BONUS blog (due by the start of class on Wednesday, April 24)
Earn 5 points by responding to this bonus blog — this could make up for missing comments on other blogs or help your participation score!
What was your biggest takeaway from this class? Also, which reading had the most impact on you and why?
Having the opportunity to present at CoSA and writing my content analysis were probably my biggest take aways from News Analysis. I feel that presenting at CoSA helped me get over my fear of presenting and it is an amazing thing to add to my resume. Writing my content analysis helped me understand what happened in my childhood. I was a young child in New York City when the attacks happened and didn't fully understand the impact of the event on the entire country. Looking back at it as a college student helped me understand me fully what had happened and how the country reacted. This project also let me learn more about how journalists write.
I think that the Bernstein and Bob Woodward reading had the most impact on me. That reading, along with the movie, gave me a new found appreciation for the work that journalists do. Also, I love history and that reading was about a very important period in American history.
I agree with Caroline in saying having been given the opportunity to present at COSA was one of the highlights of this class. I enjoyed our group project and all it entailed. It was a unique topic and it is not everyday that you get to Skype with the author of one of your class books!
My favorite reading we did in this class was "All the President's Men." I loved the investigative journalism aspect of that reading and additionally, seeing and enjoying the movie was an awesome and added bonus. I just really loved how deep Bernstein and Woodward dug to get the true and correct story out. I wish journalism today was still like this, with the exception of the Internet of course! No one wants to look through the phone book!
I can honestly say, this has been one of my personal favorite Media & Communication Studies classes offered at Ursinus and this is due in large part to Dr. H and her teaching style and journalism background.
I agree that it was cool to present at COSA. I think that this experience and this class in general really stood out to me because it was different than what I have experienced as a psychology major. I enjoyed the open class discussion and I liked how the course was formatted. I thought that our talks always included diverse perspectives and were thought provoking. Before this class, I always read and watched news, but I think that this class gave me a different perspective of the pivotal function that news plays within our society.
My favorite reading from the course was Martha Gellhorn's "The Face of War." I liked this work so much because it was so different than any thing that I have ever read. To be honest, before this course I never knew that there was a literary style of journalism. Because I love to read novels, I really enjoyed this alternative style. I thought that it had a perfect blend of fact, emotion, and story. Although I would still prefer to get daily news through the more traditional style, I think that the literary style is better for historical events that may be foreign to my generation.
COSA was also a huge help to me. I'm not a fan of public speaking, but we had a strong group and a really interesting topic which helped me. Preparing for the presentation and explaining our results in front of a crowd was an experience that I very much needed. It was great to see that people were interested in our work and that they wanted to know more about it. Answering questions from the audience was great and taught me how to provide a knowledgeable answer off the cuff.
While I really enjoyed reading and watching "All the President's Men," I have to say my favorite was "The Girls in the Balcony." Obviously I'm interested in women's history in journalism and this piece just gave me so much insight to their plight. I loved reading the feisty comments and the stand that these women took against unfair treatment.
I really enjoyed this textbook overall because it provided me with important pieces in journalistic history that I haven't read before. I feel like I know a little bit more about a lot of aspects of journalism's history, and I really want to know more. I want to read the complete pieces (except Tocqueville and Lippmann).
Sabrina, completely agreed with reading the complete pieces except Tocqueville and Lippmann. And Steven, "The Face of War" was my second favorite reading!
CoSA was my largest take as well. Coming into this class I knew not a thing about journalism, at all. I never had an interest in it, nor anything to do with news. I still do not have as much of an interest in it as many of the people in class, but I came out knowing a lot more. I had never written a lit review or any type of research project like we did in this class and was basically thrown right into it. Even though I had absolutely no idea what I was doing,and felt like the most clueless,I was able to present at CoSA.
My favorite reading, like Marina, was "All the President's Men". I loved the way it was written, because it really grasped my attention. I also enjoyed learning about their experience with investigative journalism during the scandal. It was also nice to be able to see the film, even though I only say a portion.
The biggest thing that I was able to take away from this class was learning about the myths in the news. Before this class I would just go to CNN, ESPN, or a major source like that to get my news and information about what was happening in the world. I never looked for myths or really knew what was being said in the reports and always just read to find out information. Now after reading Jack Lule's book, and understanding the seven myths in journalism I feel much more aware and knowledgeable about journalism. This was also my favorite book to read because it was really informative for me and I took a lot away from this. I like reading the newspaper now and I actually feel like I am reading it for a purpose. News has always attracted me but from reading this book and understanding the themes in class I am much more curious about the news and how it is revealed to the public. I think it is interesting to read through the news and find different myths because it is almost like a puzzle. From doing the group project and individual project to finding these myths has really made me appreciate news much more and I have become much more interested in pursuing a career in the news field or in journalism. It was fun for me to see how my research was similar to others and how they realated and correlated to one another. Overall i really enjoyed the course and liked learning about the different myths and reading Jack Lule's book.
Paul, I agree that reading Dr. Lule's book about myths was interesting and I enjoyed both doing and presented the project that we did as a class at COSA. I agree that now that I have read Lule's book I am constantly searching for the myths in different news articles. I believe they are an integral part of news and will continue to be in the future. They are central to the human experience and help organize a sometimes unpredictable and often chaotic world. I think that it could be interesting if someone decides to continue the research regarding myth in the school newspaper or in other news sources.
