Syllabus for Roster(s):
- 16F MDST 3680-001 (CGAS)
The News Media Syllabus
TNM SYLLABUS
THE NEWS MEDIA SYLLABUS
MDST 3680
FALL 2016
Class Location Wilson Hall 325 1200-1250 MWF
Instructor Wyatt Andrews
Office Location 212 Wilson Hall
Office Hours M W 200-415
Tu Th 100-1415
Also by appointment.
Email wyatt@virginia.edu
Office Phone 434 243 1675
The News Media, MDST 3680 Fall 2016
Your generation consumes more news and information than any in history, with most of it delivered on a screen. But, do you know what you are doing when choosing what’s there? Do you know what news to trust and how the decision was made to deliver the story you just clicked?
This course will take an analytical snapshot of the news media today, so that you can better evaluate how to watch and read the news. How does the media choose to cover what we see? How can you spot bias? Or quality? How is the news paid for, and how does the money earned through advertising sales influence what we read? How important is political comedy and satire? What’s good and bad about the digital news revolution? Who’s watching and measuring what you click and read?
The course will also challenge you to understand that free information is integral to freedom itself, an idea best articulated by Mr. Jefferson. The best reporting calls to account politicians, business leaders and public officials, and gives citizens the information required to reward or punish those in power. The best reporting is also original, written by reporters who speak to sources directly. We will review why that type of reporting is in decline.
At the end of this course you will be a better judge not just of news, but of whether the news you consume is preparing you for leadership and making you the informed citizen Mr. Jefferson envisioned. The course will show how, with every click, you influence the quality of news you are offered next.
Books
The books and packet listed below have been ordered through the UVa bookstore. Because this is a course that seeks to study the news media in real time, there will be readings added. Please stay alert to emails on additional readings.
—ELEMENTS OF JOURNALISM, Third Edition 2014 Kovach and Rosenstiel,
Three Rivers Press
isbn 978-0-8041-3678-5
—LOSING THE NEWS, Jones, 2009 Oxford Univ Press
isbn 978-0-19-975414-4
—BLUR How To Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload
Kovach and Rosenstiel 2010, Bloomsbury USA
isbn 978-1-59691-565-7
—TUNED OUT Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News
David T. Z. Mindich 2005 Oxford University Press
isbn 0-19-516140-8
—Bookstore Packet **MDST 3680 FALL 2016 PACKET: NEWS MEDIA.
—State of the News Media, 2016. From the Pew Research Center and Journalism.org
http://www.journalism.org/2016/06/15/state-of-the-news-media-2016
—Daily News Readings and the News Discussion Grade. This is required.
Prior to every lecture, you need to read or view: 1) an article from a mainstream newspaper. Online editions are acceptable. Or 2) a news article from a digital first news website. Digital first is a news website that did not begin as a newspaper. Buzzfeed News or Vice News for example. Or 3) a segment from a TV newscast or online video newscast. Your choice may include international sources.
At the start of most (but not every) lecture, I will ask one or two students to summarize the article or story they read/viewed. Be ready to tell the class something about the story and where you saw it.
Why is this important?
Because wider knowledge of news sources is not just a course requirement, it’s a life skill. It’s called news literacy: a working knowledge of the broad media landscape, and this requires regular consumption of news not sourced from social media or cable.
The readings are also important because News Discussion is 10% of your grade. Coming to class ready to discuss your choice is how you earn that 10%. It’s fine to raise your hand and volunteer your reading. Please do not wait until the last two weeks of the semester to participate in these discussions.
The point is to stimulate discussion of your story choices and the evolving universe of news. I encourage you to find new sources of news, which pop up frequently. Try new stuff! That way we all learn as you do when something new is worth our attention.
I will not embarrass those of you who come to class unprepared. That said, if you are found to be unprepared, or not in attendance when I ask for your thoughts, that’s a multi point deduction from the 10%.
Important Sources of News and Course Content—This is where to start.
New York Times http://www.nytimes.com
Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com
National Review http://www.nationalreview.com
Economist http://www.economist.com
Yahoo/ABC http://news.yahoo.com/abc-news/
Pro Publica http://www.propublica.org
Center for Public Integrity https://www.publicintegrity.org
Columbia Journalism Review http://www.cjr.org
The Poynter Institute http://www.poynter.org
On the Media http://www.onthemedia.org
Vice News http://vice.com
Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Gawker http://gawker.com
Buzzfeed http://www.buzzfeed.com
Media Matters http://mediamatters.org
Media Resource Center http://mrc.org
Fact Check http://www.factcheck.org
Politifact http://www.politifact.com
Facebook Your newsfeed
Twitter Your account
Grading and Weights
Standard grading. Numeric grade total will transfer to the letter grades below.
