Archive for January, 2011
Monday, January 31st, 2011
RE: Classroom Protocol — Text Messaging, Cell Phoning. Computers in the Classroom. ADD/ADHD. Tourette Syndrome. Paranoid Schizophrenia. Et. Al.
Inspired by a discussion on the Hunter-Listserv several weeks ago about students plunking away on laptops in classes, the following was to be posted on the Hunter-L listserv the first week of classes but I changed my mind. I see no point. I think I’ve pretty much exhausted whatever value that listserv held for me. Nevertheless, what I’ve would have posted if I hadn’t changed my mind …
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Tags:cell phone etiquette, cell phones, disruptive students, serially flashing, text messaging, texting, Tourette Syndrome
Posted in It Was One of Those Semesters, Journalism Education, Student Journalism | Comments Closed
Thursday, January 27th, 2011
Now, I understand what I wanted to say in the previous post about Keith Olberman et. al. but didn’t know how to get at it: I would love to see a show somehow teaming up The Rachel Maddow with Democracy Now! If such things were possible. Even just an experiment.
Tags:Democracy Now
Posted in Journalism | Comments Closed
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011
A quickie: I watched bits n’pieces of Olbermann. I watched Rachel Maddow a few times and wondered how long MSNBC allow her to pummel the extreme right. She was very good but something about her shows seemed artificial and more like entertainment, as in, Okay, you think these right wing sleaze bags are going to heaven? Well, watch this choreography we put together to make sure that you know they’re really going to hell. A little over the top, I thought.
I considered her and his shows marketing devices for MSNBC to compete against Fox for viewership. Whereas Fox never seemed that way: True diehard neo-nativists — neo-fascistic, comfortable in the presence of birthers and all the other neo-bigots. A real bigot revue.
I believe that the MSNBC high mucky-mucks and the Fox high mucky-mucks meet somewhere in an upscale bar and schmooze, slap each other on the back, commiserate.
Tags:Fox News, journalism
Posted in Journalism, Journalism Education, State of Journalism | Comments Closed
Monday, January 24th, 2011
I was surprised when students in my two writing classes, feature and introductory news, declined to participate in a conference call with the President of the United States, September 27, 2010, as student journalists at 300 other student publications did.
Not one expressed an interest.
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Tags:Student Journalism, student news media
Posted in Blogroll, It Was One of Those Semesters, Journalism, Journalism Education, Student Journalism | Comments Closed
Sunday, January 23rd, 2011
Posted by on the White House Blog by Dan Pfeiffer on January 21, 2011 at 12:29 PM EST
On Tuesday, January 25, at 9 p.m. EST, President Obama will deliver the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol. We have been working on a number of ways citizens can get involved in the State of the Union and ask their questions of President Obama and senior Administration officials.
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Tags:2011 State of the Union, President Obama, White House Administation
Posted in Blogroll, Journalism, Journalism Education, Student Journalism | Comments Closed
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
Posted because I’m teaching a J-ethics/news responsibility class this semester.
Public Policy Polling released its second annual News Trust Poll yesterday, and what little coverage it received emphasized that Fox News is now America’s most distrusted TV news source and PBS the most trusted. — From boston.com.
Click here for more info.
Tags:Fox News, journalism ethics
Posted in Journalism, News/Commentary/Opinion, State of Journalism | Comments Closed
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
Two students taking Media 386, a journalism ethics course, last semester had their final grades reduced by one grade because of repeated violations of class guidelines about text messaging. Both were whining that they were treated unfairly. They were not identified but one actually did a whine-whine on the WORD’s facebook page: She was responding to my description of the other student because she believed I was discussing her “case. When I informed her that I wasn’t, she refused to believe me. In a sense, she outed herself in a public forum!
The other notified me that she was appealing her grade (which is not a bad strategy in a department with the most sordid grading scams at Hunter). But never mind that. Below is a metaphysical rejoinder to them about the perils of texting inappropriately.
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Tags:cell phone texting, texting, Youtube
Posted in 30-40P, It Was One of Those Semesters, Journalism Education | Comments Closed
Monday, January 17th, 2011
Below, the first two paragraphs of a very long memo in the wake of the November 10, 2010, faculty meeting.
November 14, 2010
Colleagues,
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Tags:D:F/M, Department Politics, Office Politics
Posted in Blogroll, It Was One of Those Semesters | Comments Closed
FAIR Media Advisory: Keith Olbermann’s Departure from MSNBC Shows Limits of Corporate Media Liberalism
Monday, January 24th, 2011Whether the abrupt termination of MSNBC host Keith Olbermann’s contract on January 21 was connected to Olbermann’s left-of-center politics or the recent purchase of NBC by Comcast from General Electric, the host’s departure provides an opportunity to reflect on the bigger picture.
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Tags:corporate and mainstream journalism, MSNBC
Posted in Journalism, Journalism Education, News/Commentary/Opinion, State of Journalism, Student Journalism | Comments Closed