Paul, I shared similar sentiments about Dr. Lule's book. After reading it I look at news in a different way. As Steven said in the comment above me, the myths are a way to make sense of unpredictable and chaotic world. I think it would be interesting in the future to look at source different from the Grizzly, and more of a larger publication. I think that this would really shed a different more impacting light on the topic of myth in the news.
I agree as well. I think the most prominent thing I took away from this class was the information in Jack Lule's book. It was quite interesting to learn about his different myths and then actually be able to apply them to articles written for the Grizzly. I will probably not forget these myths and continue to remember this class and recollect the seven myths when I read news articles in the future. One piece we read that I particularly liked was All the President's Men. I feel as though for the most part, journalism's reputation and public image has been altered completely since the glory days of Woodward and Bernstein, so it was quite intriguing to think about how seemingly different of a role journalism once played.
I agree. I also found Lule's book to be the biggest takeaway from this course. I don't necessarily find a bigger purpose in news now that I am aware of the myths, but it is certainly something I cannot "unsee." That is, I will always be looking for the myth in stories, like what you said about it being sort of like a puzzle. Similar to when I took a screenwriting class and learned that almost every script is nearly identical in form and structure, knowing that there is no truly "new" news is an interesting concept to come to terms with.
By reading Lule's book, this had a significant impact on me and how I look I at the news. The different myths involved in the news today, and how commonly they are seen is something that never occurred to me before Lule's breakdown. Like Ryan said above me, I also think it would be interesting to compare these myths to the Grizzly and see if they match up in students publications. It sounds like most people in the class enjoyed Lule's book, and I think is was clear he presented these myths clearly that can be applied to all different types of journalism today.
Paul, I agree with you. I feel that reading Dr. Lule's book has helped me view news in an entirely different perspective. Prior to reading Lule's book, I did not take much time to think about the format in which articles were written, instead I just took it as news, never thought about the significance in which the story was told. Also, after having Dr. Lule speak to the class, it was interesting to take a look at the Grizzly and find that although there weren't many myths in the Grizzly, I found that Dr. Lule was accurate in what type of myths he thought were most prevalent in a campus paper (good mother, and hero).
The biggest take away for me is the importance of news' function as story/myth. Before this class, whenever I considered the importance of journalism, my immediate response would be information, not stories. Journalism serves the important function of keeping citizens in the know so they can (ideally) make informed decisions at the polls. But reading Lule as well as the examples of nontraditional/literary journalism in the King and Chapman book shed light on news’ importance as story/myth. News’ story/myth element, from my perspective, seems to make an even stronger argument for the importance of journalism than news’ informational function. The part of Lule’s book that has stuck with me was his description of story/myth in news as a organizing force for life and society. Lule, when talking about the victim myth in particular, argued for myth in news as performing the function of explaining the randomness of human life and destruction. This elevates the importance of news beyond its role as a medium for information. There is, as we read, a downside to this – in keeping with its organizing function, myth in news can also preserve social hierarchies to the detriment of those at the bottom of these hierarchies, as was the case with the trickster and sometimes the scapegoat. Lule’s explanation of myths in news and their positive and negative impacts added a new dimension to my understanding of the journalist’s power and responsibility, which has affected the way I read and write news. I think this idea works well with the second half of the semester’s emphasis on what happens behind the scenes of journalism. Another big take away for me was the importance of journalists having proper training and consumers of news paying for the human capital that goes into the production of news. Aside from the fact that I am now all about paying for news after Dr. H’s very convincing lecture on the subject, I think Lule’s explanation of myths makes for an interesting addition to what we traditionally view as proper training for journalists. Understanding how myths operate and how they impact society challenges the journalist to examine their own reporting process and balance fact and story as objectively as possible.
My biggest take away from this class, as I see other people have commented, was Dr. Lule's book on myth. I grew up having a father who was a reporter so I was constantly surrounded by the stories he covered and reading the Star Ledger (who he wrote for until recently). I took Dr. H's News Analysis class because I had not given much deep thought to journalism or news, and thought it would be interesting given my dad's background and passion for journalism. Opening Dr. Lule's book on the first week or so of the semester I was completely taken back. This was a thought process of news and journalism that I had given no thought to. I will admit, the first reading I was slightly turned off. I was texting my dad asking if he had ever given any thought to this, because it sounded crazy. However, the more thought I gave to the concept, as well as the work we are doing as a group, I became more interested in the idea. I read news articles now and occasionally see myths occur. This reading has given me a totally different side of journalism that I would have not experienced. Additionally, talking with Dr. Lule provided an experience that at Ursinus we would not typically have. It is pretty cool to get to say we talked to the author of a book we were studying in class. The group project work and the continued analysis and working with this book solidified the importance and take away from this book.
I agree, being able to say that we experienced talking to an author of a book we were studying is very cool. Even though I myself did not feel that this was the reading I took the most out of, I still enjoyed it. The stories were interesting and attention grabbing and it provided us with something to think about. I everything we did that invloved Lule was unique and eye opening. I would have loved to find out if Lule would find myth in the articles we coded if he were to read through them.