97.5 to 100 [A +] 93 to 97 [A] 90 to 92.5 [A-]
87.5 to 89.5 [B +] 83 to 87 [B] 80 to 82.5 [B-]
77.5 to 79.5 [C +] 73 to 77 [C] 70 to 72.5 [C-]
65 to 69.5 [D +] 55 to 64.5 [D]50 to 54.5 [D-] below 50 [F]
News Discussion 10%
Paper One 25% This paper may be rewritten and resubmitted for a higher grade.
Paper Two 25% Not this one.
Final Paper 40% This will serve as the final exam and will be a take home 3-hour paper.
Class Policies
I will not take attendance, but not being there when called for discussion will be recorded and will impact your grade.
No computers or cell phones may be on during class. They may not be on. This is your time to study and think about the media, not a time to be using media.
You are encouraged to ask a question at any point in the class. I may need to delay the question, but you should not feel constrained.
I plan to be available for office hours every day, including Fridays. It’s always best to make an appointment, but feel free to drop by during the hours listed above.
**If you are too shy to raise your hand for News Discussion time, that’s fine, but please make an office appointment early in the semester to discuss this. It’s important that you don’t wait until November to inform me.
The Papers. And the persuasive writing style we will use.
This is very important. I will ask you to adopt a blunt, shorter style of writing. The kind of writing you will need when you leave UVa.
There will be two midterm papers.
The papers must be written in an extremely concise style, 4-5 pages, 1200 hundred words max. This is persuasive writing, with academic citations to back up your factual points.
You must state a clear thesis in your first sentence, write a first paragraph that summarizes everything you are about to say, then spend the rest of the paper defending and explaining that first paragraph.
You must write short, with blunt force clarity, just as in the news business. One way to judge this style is to ask yourself: “If my paper were an article on the web, would I click and read it?” If not, the paper isn’t clear enough or persuasive enough. State your case clearly. Defend it with examples and academic back up. Don’t use unnecessary words. Don’t use filler words or cliches.
Your opinions do not need to agree with the readings or lectures, but they do need to be supported with documented facts, and written as succinctly as possible.
The goal is to expose you to a writing style where every word is precisely chosen, because that’s how the real world, not just the news business, communicates today. Its power writing: here’s the deal, here are my facts and argument, here’s my clear conclusion.
**One re-write of the first paper will be allowed, to help you understand the style and content required. If the re-write is better, it will improve your grade. I will help with the re-write on request to identify ways to improve. With or without an office visit, you must finish the rewrite within ten days of the original assignment.**
The UVA Honor Code
Will be respected in this class. Please avoid all temptation to plagiarize or over borrow research done by others. I will verify papers at random. The Honor Pledge must be written and signed on both papers and the final paper.
Key Concepts to Consider and Master
(Hint: These are in essence, the questions you will answer on the final paper.)
Is the news media doing its primary job as watchdog?
Is news sponsored by advertising good for our democracy?
Is news online and news on social media inherently corrupted by how it’s measured?
What’s the worst form of news media bias?
What’s the value and the downside of consuming news through comedic satire?
Did the news media fail the public in it’s coverage of the 2016 campaign?
Is TV news more a public service or a disgrace?
WED AUG 24 COURSE INTRODUCTION. WHY NEWS IS FREEDOM
Reading: Elements of Journalism Introduction and Ch. 1 What is Journalism For?
Lecture. Course introduction and what you should know to succeed in the class. We will discuss the purpose of news in America. The founders gave us the First Amendment, not because they loved the press, but because they saw free and open information as essential to freedom itself.
FRI AUG 26 NEWS AT ITS BEST
Read: Elements of Journalism Chap 3. Who Journalists Work For. Ch. 6 Monitor Power and Offer Voice to the Voiceless.
Lecture. Before we presume the media always deserves pubic scorn, there is actually a lot to like about US journalism. We look at where news fulfills its mission at the highest levels.
