underestimate Palin is to invite her to reach ever deeper into the American consciousness.

And ... now this, in a Los Angeles Times review of Palin's new book by Tim Rutten:

Along with her ally-of-convenience, the Fox News personality Glenn Beck — certainly the most gifted electronic demagogue since Father Coughlin in the 1930s — she has adroitly used the full panoply of contemporary media to position herself as a leader of the populist surge reshaping Republican politics. Like Beck, Palin is a multiplatforming powerhouse, a presence on cable news, reality television, on social media — Facebook and Twitter — and, more traditionally, in book publishing.

There's more. But suffice to say you don't have to agree with Palin's broadside attacks on the "lamestream media" to realize she understands the media very, very well.

Rutten adds:

... The media, by the way, are one of the recurring demons in this media-savvy book, along with progressives, liberals, academics and all sorts of look-down-their-noses-at-the-rest-of-us "elites." Like Beck, though, Palin is wonderfully adept at escaping any responsibility for what's essentially a Manichaean view of our society — one that divides real, hard-working, family-loving, religious Americans from those who … well, aren't those things.

Thus, she doesn't bat a professionally mascaraed eyelash while decrying the "shameful tendency on the left not simply to declare their opponents wrong, but to declare them evil. Conservatives and liberals don't have honest policy disagreements, this strategy says, conservatives are just bad people."

Right.

If I'm understanding this correctly, Palin demonizes people who (she says) demonize people. Barbara Streisand once had a song that went something like that.

COMM 150: WikiLeaks - various links - sort of like live-blogging it ...

I'm not going to commit to live-blogging this stuff, but this WikiLeaks thing is kind of a hydra-headed monster ... and I'm going to post links in reverse chronological order ... bottom first and adding them on top ... like a live blog does. -- pe

Wednesday night (here) but Thursday in Australia. A five-minute conversation between reporter Scott Silliman of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. and Duke University professor Shane McLeod outlines the issues of international law, which aren't simple ... WikiLeaks is licensed in Iceland, its server is now in Sweden and its founder is an Australian citizen in hiding somewhere, perhaps in England. Here's a small part of their conversation:

SCOTT SILLIMAN: [...] if in fact you've got different countries that are trying to put pressure on WikiLeaks by denying them the opportunity to operate off servers in their country, you may have other countries that will respond in the other way and say we'd love to have your site on any of our host computers.

So I'm not sure it's going to be that effective. I think the real question is, there are many people, many countries that are actually applauding what Julian Assange has done. It's produced information which I think many would say is embarrassing to the United States and there are many countries that like to see that happen.

So I think trying to have a political solution to this is not going to be the answer.

SHANE MCLEOD: And you again have the problem that the material is being hosted on news organisations' websites as well as WikiLeaks.

SCOTT SILLIMAN: That's correct, The Guardian, Le Monde, The New York Times in the United States. They have received all this information so you have basically multiplied your problem as far as trying to deal with that initial and subsequent information dump.

Wednesday afternoon. Amy Davidson, senior editor of The New Yorker, on Wednesday afternoon comments on Amazon's decision to pull the plug on WikiLeaks:

... is Amazon reporting to a senator now? Is the company going to tell him about “the extent of its relationship” with WikiLeaks—with any customer? He’s free to ask, of course, but in terms of an obligation to answer: Does somebody have a warrant for that? One wonders if Lieberman feels that he, or any Senator, can call in the company running The New Yorker’s printing presses when we are preparing a story that includes leaked classified material, and tell them to stop it. The circumstances are different, but not so different as to be really reassuring.

Davidson's blog is very literate, well-argued and nuanced. It's more concerned about government clamping down on the flow of information than it is about the leaks per se. Equally well- argued is her New Yorker colleague George Packer's claim that the information leaked isn't worth the security risks and Assange's motives are not those of a journalist:

If WikiLeaks and its super-secretive, thin-skinned, megalomaniacal leader, Julian Assange (is he also accompanied everywhere by a Ukrainian senior nurse?), were uncovering crimes, or scandals, or systemic abuses, there would be no question about the overwhelming public interest in these latest revelations. But the WikiLeaks dump contains no My Lais, no black sites, no Abu Ghraibs. The documents simply show State Department officials going about their work over a period of several years. Will we get another update in six months? Will it be worth the damage? Should no government secret remain secret? Is diplomacy possible when official views have all the privacy of social networking? Assange’s stated ambition is to embarrass the U.S. This means that his goals and those of most journalists are not the same. WikiLeaks doesn’t trouble itself with these questions. The rest of us, journalists included, should.

Wednesday afternoon. The Guardian reported at 19.59 GMT [London time, 6 hours ahead of CST]: "WikiLeaks website pulled by Amazon after US political pressure":

The United States struck its first blow against WikiLeaks after Amazon.com pulled the plug on hosting the whistleblowing website in an apparent reaction to heavy political pressure.

The main website and a sub-site devoted to the diplomatic documents were unavailable from the US and Europe on Wednesday, as Amazon servers refused to acknowledge requests for data.