My biggest take away from this class was probably Lule’s myths. Since we have learned about the several myths in news stories, I cannot read a news story the same way anymore. I will read a story and say to myself, “Psh, such a typical scapegoat” or something along those lines. I feel like this happens in a lot of my classes. Granted that I am an American Studies major, an interdisciplinary major a lot of common themes occur in different classes. I choose to take this class because I felt that it was the only elective within my concentration that really emphasized my interest in news journalism. The readings that I found to be most interesting or enjoyable to read was from week 11, an excerpt from Sperber's biography of Edward R. Murrow and part of Katherine Graham's autobiography. I found that these pieces really began our class’ discussion of how journalism has changed since the 1950s/60s/70s. I was also intrigued because these pieces allowed me to tie in my knowledge of American Government and Politics with the News Industry. What particularly resonated with me about Murrow was how he was able to inform his viewers but also embodied the true feelings of the nation as a whole in regard to McCarthyism. Also this was the first time in our readings that a journalist flat out said that our skepticism and fear of government and the problems we face because of it, is of our own making. Also, it highlighted that it is in our right to change it, which is what Murrow attempted to do through true investigative reporting making it a truly groundbreaking work.
I think that my biggest take away from this class were our discussions on the readings in "Key Reading in Journalism." Although I did learn a lot from Lule's myths, I do not feel that this impacted the way I look at journalism as greatly as our most recent discussions. I feel that reading some of these key pieces opened up my eyes to other forms of journalism I had not even considered previously. Reading a variety of pieces forced me to really consider what journalism is on a higher level. As a result of reading some of the narrative forms of journalism, I began to really consider what the most effective way to tell a story is. I’ve realized it depends a lot on the type of story being told and the intended audience. Also, reading key pieces of journalism has made me think a lot about the future of news and journalism. I have considered what will happen in the future in regards to the news and internet and advertising. The reading that had the most impact on me was the expert from “All the President’s Men.” I think that reading this piece, along with watching the movie, made an impact because I was very impressed with the investigative journalism done by Woodward and Bernstein. This really stood out to me because they dug deep into the story and exposed something hidden deep within the government that otherwise may not have been discovered. Their persistence and risk taking in the case really struck me, and I realized that this type of investigative journalism does not occur very frequently anymore.
The concept that really stuck with me from this class was really just how hard journalists work and how many obstacles they have to overcome in their occupation. I was always under the impression that they were presented a story, given a few facts about it and then did a little research and wrote something up. Sure, this may be true for some shorter, less important stories, but for larger events and more complex information, the amount of work that goes along with writing a good story for it can be immeasurable.
In conjunction with how difficult a job it is to be a journalist, getting the job in the first place is not an easy task. Just getting your foot in the door can seemingly take a miracle. The more people you know, the better off you are, so you have to talk A LOT. This career path requires a large memory capacity, and I just don't think I could do it!
The reading that spoke the most to me was predictably the excerpt from "All the President's Men," accompanied by the film. Together, these resources truly exemplified how much the job takes. Being a journalist never appealed to me and seemed to be a tedious and boring job. Now, I'm still not itching to work in a newsroom, but I can see how exciting and fast paced the world of journalism can be!
This is going to be repetitive, but since I already took Dr. H's History of Media course, the most interesting aspect of this class was definitely the Lule readings. I thought he had an interesting take on something that is often witnessed but rarely analyzed. How often do we thing of genres being applicable to stories we read in the news? The sections are genres, but I had never thought of the stories themselves falling under the same category. This isn't to say that once Lule pointed out his myths it wasn't very easy to understand and downright obvious. It is just awesome that Lule took the time to analyze stories and break them down into basic categories based on context. I now will never view journalism the same, at least in major stories. I think that the scapegoat and the victim myth were monster eye openers in how I now read news. As opposed to agreeing with what the story says and feeling poorly for the "victims," I now try and establish strong arguments in my head about whether there actually was a real victim or if the journalist just thought it was a more compelling story if he added one. I actually based my entire final paper on the "victim" myth. The scapegoat myth was just as enthralling to learn about. Especially with recent sports scandals, it is very easy to see this myth played out in television media. Every scandal has a man at fault, when most of the time it was the fault of a large mass. Look at the Rutgers scandal two weeks ago. The A.D., coach, and eventually president of the school will/have been fired. When I saw this story I immediately pondered, based on Lule's myths, why the players, assistants, any witnesses equally as guilty? Thank you Jack Lule and Dr. H for changing the way I view news.
I guess that stands to answer both questions.
Favorite reading: Lule Biggest takeaway: Vision of news based on myths.
The Lule readings and Lule’s myths were my biggest take-away from this course. I was aware that news isn’t necessarily “new” and that each story is cyclical in history, some more than others, and repetition and similarity is seen quite often in papers, but Lule actually hammered out names and examples of each possible story. I don’t think I’ll ever quite be able to see a news story again without thinking about one of Lule’s myths, so I was definitely most impacted by them. Being able to speak to Lule via Skype was very rewarding – mostly learning about the myths that didn’t make the cut and when he began to notice/develop the myths. Additionally, being able to study the myths ourselves on a college publication level (despite the difficulties of myth being quite open to interpretation) was rewarding. The results showed that the “good mother” myth was the most prevalent in The Grizzly, when I (and probably many of my classmates) would have guessed the “hero” in the sports section would be. I think a more in-depth study would be interesting, on either a college or professional level, but issues of subjectivity must be worked out for worthwhile and accurate data.