THE WEEK OF AUGUST 29. FIRST, FOLLOW THE MONEY
MON AUG 29 GUESS THE AUDIENCE
Read: Tuned Out. Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News
(Note: Tuned Out is a short, but important book for you. Some of the stats are dated, but only because disengagement by millennials has increased.)
Lecture: To understand the media, first understand the size and demographics of the audience. The audience of any newspaper, newscast or website shapes the content of the news, and reveals the business model of media owners and managers. How younger Americans shape the news—by avoiding it.
WED AUG 31 HOW NEWS IS PAID FOR. TYPES OF BUSINESS MODELS
Read: Bookstore Packet : MDST 3680. Fall 2016 Packet. NEWS MEDIA.
——Chapter 11 “The Business of Producing Journalism” from The Ethical Journalist
The Basics on Digital Ads
https://moz.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-sponsored-content
The Threat to Digital Ads—already
http://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/will_ad_blockers_kill_the_digital_media_industry.php
Lecture: Most but not all US news organizations sell advertising to raise the funds needed to cover the news. But news based on advertising and owned by large, for profit corporations has disadvantages. The profit motive and competition for audience clicks puts downward pressure on high quality reporting.
FRI SEPT 2 HOW NEWS IS MEASURED—IMPORTANCE OR POPULARITY
Read: Be familiar with the web tracking software Chartbeat
http://blog.chartbeat.com/2013/12/03/introducing-new-chartbeat-publishing-editorial/
Be familiar with this chart!!
http://www.journalism.org/media-indicators/digital-top-50-online-news-entities-2015/
Lecture: Old school media used to rely on daily or weekly ratings or circulation counts and to determine what they could charge advertisers. But now, the audience for news online is measured every second, the ads are worth less, and the news is altered to maximize clicks and shares. The pressure to give an audience what it wants, not what it needs is higher than its ever been.
THE WEEK OF SEPT. 5. MAINSTREAM MEDIA 1: TV NEWS
MON SEPT 5 HOW TO WATCH AND JUDGE TV NEWS
Read: Blur. Ch. 3 The Tradecraft of Verification. Ch. 5, Where Did This Come From
Ch. 7 Where’s the Evidence
—**In this book, pay special attention when the book covers these distinctions. 1) News that’s verified versus news that’s emphatically asserted. 2) News that is fact checked versus news that is not. 3) News that originates in the field and features interviews with real people and experts, as opposed to news that originates on a set and relies more on opinion.
Lecture. How to judge TV by whats on the screen. Does the broadcast show you reporters in the field or experts on a set? Does the broadcast feature interviews with real people who have been impacted by the issue in the news? Is the report based on first hand news gathering, or based on video purchased from outside providers?
WED SEPT 7 THE BROADCAST NEWS NETWORKS
Read: State of the Media Network News
Lectures. The broadcast news networks still command huge audiences and advertising dollars. Broadcast news is composed of true networks using roughly 340 local stations each. While most Americans watch these networks over a wired cable subscription, broadcast news is also transmitted over the public airwaves, like a radio station. As a result, they are obligated under federal law to broadcast “in the public interest.” You will be the judge of whether they meet the standard.
FRI SEPT 9 WHATS DIFFERENT ABOUT PBS
Read: State of the Media, The PBS News Hour (its really one page!)
Lecture: PBS is a also broadcast network, but is non profit. It raises most of its money from foundations and donors, not large corporate advertisers. Without the need to satisfy advertisers with a mass audience, the news tends to be more in depth. That said, its typically more boring, which represents the trade off faced by all US media.
THE WEEK OF SEPT. 12 MAINSTREAM MEDIA 2: CABLE AND LOCAL TV NEWS
MON SEPT 12 CABLE TV NEWS CNN AND MSNBC
Read: State of the Media, Cable News
Lecture: Cable news comes to your home on a wire and is actually not composed of networked stations like broadcast news. It does not have to present news in the public interest. Cable is a superior news source when covering major breaking news, but after that, cable fills its airtime with panel discussions, live guest appearances, debate and punditry.
WED SEPT 14 WHATS DIFFERENT ABOUT FOX NEWS
Read: http://mediamatters.org/blog/2010/10/29/sources-fox-management-slanting-dc-bureaus-news/172624
Read: http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2015/false/
Lecture: Fox News rose to dominance by becoming the voice of politically conservative Americans who believe most mainstream news is politically liberal and elitist. But the Fox audience is old and white, it’s become a one sided platform for Republican candidates and causes, and Fox provides a unusual level of misleading and non factual commentary, even for partisan news. What Fox becomes after Roger Ailes is the media story of the year.
