REPRODUCING THE NEWS
In class on Friday we read an interview with Andy Carvin who
uses Twitter as a way to call out and then gather field reports. While at his
desk in Washington D.C., Carvin uses the eyes and ears of people actually on the
ground in other countries or states and “crowdsources,” curating the
information he receives into one document called “the news.” The dangers of
Carvin’s reporting methods were exposed after the Newtown, CT, shooting, when he
tweeted about a purple van that does not seem to have existed, as well as the
theory of a second shooter. He also reported, incorrectly, that there were two
bodies at the gunman’s mother’s house.
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Ten Minute News Challenge
Today, your challenge will be to write a breaking news story
about something happening on this campus (or in your hometown) in ten minutes,
using your phone right now to crowdsource. Who you establish as reliable
eyewitnesses and/or experts will make or break your news. When using your phone
to put a story together, start with a source you trust. Try to verify the level
of access the person has to the event at hand. Is it firsthand reportage? If it
is, you’re interested. What bias might your source have? Try to account for it. Can you
find any opposing tweets? If possible, dig until
you find the original source of this particular bit of news. Next, look online and try to gather context for your
story. You will need to decide whether this news is fact, rumor or speculation.
(Fact: It has definitely happened; rumor: It may have happened, or is likely to
happen; speculation: It could theoretically happen.) How do you know if
you’ve found real news? Ask yourself: Is this new? Is it relevant? Is it
interesting? Remember, before news becomes news, it doesn’t look like much. Try to hook the reader immediately! (Consider expanding this assignment and handing it in for
Assignment #3: Write a News Story.)
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Preparing to Write the Cultural Analysis Essay (Assignment #2)
Assignment #2 relates to the segments you all watched of Control Room, our first world privilege exercise (remember those questions I asked you, and your +1 scores?), and our discussion as to what
objectivity is and how culturally dependent "objectivity" might be. For this upcoming assignment, you will need to select an article
and then find the same news reported from a different cultural
perspective.
Today, in class, we’ll practice using Nate’s China/British
report of the typhoon, and we’ll help him expand his initial contrast of the two articles (the final Assignment #2 paper due in two weeks is five pages long). We’ll begin by asking rhetorical questions:
What contexts made the various
interpretations of this news item possible?
Who are the publishers of this news
and who are their audiences?
What values, beliefs, or ideologies are reinforced
or reflected or hidden within the articles?
What values, beliefs, or ideologies
are disrupted or resisted by them?
What values, beliefs, or ideologies are
produced as a result of the publication of this news?
How does each article interpret the same news differently? Why do you suspect this is?
Lastly, how does your culture effect how you read these texts? Interrogate your
own cultural blind spots, privileges, etc.
Next we’ll come up with a strong
thesis (main argument or question).
Finally, what Nate will have to do, when he
gets a chance, is to back up this thesis with supporting information and more
detailed evidence of our analysis. Remember to use MLA in-text citation whenever you quote from an article as you write this paper. You will need to supply a MLA work cited (bibliography) page, as well (not counted as one of your five pages).
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IN CLASS CONFERENCES THIS WEDNESDAY. COME TO CLASS WITH
PRINT OUTS OF THE TWO ARTICLES YOU WILL COMPARE AND CONTRAST FOR ASSIGNMENT #2.