My biggest take away from this class was learning how to specifically analyze certain things in the news/media today, and finding out what they truly mean. Before I took this class, I would read or hear about stories going on in the news, and then quickly move onto the next story without thinking what sort of impact these things can have on our society. Now, when I watch the news or read about news, I think of things such as were there any myths involved, who is writing this story, is the journalist staying objective in their reporting, and is this type of news catered toward any specific type of individuals. With the Boston Marathon Bombings happening just last week, this is when I began to realize how differently I was analyzing news than any time before. Anytime a new lead was brought up or the bombers were discussed, I thought to myself the process in which these stories broke and how accurate these reports actually were. Before this course, these thoughts would have never occurred to me, but this is clearly the biggest thing I am going to take away from this course.
Going along with that idea, the reading that had the most impact on me was the Jack Lule readings which he broke down the different myths seen in news today. I enjoyed these readings because I knew such things like heroes and victims existed, but I like the way Lule applied them to all sorts of journalism. Personally I am interested in sports journalism, and myths are seen all the time in those types of reports, so after reading Lule’s book it is easy for me to apply the different myths to those stories. After taking this course and reading Lule’s work, these have made me look at the news differently, since I pay closer attention to the news and everything it entails now than I ever have before.
When we were going over important classes for an MCS major, I'll be honest, I didn't mention our studies in News Analysis. Now that I have seen the class through (mostly) to completion, my answer has changed. Much like my reaction, the news is an evolving entity, and there is a lot to learn here not just as a potential writer, but anybody who reads news.
There were a few poignant concepts I took away. Lule managed to bottle millions of stories into five categories, which is amazing not because of its consolidation, but because his points ring clearly in most cases. The concept of the tabula rasa now ping pongs in my mind as it reveals news' ability to unionize and mold understandings of the world. For many people, news is the kaleidoscope through which they see universes outside their own.
Looking at the industry this way has cemented two things in my mind: news is creatively jammed, and this is not the profession for me. The most profound reading, oddly enough, was the introduction to Lule's book. After reading about the battery of an old man he asks, "why is this a story?" I can't rightly say -- even if it does fit a myth paradigm. We have seen that news can be visually rich, captivating, and narrative-centric, but I don't see much of that in popular press. I don't appreciate the redundant framings, redundant "plots," or general doom and gloom attitude. And I certainly don't like pop-culture news. It's not news because there's nothing noteworthy about that style of reporting... to me. Or anybody.
*Ahem* I'll shed some cynicism. MCS360 shows that right now, many major retailers are trying to understand how to make money, let alone carve a good, hearty story. For that reason, the lack of Watergate's and Cold Blood's is understandable, 'aint nobody got time for that. Still, this class has left me with a pile of "what ifs" when considering news is and how it could be relayed to the world.
Some big things I am taking away from this class is that sometimes your research may not work the way you want it to so you have to change your topic based on what you found ( from my personal research) or you just do it again differently (from the in class Lule research), and that’s okay. Another thing that I took away was reading people’s comments especially from people who don’t often talk in class it’s nice to see other peoples points of views. The biggest thing that I am taking away from this class came from the readings, that the problems with newspapers in the past are still problems today. The two readings that were due for Monday and Lule had the most impact on me because it made me realize that we think we are moving forward but in reality we aren’t going anywhere. From the readings due Monday I learn that the newspapers, stations, and radios are all forced to limit their news messages because it could affect a sponsor/ endorser. While Lule made me realize that the characters in news are presented has been the same since before the time of the written word. These three readings impacted me the most because it seemed to sum up the history of news awhile at the same time telling the future of news. When this class first started I wondered why we were only focusing on journalism and not the other forms of news, but now I realized that journalism is the basic form of news. Whether it’s a press release, investigation research findings, or a blog post, they are all forms of journalism that gets to news out to the radio stations or broadcast news.
To me, the most interesting aspect of this class is the way Lule's take on myths in the news impacted our discussion of current publications, and the Grizzly. I don't think I have ever really thought about the way common story themes could have influenced the way reporters and writers told stories to the public, but now, I find instances of myth everywhere. The idea of there being a template to the way certain stories are told is very interesting and I think it has challenged me to write outside of the box when telling stories. However, I also think it gives me guidelines to writing news articles (for Writing for the Media)and helps me realize the ways in which people can relate to a story. I think our class discussions about the different types of myths found in the news have been my favorite class discussions of my college career.
I also really enjoyed the excerpts from "All the President's Men" and the movie that we watched on Bernstein and Woodward. This section really gave me insight to the way journalism should be, at least in my mind. I found a lot of passion in those readings and the movie and it really sparked more interest in me than any of the other chapters.
Overall, I think this class has given me a much more in depth perspective of journalism and the news and the ways it is relayed to the public. I thoroughly enjoyed this class and I think our discussions will definitely stay with me in the future.