FRI SEPT 16 THE STATE OF LOCAL TV NEWS
Read: State of the Media Local TV News
Lecture: Local TV news, which does have the public interest mandate is a source of concern because of the high profit demanded by station owners, which tend to be large, conglomerate media corporations. The audience still loves local TV, but newscasts are covering less city hall and statehouse news. Local news also features coverage by MMJ's, multimedia journalists, who report, edit and operate the cameras, which steals time from the reporters’ focus on facts.
THE WEEK OF SEPT. 19 MAINSTREAM MEDIA 3: NEWSPAPERS AND ORIGINAL REPORTING
MON SEPT 19 THE DECLINE NEWSPAPERS AND THE STAKES INVOLVED
Read: State of the Media Newspapers
Read: Losing the News, Chapter 1, The Iron Core. Chapter 7, Newspapers on the Brink.
Lecture: Printed newspapers are suffering an economic death spiral. The rapid decline of print subscriptions and ad revenue is forcing all newspapers to go online, where, despite a much larger audience, advertising income is minimal. Because digital, so far does not pay the bills, papers have fired tens of thousands of reporters once devoted to watchdog, original journalism.
WED SEPT 21 ORIGINAL VERSUS DERIVED REPORTING
Read: Blur Ch 8 How to Find What Really Matters
Lecture: Most original reporting begins with reporters on the phone, attending events, pouring over documents and public records or persuading sources to speak to them. Even now in the digital age that job is still done mostly by newspaper and wire service reporters, who then find their work lifted and repackaged by TV news and everyone on the web. Some digital first organizations like Slate, Politico and BuzzFeed News do offer excellent original journalism. But most news on the web is offered by aggregators such as Google News or the Skimm, which collect, rank or repurpose the top news stories written first in the mainstream legacy press.
FRI SEPT 23 MAINSTREAM NEWS ETHICS. NOT AN OXYMORON
Read: Reuters’ 10 Journalistic Absolutes
http://handbook.reuters.com/?title=Standards_and_Values
Read: Code of Ethics, Society of Professional Journalists
http://www.spj.org/pdf/spj-code-of-ethics.pdf
Lecture: One major advantage of the mainstream press is that despite some spectacular lapses, reporters are obligated to never commit factual error, never tilt a story based on personal politics and never do a story for personal gain. Reporters still get things wrong, but the mainstream press has high ethical standards, which are enforced by suspensions and dismissals. This is not yet true in the digital world.
**Paper One Due, Friday Sept. 23 5pm on Collab**
Pick one category of TV News. Describe whether it’s more a public service, or a disgrace.
WEEK OF MONDAY SEPT. 26 THE REVOLUTION 1: SOCIAL MEDIA
MON SEPT 26 SOCIAL MEDIA FACEBOOK
Read: Facebook and Instant Articles http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/11/why-not-be-all-the-way-in-how-publishers-are-using-facebook-instant-articles/
Read: How the algorithm works. http://www.inma.org/blogs/Dancing-with-Platforms/post.cfm/facebook-s-legendary-algorithm-demystified?utm_source=Daily+Lab+email+list&utm_campaign=c19821047a-dailylabemail3&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d68264fd5e-c19821047a-396028457
Read: Does Facebook Trending need an old school editor? http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/09/media/facebook-vietnam-photo/index.html?iid=SF_LN&mc_cid=046871aa56&mc_eid=1ebeb2e7c7
Read: Is Facebook Trending really neutral technology? http://www.cjr.org/innovations/in_at_least_one_respect.php
Read: How Facebook live is measured.
http://digiday.com/platforms/armed-analytics-publishers-already-changing-facebook-live-strategies/
Read: How Facebook enforces “community standards”
http://www.wnd.com/2016/08/facebook-blocks-michael-savage-for-migrant-murder-story/
Lecture: Facebook, a tech first company is taking over the news business in several ways. The Facebook Newsfeed page is where newspaper and TV reports can shared millions of times. Facebook Instant Articles has been adopted by newspapers for direct and immediate views of their stories. Facebook Live makes any citizen a broadcaster. But we don’t know whether Facebook is the scourge or savior of high quality news, because its algorithms only favor what’s popular.
