1. Students were given their assignment in yesterday’s blog entry. There are two activities for them to work through in the SCN room. We will discuss their findings and responses tomorrow.

news-media-comparison-act.doc

1. The SCN room is booked for students to use today and tomorrow. Attached above is the assignment handouts for students to use and complete for Wednesday’s class. They will be comparing news articles from several websites, looking for examples of a bias in the news reporting from those sites. By chosing one world event to focus on and comparing the ways the same event is covered by the different news sites, students will get an idea of how bias is injected into the sharing of information.We have mentioned that writing without a slight bias is very difficul; everything we witness we filter through our perspectives and cultural teachings to process how we feel about an event so it is very difficult to not have an opinion on what you report. However, some people are more fair about how much of their bias they allow in their reporting while others are fairly sly and convincing in hiding it.
2. Do the best you can with the assignment and we will carry on and discuss some of your findings on Wednesday when I return. Have fun with it!!
   M

1. With half the class missing, we postponed the presentation of the Bias in News posters.
2. Students watched a few clips in the projector room that looked at ellaborating on the issue of bias in the news. They watched a documentary and were to look for examples of bias in the film and examples of reporting the facts. The goal here was to differentiate between effective ways of leading the viewer’s emotions/conclusions and simply giving them informations.

1. Students, yesterday, looked at newspapers searching for examples of bias in news articles. They were to find three articles, one editorial and one letter to the editor. These last two will obviously have bias in them as they are opinion pieces. News reports, however, giving information for the public should be as free from a leading opinion or agenda as possible. As we discussed, this is very difficult to do, to write without imputting your personal feelings on the subject.
2. Students were given a poster assignment today to work in their groups from yesterday. There were three requirements for the posters and they will be presented by their groups tomorrow.
3. For tomorrow’s class, after the presentations, students will begin viewing a video online. (See below.) The next assignment will be a written one where students will respond to the video and answer the question: bias or no bias. This is a documentary that discusses the American use of napalm during the Vietnam war and also a too-similar chemical during an attack in the Middle East. Is this video simply giving information to the viewer that was previously unknown to them, or are they turning phrases, using images, or excluding others to specifically ‘lead’ the viewer to a predetermined conclusion? Watch the video and piece specific examples to support of prove your opinion. There will be a writing assignment next.

[youtube]pT2suKBHhLQ[/youtube]

1. We started with a reading from the Best Selling book by Micheal Moore titled Stupid White Men.  Based only from the title of the book, students were sure there was bias contained in the book. We read through examples of ‘how’ media includes or allows bias through the medi. Through the handout given, there were a few examples of how things are worded can pass along a bias, whether consciously done by the author or not.
2. Students got into groups of 3-4, worked outside in the shade, but were focused on finding three articles, one editorial, and one letter to the editor to study and find examples of bias. (It was quite a sight to see, twenty-some kids laying/sitting out on the grass …reading the paper. lol)
3. We’ll discuss their findings tomorrow.

1. We reviewed, today, the handout given by the sub on Friday. We discussed the concept of Cultural Relativity, which means you cannot critique or condemn another culture unless it is your own culture. Without being immersed in a culture, knowing the background to its traditions and reasons for practices and rituals that it has, you cannot judge another culture from the outside.
2. We drew a comparison of Muslim culture compared to American/Canadian culture. While several students were shocked at the idea of female genital mutilation that is performed on young girls to ensure they stay pure and faithful for their husbands, we compared a possible Muslim response to the amount of sex, adultery, divorce etc that occurs in the American/Canadian culture. An individual looking into our own culture may look at it and be judgemental of how promiscuous people seem and say that it is a direct cause of the loss of family in America. A person outside a Muslim culture could say they are going against basic human rights by prohibiting women from several freedoms. Both insights are only valid if they are critiqued and judged from within their own culture.

   The link to journalism, and in turn our media studies class, asks the question of whether journalists should be free to write their opinions of other cultures and their practices or whether we should withold our criticisms for our own cultures only.

3. There was a paragraph assignment given on the back of the handout. Students were to write their response and post it on the weblog for April 20’s media studies blog entry.

1. I’m at my seminar in Regina but stole away for a moment to begin today’s blog so you’ll have a place to post your formal paragraph responses.
2. Be sure to proof read your paragraph. Maybe, if you type it into a word document and spell check, etc, it would be a good idea. This is a ‘formal’ paragraph remember. Be sure to include your opinion but give evidence to support it.
3. Hope you enjoy your day! M

intro-to-unit.doc

questions.doc

 rating-chart-after-discussion.doc

1.  We started with a bunch of handouts students were given. I wrote the order down on the board so they were sure to add them to their binder in the right order.
2. We charted on the board the results students found from their internet search yesterday. It showed clearly how some country’s citizens have very little trust in their country’s media. It also showed, at times, while some media feel a fair amount of freedom in what is written, the viewers still do not trust the accuracy of the news.
3. We also read an article talking about the news in Iraq. Many new sources of news are available, now that Saddam Hussein does not have direct control over the only news source, but many people are still skeptical of news and will not change over easily.

faith-in-the-media-handout.doc

1. We started with some questions regarding the posted pictures of Saddam Hussein’s dead sons. Was it ethical for the media to share these photos?
2. Once done that discussion, groups formed and chose a country from a given list and were to research the media in the country to find out how much control the government has over media there. For example, one group found a list of the top ten most censored countries, their country of Cuba being listed as the seventh most censored. Do citizens of these countries know they are censored and how much trust do they have in the media they can access. Students seemed quite interested and involved in their searches.

Also, on a side note, China has restrictions of what people can even access on the internet. Google is accessible from China but with certain agreements made with the government to control certain information or pictures. Look up images of Tiananmen Square on google.ca and compare it to the same search on google.cn (the Chinese access). The pictures are quite different.

1. We finished watching the movie today and talked about it a short bit.
2. Students were given a handout with questions. We discussed them as a class and students wrote their own responses down.
3. We also discussed for a short while the recent news of the shooting in the states. The internet has clearly become a real source of communication for students who were on campus but unable to get information.
4. We also had a little fun and watched the commercial samples the class made in their groups earlier in the course. Some of them were very well done. Great job!