Having the opportunity to present at CoSA and writing my content analysis were probably my biggest take aways from News Analysis. I feel that presenting at CoSA helped me get over my fear of presenting and it is an amazing thing to add to my resume. Writing my content analysis helped me understand what happened in my childhood. I was a young child in New York City when the attacks happened and didn't fully understand the impact of the event on the entire country. Looking back at it as a college student helped me understand me fully what had happened and how the country reacted. This project also let me learn more about how journalists write.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Bernstein and Bob Woodward reading had the most impact on me. That reading, along with the movie, gave me a new found appreciation for the work that journalists do. Also, I love history and that reading was about a very important period in American history.
I agree with Caroline in saying having been given the opportunity to present at COSA was one of the highlights of this class. I enjoyed our group project and all it entailed. It was a unique topic and it is not everyday that you get to Skype with the author of one of your class books!
DeleteMy favorite reading we did in this class was "All the President's Men." I loved the investigative journalism aspect of that reading and additionally, seeing and enjoying the movie was an awesome and added bonus. I just really loved how deep Bernstein and Woodward dug to get the true and correct story out. I wish journalism today was still like this, with the exception of the Internet of course! No one wants to look through the phone book!
I can honestly say, this has been one of my personal favorite Media & Communication Studies classes offered at Ursinus and this is due in large part to Dr. H and her teaching style and journalism background.
I agree that it was cool to present at COSA. I think that this experience and this class in general really stood out to me because it was different than what I have experienced as a psychology major. I enjoyed the open class discussion and I liked how the course was formatted. I thought that our talks always included diverse perspectives and were thought provoking. Before this class, I always read and watched news, but I think that this class gave me a different perspective of the pivotal function that news plays within our society.
DeleteMy favorite reading from the course was Martha Gellhorn's "The Face of War." I liked this work so much because it was so different than any thing that I have ever read. To be honest, before this course I never knew that there was a literary style of journalism. Because I love to read novels, I really enjoyed this alternative style. I thought that it had a perfect blend of fact, emotion, and story. Although I would still prefer to get daily news through the more traditional style, I think that the literary style is better for historical events that may be foreign to my generation.
COSA was also a huge help to me. I'm not a fan of public speaking, but we had a strong group and a really interesting topic which helped me. Preparing for the presentation and explaining our results in front of a crowd was an experience that I very much needed. It was great to see that people were interested in our work and that they wanted to know more about it. Answering questions from the audience was great and taught me how to provide a knowledgeable answer off the cuff.
DeleteWhile I really enjoyed reading and watching "All the President's Men," I have to say my favorite was "The Girls in the Balcony." Obviously I'm interested in women's history in journalism and this piece just gave me so much insight to their plight. I loved reading the feisty comments and the stand that these women took against unfair treatment.
I really enjoyed this textbook overall because it provided me with important pieces in journalistic history that I haven't read before. I feel like I know a little bit more about a lot of aspects of journalism's history, and I really want to know more. I want to read the complete pieces (except Tocqueville and Lippmann).
Sabrina, completely agreed with reading the complete pieces except Tocqueville and Lippmann. And Steven, "The Face of War" was my second favorite reading!
DeleteCoSA was my largest take as well. Coming into this class I knew not a thing about journalism, at all. I never had an interest in it, nor anything to do with news. I still do not have as much of an interest in it as many of the people in class, but I came out knowing a lot more. I had never written a lit review or any type of research project like we did in this class and was basically thrown right into it. Even though I had absolutely no idea what I was doing,and felt like the most clueless,I was able to present at CoSA.
DeleteMy favorite reading, like Marina, was "All the President's Men". I loved the way it was written, because it really grasped my attention. I also enjoyed learning about their experience with investigative journalism during the scandal. It was also nice to be able to see the film, even though I only say a portion.
The biggest thing that I was able to take away from this class was learning about the myths in the news. Before this class I would just go to CNN, ESPN, or a major source like that to get my news and information about what was happening in the world. I never looked for myths or really knew what was being said in the reports and always just read to find out information. Now after reading Jack Lule's book, and understanding the seven myths in journalism I feel much more aware and knowledgeable about journalism. This was also my favorite book to read because it was really informative for me and I took a lot away from this. I like reading the newspaper now and I actually feel like I am reading it for a purpose. News has always attracted me but from reading this book and understanding the themes in class I am much more curious about the news and how it is revealed to the public. I think it is interesting to read through the news and find different myths because it is almost like a puzzle. From doing the group project and individual project to finding these myths has really made me appreciate news much more and I have become much more interested in pursuing a career in the news field or in journalism. It was fun for me to see how my research was similar to others and how they realated and correlated to one another. Overall i really enjoyed the course and liked learning about the different myths and reading Jack Lule's book.
ReplyDeletePaul, I agree that reading Dr. Lule's book about myths was interesting and I enjoyed both doing and presented the project that we did as a class at COSA. I agree that now that I have read Lule's book I am constantly searching for the myths in different news articles. I believe they are an integral part of news and will continue to be in the future. They are central to the human experience and help organize a sometimes unpredictable and often chaotic world. I think that it could be interesting if someone decides to continue the research regarding myth in the school newspaper or in other news sources.