WED SEPT 28 SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER
Read: The Importance of Twitter Moments
http://www.poynter.org/2015/twitter-launches-moments-its-long-awaited-curation-feature/376970/
Read: Athlete suspended over Twitter Hate http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/sports/baseball/steve-clevenger-suspended-seattle-mariners-twitter.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-4&action=click&contentCollection=Baseball®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article
Read: Twitter and the Pope
Read : Trusting Twitter
http://www.cjr.org/news_literacy/news_literacy_twitter.php
Read: Twitter and Harassment
http://www.cjr.org/analysis/twitter_harassment_by_the_numbers.php
Read: US Rising Reliance on Social
http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Digital-News-Report-2016.pdf
Pages 4-15
Lecture: Twitter is the most important news gathering tool in history, because like Facebook, it gives a voice to anyone who wants to be heard. It’s the leading source of citizen journalism. It represents a democratic movement in news, in which elite, educated editors are no longer the gatekeepers they used to be.
However, Twitter also magnifies falsehoods, rumors and hate, and mixes corporate messaging with the news.
FRI SEPT 30 THE RISE OF HYPERLOCAL DIGITAL ONLY NEWS
Read: Elements of Journalism Ch 11. "The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens."
Scan this: http://www.cjr.org/news_startups_guide/online-news-websites/coverage/hyperlocal-news.php
Lecture: An emerging form of online journalism is the rise of “hyperlocal” websites that dig deeply into local issues using very small staffs or often, people in the community as their reporters. The early founders of the movement are motivated in part by the collapse of reporting that keeps city hall honest.
THE WEEK OF OCT. 3 THE LATEST ON THE 2016 CAMPAIGN
MON OCT. 3 READING DAY. NO CLASS.
WED OCT 5 THE MEDIA AND THE CAMPAIGN
Read: Should the Press Use the Word: “Lie?” http://www.cjr.org/criticism/trump_birtherism_lie_media.php?newsletter
Read: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/donald-trump-media-response-220033
Read http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/08/01/trump_we_are_going_to_punch_through_the_media.html
Everything about this lecture will be real time, so stay tuned. There will be digressions throughout the campaign during other lectures, but in this lecture we focus on the good and bad in media coverage so far.
FRI OCT 7 SOCIAL MEDIA. CAMPAIGN ATTACK DOG OR WATCHDOG?
Read: TBD
Lecture. The 2016 campaign is the first true social media campaign, beginning with Donald Trump’s unique domination of free airtime, using insults and controversies posted on Twitter. But social media has also been a powerful watchdog and fact checker and is a go to element in almost every policy related news story in the mainstream and digital press.
THE WEEK OF OCT 10 THE REVOLUTION 2: DIGITAL FIRST NEWS
MON OCT 10 DIGITAL FIRST GIANTS: Slate to Politico to Buzzfeed News to HuffPo
Read: http://www.cjr.org/innovations/how_to_build_an_audience.php
Read: https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrishamby/super-court?utm_source=MuckReads&utm_campaign=800aeb4a7f-
Read. Rising Importance of Branded Content Ads
Lecture. Huffington Post. Slate. Vox. Politico. Buzzfeed and Gawker are news related websites that were born online, not as printed newspapers. Some are committed in varying degrees to producing investigative and original news. They use very different approaches, but are all in competition to find the largest online audience.
WED OCT 12 VICE: INTERNET TV FOR MILENNIALS
Read or Watch: Vice.com, Vice News Tonight, HBO Vice
Read: http://www.cjr.org/the_feature/vice_freelancers.php
Read: http://niemanreports.org/articles/alex-miller-of-vice-what-is-it-like-to-be-there/
Lecture: Vice News is a rising powerhouse and innovator in video based news, foreign news and now a nighty newscast, all of it targeted at your generation. It’s hard news mixed with millennial edge and attitude. But how it makes money over time isn’t clear and Vice has been accused of going easy on big name advertisers, that it views as partners.
FRI OCT 14 DIGITAL NON PROFIT, PUBLIC SERVICE JOURNALISM
Read: Be familiar with the most recent editions of the sites listed here. Be prepared to discuss an article from each publication. This is also your random reading assignment.
Pro Publica http://www.propublica.org
Center for Public Integrity https://www.publicintegrity.org
Texas Tribune https://www.texastribune.org
Lecture. Non profit digital websites raise money from foundations and donors, and like PBS, this frees them to having to appeal to a mass audience. The result is high quality, watchdog reporting.