The plug was pulled as the influential senator and chairman of the homeland security committee, Joe Lieberman, called for a boycott of the site by US companies. ...

COMM 150: WikiLeaks and Mass Media Law

FINAL EXAM CONTENT ADVISORY: One of the chapters assigned for this week and -- very specifically -- for the final exam in John Vivian's "Media of Mass Communications" is Chapter ___ "Media Law." And here's a WikiLeaks story that raises legal issues.

According to a story by National Public Radio's Carrie Johnson, the U.S. Justice Department is looking into the Espionage Act of 1917, a rarely-invoked piece of legislation which made it unlawful to pass information to America's enemies during World War I. Her sources said it may be hard to make the changes stick:

Experts said that making a case against a government employee who promised to keep the nation's secrets is pretty easy from a legal standpoint. By contrast, Washington defense attorney Abbe Lowell said, prosecuting the website WikiLeaks is no slam dunk.

"The biggest taboo that has been out there, sort of the dirty little secret in the Espionage Act for a long time, has been whether it would ever be used to prosecute somebody in the media, as opposed to the government employee leaking the information,” Lowell said.

The dilemma, Lowell said, is whether WikiLeaks is a member of the media that warrants special free speech protections, or more like a rogue operation dedicated to hurting the U.S.

"What I worry about and what many worry about is that WikiLeaks makes it easy for the law enforcement community to apply this law for the first time, in a precedent-setting way, that can be used against other people in the media," Lowell said.

So the issue, according to the defense lawyers Johnson spoke with, boils down to WikiMedia publisher Julian Assange's motives:

Scott Silliman, a law professor at Duke University, said any U.S. indictment of Assange requires close analysis.

"They have got to actually show that he came within the context of the Espionage Act," Silliman said. "And in my judgment, that's not an easy case to prove."

That's because Assange could argue that he made U.S. diplomatic cables public for a legitimate reason — to influence foreign policy — forcing prosecutors to demonstrate that he acted instead to help America's enemies.

COMM 150: Today's class, a WikiLeaks portal page and a FINAL EXAM CONTENT ADVISORY

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
-- Robert Burns "To A Louse"
Our plans for the rest of the semester are changing. If you've been following the WikiLeaks story in the news, you'll know why. Most of the big issues we've been studying this semester are involved in one way or another.

Count 'em: (1) new media vs. "gatekeepers," internet technology; (2) cross-platform convergence as newspapers publish the document dump; (3) what John Vivian -- remember him? -- calls "Global Mass Media" in Chapter 17"; (4) what he calls "Mass Media and Governance" in Chapter 19; (5) and "Mass Media Ethics" in Chapter 20, which is all over the WikiLeaks story. There's even a whiff of what Neil Postman says about American media being too entertainment-oriented to play their role in a democratic system. Oh really? How are they doing with this story? Let's evaluate them. How do you think they're doing? And that's just for starters. Since I'm planning to draft our final exam questions this week, I will be looking at the WikiLeaks story

So let's get started. I'm going to use this post as a portal to coverage ov the ongoing WikiLeaks document dump in Great Britain, the United States, Germany, France and Spain. That's where the five newspapers are located that are publishing the leaked documents. Judging by the coverage on the World Wide Web, I'd have to say it's a bigger story so far in Europe than it is in the U.S. So far. But it could have profound effects on international relations, and that could change rapidly if relations with North Korea, Iran or Pakistan go off a cliff.

(Which is why a lot of the links you'll be following are to British news organizations. The Brits have done a better job with the story than we have. Not a whole lot better, but enough to make a difference. Besides, I think it always makes sense to check out the overseas press on a story involving U.S. politics and government. That's why I put the Robert Burns quote at the top of this post.)

CNN News has a good basic explanation of WikiLeaks on its website. Let's pay attention to how it's set up. Like Wikipedia, but secret. Weird, huh?

Links here to the five newspapers that are publishing excerpts from the documents. We'll look at them in class. Compare the play given to the story on each of the five webpages:

The Guardian. Published in London and considered one of the best news sources in the world. It's "center-left" in its editorial policy, but reasonably objective in news coverage. Home page at http://www.guardian.co.uk/
• The New York Times. We all know about the New York Times, right? Sometimes known as the "gray lady" for its kinda blah coverage of the news. But how blah is it? Link to http://www.nytimes.com/
  
• Der Spiegel. Published in Hamburg, its nameplate translates as "the mirror." Considered Germany's leading weekly news magazine, comparable to Time or Newsweek. Has an English-language website. Very thorough. Factual. Entertaining? http://www.spiegel.de/international/
  
• Le Monde. Published in Paris. Means "the world" in English. No English website, but you can still get a sense of how it's playing the story by looking at the headlines and pictures. What angles are the French interested in? http://www.lemonde.fr/
  
• El Pais. Published in Madrid, means "the country" or "nation" in English. If you can read it, be thankful for the time you spent in high school Spanish (or the Quad-Cities). If you can't, you can still get an idea of what they're reading in Spain from looking at the headlines. http://www.elpais.com/global/