DeletePaul, I shared similar sentiments about Dr. Lule's book. After reading it I look at news in a different way. As Steven said in the comment above me, the myths are a way to make sense of unpredictable and chaotic world. I think it would be interesting in the future to look at source different from the Grizzly, and more of a larger publication. I think that this would really shed a different more impacting light on the topic of myth in the news.
DeleteI agree as well. I think the most prominent thing I took away from this class was the information in Jack Lule's book. It was quite interesting to learn about his different myths and then actually be able to apply them to articles written for the Grizzly. I will probably not forget these myths and continue to remember this class and recollect the seven myths when I read news articles in the future. One piece we read that I particularly liked was All the President's Men. I feel as though for the most part, journalism's reputation and public image has been altered completely since the glory days of Woodward and Bernstein, so it was quite intriguing to think about how seemingly different of a role journalism once played.
DeleteI agree. I also found Lule's book to be the biggest takeaway from this course. I don't necessarily find a bigger purpose in news now that I am aware of the myths, but it is certainly something I cannot "unsee." That is, I will always be looking for the myth in stories, like what you said about it being sort of like a puzzle. Similar to when I took a screenwriting class and learned that almost every script is nearly identical in form and structure, knowing that there is no truly "new" news is an interesting concept to come to terms with.
DeleteBy reading Lule's book, this had a significant impact on me and how I look I at the news. The different myths involved in the news today, and how commonly they are seen is something that never occurred to me before Lule's breakdown. Like Ryan said above me, I also think it would be interesting to compare these myths to the Grizzly and see if they match up in students publications. It sounds like most people in the class enjoyed Lule's book, and I think is was clear he presented these myths clearly that can be applied to all different types of journalism today.
DeletePaul, I agree with you. I feel that reading Dr. Lule's book has helped me view news in an entirely different perspective. Prior to reading Lule's book, I did not take much time to think about the format in which articles were written, instead I just took it as news, never thought about the significance in which the story was told. Also, after having Dr. Lule speak to the class, it was interesting to take a look at the Grizzly and find that although there weren't many myths in the Grizzly, I found that Dr. Lule was accurate in what type of myths he thought were most prevalent in a campus paper (good mother, and hero).
DeleteThe biggest take away for me is the importance of news' function as story/myth. Before this class, whenever I considered the importance of journalism, my immediate response would be information, not stories. Journalism serves the important function of keeping citizens in the know so they can (ideally) make informed decisions at the polls. But reading Lule as well as the examples of nontraditional/literary journalism in the King and Chapman book shed light on news’ importance as story/myth. News’ story/myth element, from my perspective, seems to make an even stronger argument for the importance of journalism than news’ informational function. The part of Lule’s book that has stuck with me was his description of story/myth in news as a organizing force for life and society. Lule, when talking about the victim myth in particular, argued for myth in news as performing the function of explaining the randomness of human life and destruction. This elevates the importance of news beyond its role as a medium for information. There is, as we read, a downside to this – in keeping with its organizing function, myth in news can also preserve social hierarchies to the detriment of those at the bottom of these hierarchies, as was the case with the trickster and sometimes the scapegoat. Lule’s explanation of myths in news and their positive and negative impacts added a new dimension to my understanding of the journalist’s power and responsibility, which has affected the way I read and write news. I think this idea works well with the second half of the semester’s emphasis on what happens behind the scenes of journalism. Another big take away for me was the importance of journalists having proper training and consumers of news paying for the human capital that goes into the production of news. Aside from the fact that I am now all about paying for news after Dr. H’s very convincing lecture on the subject, I think Lule’s explanation of myths makes for an interesting addition to what we traditionally view as proper training for journalists. Understanding how myths operate and how they impact society challenges the journalist to examine their own reporting process and balance fact and story as objectively as possible.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest take away from this class, as I see other people have commented, was Dr. Lule's book on myth. I grew up having a father who was a reporter so I was constantly surrounded by the stories he covered and reading the Star Ledger (who he wrote for until recently). I took Dr. H's News Analysis class because I had not given much deep thought to journalism or news, and thought it would be interesting given my dad's background and passion for journalism. Opening Dr. Lule's book on the first week or so of the semester I was completely taken back. This was a thought process of news and journalism that I had given no thought to. I will admit, the first reading I was slightly turned off. I was texting my dad asking if he had ever given any thought to this, because it sounded crazy. However, the more thought I gave to the concept, as well as the work we are doing as a group, I became more interested in the idea. I read news articles now and occasionally see myths occur. This reading has given me a totally different side of journalism that I would have not experienced. Additionally, talking with Dr. Lule provided an experience that at Ursinus we would not typically have. It is pretty cool to get to say we talked to the author of a book we were studying in class. The group project work and the continued analysis and working with this book solidified the importance and take away from this book.
ReplyDeleteI agree, being able to say that we experienced talking to an author of a book we were studying is very cool. Even though I myself did not feel that this was the reading I took the most out of, I still enjoyed it. The stories were interesting and attention grabbing and it provided us with something to think about. I everything we did that invloved Lule was unique and eye opening. I would have loved to find out if Lule would find myth in the articles we coded if he were to read through them.