THE WEEK OF OCT 17. BIAS 1: POLITICAL BIAS
MON OCT 17 LIBERAL BIAS
Read: Is “The Media” a meaningful phrase anymore? https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/dear-readers-please-stop-calling-us-the-media-there-is-no-such-thing/2016/09/23/37972a32-7932-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html?postshare=1421474647621966&tid=ss_tw
Read: Blaming Whites http://www.nationalreview.com/article/243644/black-murders-eight-whites-media-blame-whites-dennis-prager
Lecture. Conservatives have long argued the mainstream press is politically biased in favor of liberal causes and Democrats. They have a point, especially on social issues like race, guns, gender equality and the presumptive need for government intervention. But unfounded charges of liberal bias are often raised cynically by candidates, and conservative commentators, who know their base, or audience will respond.
WED OCT 19 CONSERVATIVE BIAS
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/anson-kaye/2013/02/28/the-media-arent-a-liberal-conspiracy
Lecture: Conservative news outlets are more profitable than liberal leaning outlets, like MSNBC because liberals don’t flock to MSNBC in the same way conservatives gather around Fox. The market in other words, rewards overtly conservative newscasts and websites. This makes conservative bias open, obvious and purposeful.
FRI OCT 21 STRUCTURAL CORPORATE BIAS
Lecture. Outside of the confines of political bias, the American press generally does not question the value of a market based economy, the advantages of capitalism, or trend by corporations to channel profits to management and shareholders at the expense of workers. This is partly because most elite reporters earn high salaries from large corporations and don’t recall being among the working poor. This is structural corporate bias, and it helps explain the lack of new focus on workers’ wages and the number of working Americans in true distress.
THE WEEK OF MONDAY OCT. 24 BIAS 2: MARKET-DRIVEN BIAS
MON OCT 24 MARKET BIAS
Read: TBD
Lecture. Market bias is news the audience demands because its entertaining or salacious, but not truly important. It’s the decision to cover more weather and less Congress, or news thats trending and popular at the expense of foreign news. Local news often starts with violent crime because of the mantra: “if it bleeds it leads.” Market bias surfaces when a news division covers a story that benefits the owners or parent corporation, sometimes without disclosure.
WED OCT 26 CONFLICT BIAS
Read: TBD
Lecture. Conflict bias is the decision to cover heated disputes at the expense of more important issues or more civil policy debates. It’s the reason cable news gives so much time to arguments on the set at the expense of stories featuring citizens who could be interviewed in the field.
FRI OCT 28 ** CONFIRMATION BIAS
Read: Columbia takes down Rolling Stone http://www.cjr.org/investigation/rolling_stone_investigation.php
The Press and Bernie Sanders http://www.cjr.org/analysis/bernie_sanders_underdog.php
Lecture. Confirmation bias happens when a story is too good to check. UVa suffered the most destructive kind of confirmation bias when Rolling Stone failed to verify basic facts before publishing “A Rape on Campus” in 2014. Confirmation bias also happens when media decide on a broad story narrative without checking any sources. Most reporters scoffed at the appeal of Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump because they were speaking to each other and not to voters.
THE WEEK OF OCT 31 SATIRE AND ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
MON OCT 31 JON STEWART’S FAKE NEWS INVENTION
Lecture. John Stewart sat behind a desk and showed video clips as if he were a news anchor, but his purpose was to mix satire and comedy to criticize politicians and the media. His fake news was so intelligent and hilarious, your generation learned more policy from The Daily Show than it did watching real news.
WED NOV 2 CUTTING EDGE OF SATIRE: COLBERT, MAHER, OLIVER
Lecture. Stewart’s successors in the fake news arena took his ideas to new creative levels. Stephen Colbert, after mimicking a conservative commentator on cable, took his style of comedic satire into late night broadcast TV. Bill Maher weaves comedic satire into political roundtable discussions. John Oliver mixes satire and comedy with impressive investigative reporting.
FRI NOV 4 ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: TRASH OR CULTURAL WATCHDOG?
Read: How celebrity news is a problem. http://www.cjr.org/analysis/brangelina_trump_twitter.php?newsletter
Lecture. Entertainment news both online and on TV draws large audiences with news mostly related to Hollywood and pop celebrity. But Hollywood is also a cultural force and major export industry, and when entertainment news exposes the downside of celebrity behavior, it serves a watchdog function over this globally important slice of American culture.
***Paper Two Due Friday November 4, 5pm, Submit directly in Collab***
What is the worst form of news media bias?
THE WEEK OF NOV 7. SPORTS AND BUSINESS NEWS
MON NOV 7 SPORTS NEWS AND THE RISE OF SPORT INVESTIGATIONS
Read: TBD
Lecture. Live sports and the drama related to athletes is another slice of American culture that draws large audiences, profits and its own niche news media. Sports news coverage has grown beyond game day, with several first rate news outlets offering a range of stories from athlete profiles to investigative exposes.
WED NOV 9 BUSINESS NEWS
Lecture. Business news is important, highly competitive and profitable, but only a few outlets go beyond uncritical market coverage and CEO cheerleading. Very few, especially in TV news, devote the resources needed to consistently expose the abuses of big business.
FRI NOV 11 DID THE PRESS DO ITS JOB COVERING CAMPAIGN 2016
Read
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/06/the-making-of-the-campaign-2016/
http://billmoyers.com/story/how-we-got-trumped-by-the-media/
Lecture. Three days after the election we review the question the media will have to answer for years. Did they do the job the public wanted, expected and needed covering the 2016 presidential race?
THE WEEK OF NOV 14. GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
MON NOV 14 WHERE THE PRESS IS FREE, BUT DIFFERENT
Read: TBD
Lecture. Two of the worlds largest broadcasters, BBC in London and NHK in Tokyo enjoy huge budgets to cover the news, with those funds coming from a mandatory yearly tax on televisions. The government enforces the tax, but otherwise does not directly control the news. In this class, we look at how other free countries finance the media without mass advertising.
WED NOV 16 WHERE THE PRESS IS OPPRESSED AND COURAGEOUS
Read: TBD
Lecture. In too many places on earth today, honest news reporting can get you arrested, imprisoned or killed. In the face of those risks, reporters in every oppressed nation still go out fearlessly, because they see free information as a human right and the most effective way to combat and reverse the tyranny in control of their country.
FRI NOV 18 EMERGING GLOBAL THREATS TO A FREE PRESS
Read: TBD
In this lecture, we continue the global oppression discussion with a guest.
FINAL TWO WEEKS EPIC FAIL. EPIC SUCCESS
MON NOV 21 EPIC FAIL: QUESTIONING THE IRAQ INVASION
Read: Read: Bookstore Packet : MDST 3680. Fall 2016 Packet. NEWS MEDIA.
From the book: Lapdogs, Ch 8. This is Scripted.
Read: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-iraq-war-and-stubborn-myths-1428087215?
Lecture. Very few reporters questioned in depth the Bush Administration’s argument that a ground force invasion of Iraq was required because Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons for use against the US and allies like Israel. Reporters who did raise the most serious questions were essentially ignored. We look at the factors that put the mainstream press to sleep, or open to manipulation precisely when the public needed an aggressive press the most.
MON NOV 28 EPIC FAIL: THE MORTGAGE BANKING MELTDOWN
Read: TBD
Lecture: Despite a large and well connected business and financial press, the best reporters in the business did not piece together the level of unregulated financial derivatives Wall Street was creating to make higher fees on mortgages loans. Reporters never understood until too late how the scale of that gambling put all bank deposits at risk. We look at how the press missed the now obvious misbehavior that caused the recession of 2008.
WED NOV 30 EPIC MEDIA SUCCESS: MURROW TO WATERGATE TO CHURCH SCANDAL
Lecture. In this class we come full circle to discuss what happens when our free press, operating properly, exposes a level of criminality or injustice that transforms the country. What is the impact on our leadership after these stories? What level of power is returned to citizens who’d fallen victim?
FRI DEC 2 COURSE REVIEW
MON DEC 5 FINAL PAPER. Details disclosed in class.
The News Media Description
This course will take an analytical snapshot of the news media today, so that you can better evaluate how to watch and read the news. How does the media choose to cover what we see? How can you spot bias? Or quality? How is the news paid for, and how does the money earned from advertisers influence what we read? How important is comedy and satire to your generation? What’s good and bad about the digital news revolution? Who’s measuring what you choose to read?
At the end of this course you will be a better judge, not just of news, but of whether the news you consume is preparing you for leadership and making you the informed citizen Mr. Jefferson envisioned. The course will show how, with every click, you influence the quality of news you are offered next.