DeleteMy biggest take away from this class was probably Lule’s myths. Since we have learned about the several myths in news stories, I cannot read a news story the same way anymore. I will read a story and say to myself, “Psh, such a typical scapegoat” or something along those lines. I feel like this happens in a lot of my classes. Granted that I am an American Studies major, an interdisciplinary major a lot of common themes occur in different classes. I choose to take this class because I felt that it was the only elective within my concentration that really emphasized my interest in news journalism. The readings that I found to be most interesting or enjoyable to read was from week 11, an excerpt from Sperber's biography of Edward R. Murrow and part of Katherine Graham's autobiography. I found that these pieces really began our class’ discussion of how journalism has changed since the 1950s/60s/70s. I was also intrigued because these pieces allowed me to tie in my knowledge of American Government and Politics with the News Industry. What particularly resonated with me about Murrow was how he was able to inform his viewers but also embodied the true feelings of the nation as a whole in regard to McCarthyism. Also this was the first time in our readings that a journalist flat out said that our skepticism and fear of government and the problems we face because of it, is of our own making. Also, it highlighted that it is in our right to change it, which is what Murrow attempted to do through true investigative reporting making it a truly groundbreaking work.
ReplyDeleteI think that my biggest take away from this class were our discussions on the readings in "Key Reading in Journalism." Although I did learn a lot from Lule's myths, I do not feel that this impacted the way I look at journalism as greatly as our most recent discussions. I feel that reading some of these key pieces opened up my eyes to other forms of journalism I had not even considered previously. Reading a variety of pieces forced me to really consider what journalism is on a higher level. As a result of reading some of the narrative forms of journalism, I began to really consider what the most effective way to tell a story is. I’ve realized it depends a lot on the type of story being told and the intended audience.
ReplyDeleteAlso, reading key pieces of journalism has made me think a lot about the future of news and journalism. I have considered what will happen in the future in regards to the news and internet and advertising.
The reading that had the most impact on me was the expert from “All the President’s Men.” I think that reading this piece, along with watching the movie, made an impact because I was very impressed with the investigative journalism done by Woodward and Bernstein. This really stood out to me because they dug deep into the story and exposed something hidden deep within the government that otherwise may not have been discovered. Their persistence and risk taking in the case really struck me, and I realized that this type of investigative journalism does not occur very frequently anymore.
The concept that really stuck with me from this class was really just how hard journalists work and how many obstacles they have to overcome in their occupation. I was always under the impression that they were presented a story, given a few facts about it and then did a little research and wrote something up. Sure, this may be true for some shorter, less important stories, but for larger events and more complex information, the amount of work that goes along with writing a good story for it can be immeasurable.
ReplyDeleteIn conjunction with how difficult a job it is to be a journalist, getting the job in the first place is not an easy task. Just getting your foot in the door can seemingly take a miracle. The more people you know, the better off you are, so you have to talk A LOT. This career path requires a large memory capacity, and I just don't think I could do it!
The reading that spoke the most to me was predictably the excerpt from "All the President's Men," accompanied by the film. Together, these resources truly exemplified how much the job takes. Being a journalist never appealed to me and seemed to be a tedious and boring job. Now, I'm still not itching to work in a newsroom, but I can see how exciting and fast paced the world of journalism can be!
This is going to be repetitive, but since I already took Dr. H's History of Media course, the most interesting aspect of this class was definitely the Lule readings. I thought he had an interesting take on something that is often witnessed but rarely analyzed. How often do we thing of genres being applicable to stories we read in the news? The sections are genres, but I had never thought of the stories themselves falling under the same category. This isn't to say that once Lule pointed out his myths it wasn't very easy to understand and downright obvious. It is just awesome that Lule took the time to analyze stories and break them down into basic categories based on context.
ReplyDeleteI now will never view journalism the same, at least in major stories. I think that the scapegoat and the victim myth were monster eye openers in how I now read news. As opposed to agreeing with what the story says and feeling poorly for the "victims," I now try and establish strong arguments in my head about whether there actually was a real victim or if the journalist just thought it was a more compelling story if he added one. I actually based my entire final paper on the "victim" myth. The scapegoat myth was just as enthralling to learn about. Especially with recent sports scandals, it is very easy to see this myth played out in television media. Every scandal has a man at fault, when most of the time it was the fault of a large mass. Look at the Rutgers scandal two weeks ago. The A.D., coach, and eventually president of the school will/have been fired. When I saw this story I immediately pondered, based on Lule's myths, why the players, assistants, any witnesses equally as guilty? Thank you Jack Lule and Dr. H for changing the way I view news.
I guess that stands to answer both questions.
Favorite reading: Lule
Biggest takeaway: Vision of news based on myths.
The Lule readings and Lule’s myths were my biggest take-away from this course. I was aware that news isn’t necessarily “new” and that each story is cyclical in history, some more than others, and repetition and similarity is seen quite often in papers, but Lule actually hammered out names and examples of each possible story. I don’t think I’ll ever quite be able to see a news story again without thinking about one of Lule’s myths, so I was definitely most impacted by them. Being able to speak to Lule via Skype was very rewarding – mostly learning about the myths that didn’t make the cut and when he began to notice/develop the myths. Additionally, being able to study the myths ourselves on a college publication level (despite the difficulties of myth being quite open to interpretation) was rewarding. The results showed that the “good mother” myth was the most prevalent in The Grizzly, when I (and probably many of my classmates) would have guessed the “hero” in the sports section would be. I think a more in-depth study would be interesting, on either a college or professional level, but issues of subjectivity must be worked out for worthwhile and accurate data.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest take away from this class was learning how to specifically analyze certain things in the news/media today, and finding out what they truly mean. Before I took this class, I would read or hear about stories going on in the news, and then quickly move onto the next story without thinking what sort of impact these things can have on our society. Now, when I watch the news or read about news, I think of things such as were there any myths involved, who is writing this story, is the journalist staying objective in their reporting, and is this type of news catered toward any specific type of individuals. With the Boston Marathon Bombings happening just last week, this is when I began to realize how differently I was analyzing news than any time before. Anytime a new lead was brought up or the bombers were discussed, I thought to myself the process in which these stories broke and how accurate these reports actually were. Before this course, these thoughts would have never occurred to me, but this is clearly the biggest thing I am going to take away from this course.
ReplyDeleteGoing along with that idea, the reading that had the most impact on me was the Jack Lule readings which he broke down the different myths seen in news today. I enjoyed these readings because I knew such things like heroes and victims existed, but I like the way Lule applied them to all sorts of journalism. Personally I am interested in sports journalism, and myths are seen all the time in those types of reports, so after reading Lule’s book it is easy for me to apply the different myths to those stories. After taking this course and reading Lule’s work, these have made me look at the news differently, since I pay closer attention to the news and everything it entails now than I ever have before.
When we were going over important classes for an MCS major, I'll be honest, I didn't mention our studies in News Analysis. Now that I have seen the class through (mostly) to completion, my answer has changed. Much like my reaction, the news is an evolving entity, and there is a lot to learn here not just as a potential writer, but anybody who reads news.
ReplyDeleteThere were a few poignant concepts I took away. Lule managed to bottle millions of stories into five categories, which is amazing not because of its consolidation, but because his points ring clearly in most cases. The concept of the tabula rasa now ping pongs in my mind as it reveals news' ability to unionize and mold understandings of the world. For many people, news is the kaleidoscope through which they see universes outside their own.
Looking at the industry this way has cemented two things in my mind: news is creatively jammed, and this is not the profession for me. The most profound reading, oddly enough, was the introduction to Lule's book. After reading about the battery of an old man he asks, "why is this a story?" I can't rightly say -- even if it does fit a myth paradigm. We have seen that news can be visually rich, captivating, and narrative-centric, but I don't see much of that in popular press. I don't appreciate the redundant framings, redundant "plots," or general doom and gloom attitude. And I certainly don't like pop-culture news. It's not news because there's nothing noteworthy about that style of reporting... to me. Or anybody.
*Ahem* I'll shed some cynicism. MCS360 shows that right now, many major retailers are trying to understand how to make money, let alone carve a good, hearty story. For that reason, the lack of Watergate's and Cold Blood's is understandable, 'aint nobody got time for that. Still, this class has left me with a pile of "what ifs" when considering news is and how it could be relayed to the world.
We'll miss you, Dr. H. :[
Some big things I am taking away from this class is that sometimes your research may not work the way you want it to so you have to change your topic based on what you found ( from my personal research) or you just do it again differently (from the in class Lule research), and that’s okay. Another thing that I took away was reading people’s comments especially from people who don’t often talk in class it’s nice to see other peoples points of views. The biggest thing that I am taking away from this class came from the readings, that the problems with newspapers in the past are still problems today. The two readings that were due for Monday and Lule had the most impact on me because it made me realize that we think we are moving forward but in reality we aren’t going anywhere. From the readings due Monday I learn that the newspapers, stations, and radios are all forced to limit their news messages because it could affect a sponsor/ endorser. While Lule made me realize that the characters in news are presented has been the same since before the time of the written word. These three readings impacted me the most because it seemed to sum up the history of news awhile at the same time telling the future of news. When this class first started I wondered why we were only focusing on journalism and not the other forms of news, but now I realized that journalism is the basic form of news. Whether it’s a press release, investigation research findings, or a blog post, they are all forms of journalism that gets to news out to the radio stations or broadcast news.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the most interesting aspect of this class is the way Lule's take on myths in the news impacted our discussion of current publications, and the Grizzly. I don't think I have ever really thought about the way common story themes could have influenced the way reporters and writers told stories to the public, but now, I find instances of myth everywhere. The idea of there being a template to the way certain stories are told is very interesting and I think it has challenged me to write outside of the box when telling stories. However, I also think it gives me guidelines to writing news articles (for Writing for the Media)and helps me realize the ways in which people can relate to a story. I think our class discussions about the different types of myths found in the news have been my favorite class discussions of my college career.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed the excerpts from "All the President's Men" and the movie that we watched on Bernstein and Woodward. This section really gave me insight to the way journalism should be, at least in my mind. I found a lot of passion in those readings and the movie and it really sparked more interest in me than any of the other chapters.
Overall, I think this class has given me a much more in depth perspective of journalism and the news and the ways it is relayed to the public. I thoroughly enjoyed this class and I think our discussions will definitely stay with me in the future.