My best shot at the first 10 line's of the Canterbury Tale's General Prologue...
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
CI 5472 Post 8 - Beam Me Up, Scotty!
**RESPONSE ONE: "Conversational Agents and Their Longitudinal Affordances on Communication and Interaction"**
Before continuing with the remainder of my post, please view the video that I spliced together embedded bellow. Relax, it's very short,(clocking in at just 1 minute, 25 seconds), and you'll have a good laugh. NOTE: As it's a pretty large, high quality file, you may have to give your computer a couple extra seconds to load the file before you will be able to view the video free of stutter.
Even with Star Fleet's hyper-advanced computing technology (alright, this last post proves I'm possibly the nerdiest person in this class!), the individuals of the 24th century echo complaints and behavior identical to the 21st century participants discussed across the two-articles assigned for today; specifically, the complaint that the artificial intelligence (AI) of pedagogical agents is "inept" / has limited capabilities, and the resulting user behavior of often extreme frustration and even "abuse" (depending on how you conceptualize computer "abuse") if the AI fails to deliver the desired response. However, as opposed to the fictional 24th century Star Fleet officers who you might say have the "right" to be frustrated when their hyper-advanced technology isn't able to correctly respond to basic commands that even current, real 21st century computers can, authors of the article "Conversational Agents and Their Longitudinal Affordances on Communication and Interaction" argue that individuals may perceive "inflated expectations from agents that are presented in human form" (262). With all "Trekkie" humor aside, I feel as though expecting MUCH, IF ANYTHING beyond a simple response is EXTREMELY "inflated" / unrealistic given the current technology our leading minds have with creating computer based, artificial intelligence. In short, before ANY kind of artificial intelligence can be productively used in the educational setting, I argue that both instructors and students need to realign the expectations to which they take to ANY type of AI. However, I argue that such a realignment of expectations is MUCH easier said than done, and can ONLY be done through the detailed study of not only how AI technology works, but what the medium is capable of given the "constraints" of our CURRENT / NEAR FUTURE level of technological advancement. Otherwise, users will of course be met with nothing but frustration if they don't understand that current / near future AI technology CANNOT fulfill what they might expect.
Although slightly off tangent, I liken my argument to teaching my ex-girlfriend Amy how to drive a manual transmission. Because she rode in / drove vehicles with automatic transmissions for her entire life, I argue that she more or less expected the car to shift "itself." However, after spending about 4 hours trying to teach her, witnessing her kill the car about 1,000 times, and ending up with an extreme case of whiplash, our teaching session ended in utter frustration and disappointment. Then, I had an idea. I thought to myself, "what if she could see / understand the mechanics of how exactly a manual transmission works? I wonder if that would help her know what to expect from this car and figure out how to drive it." Going on my hunch, I logged on to www.howstuffworks.com (an amazing website that shows the reader in both text and video the mechanics, electronics, chemistry, biology, physics, general theory, and so on behind how a variety of both real AND fictional devices work / are supposed to work), and looked up material associated with the search term "manual transmission." We then sat down and read the articles / watched the accompanying videos where the authors both explained and showed us what was going on inside of a manual transmission as it worked. We were shown how the flywheel of the engine and clutch plate are apart when your foot is on the clutch, and how they are joined together as one when your foot is off of the clutch. "Oooh, that's how it works,"Amy respond. "So one part is always spinning, and then you gradually ease the other part in with your foot until the rest of the car 'catches'?" Eureeka! We then got back into the car, and after very nearly killing it (not a full kill mind you), Amy was driving the manual transmission like a pro. In fact, about ten minutes after her first successful take-off into first gear, we were already on the highway in overdrive... I was absolutely terrified.
My point is this: until Amy understood the "constraints" of the device as based on the "rules" of its core design, she had absolutely no clue what to expect, let alone how to go about maximizing its productively as based on her needs / the task at hand. Unfortunately, the incredibly advanced theory behind AI technology / design is nowhere near as simple as the workings of a manual transmission. In their article, even the most SIMPLIFIED explanation behind AI technology is incredibly complex:
"... we abstain from using the term intelligent because the world intelligence signifies a higher-oder cognitive ability. Even though the conversational agents we employ may appear to be intelligent, in actuality, they are not - the software is simply trained to match comments to responses. The interaction between student and agent is not pre-determined, but shaped by both student comments and agent responses. For example, if a user asks the agent, 'What does it mean for a website to be accessible?' the conversation will center on this particular question. If the user then asks a further question about a specific aspect of the agent's answer, the conversation can be said to have been influenced by the agent response but would still be defendant on the user's subsequent comment. Using an artificial intelligence engine... student comments are analyzed into meaningful segements and, through an iterative algorithm, are matched to responses" (252-253).
Although this is one of the more basic descriptions of underlying AI design, this explanation is still incredibly complex. However, like the manual transmission, their are similar "constraints" placed on the overall function of an AI as based on the programming / "rules" governing its core design. In other words, the better / more advanced the underlying design, the more capability the AI will have. The less advanced the underlying design, the less capability the AI will have. As such, as Doering and Veletsianos point out, an AI is far from intelligent. Instead, an AI design is only as intelligent as the "rules" with which programmers base its design on.
However, I argue that MANY, MANY instructors AND students DO NOT understand this idea of inherent "constraint" as based on design, and instead think that ANY AI is a supercomputer from the future that can assist with ANY task at hand, regardless of the nature of the task. But, as I've been discussing, the nature of the task at hand can either be compatible or incompatible with the function of the particular AI as based on its core design.
As such, just as I argue that EVERYONE should at least learn the basics of how a manual transmission works because they might have to drive a stick at some point in their lives, I argue that EVERYONE, both teachers and students, should be required to learn about basic programming design for a number of reasons. First, as I've bantered about through this entire post, learning about programming design, as well as the "constraints" that design places on program function, will help individuals realign their expectations toward not only pedagogical agents, but technology in general. Although an extremely cool show, the holo-decks, transporters, food replicators, phasers, and warp drive of the Star Trek universe are either a LONG ways off, or an absolute impossibility. Second, whether we like it or not, and as cliche as this sounds, technology IS the "way of the future" (ugh, I feel ridiculous saying that). But, it's true. The better teacher's understand the underlying design(s) of technologies, the better they will be able to create relevant, productive, and practical technology-based assignments that not only "work" in the classroom, but truly advance learning. The better students understand the underlying design(s) of technology (and I argue that there is otherwise not much encouragement for them to do so as they are now "born into" technology and take it for granted), the better they will be able to use it to do the types of inquiry that we expect of them in our classrooms.
Lastly, although this post might sound a lot like a general lecture on teachers and students sharpening their general "digital / computer" literacies, I am arguing for more than that. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I argue that both teachers and students take technologies for granted as they are becoming / being used as not only a means to enhance a particular task at hand, but inherent to a particular task at hand (in other words, no technology = no task at all!). Although the skill of learning how to embed a video on a web page or use photo shop is one thing, understanding the core "rules" on which these programs are built is something completely different, and frankly, more difficult. However, until we put time into learning at least a basic understanding of these core "rules" that "constrain" the use of EVERY new technology that is released from now until the holo-deck, we will continue to have "inflated" / unrealistic expectations for what technology can do for us. As such, we run the risk of overlooking not only potential educational gains, but global gains, if we scream at our computers for them to do what they by design cannot, vs. productively use them for which they were built.
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**RESPONSE TWO: "When sex, drugs, and violence enter the classroom: Conversations between adolescents and a female pedagogical agent"**
After reading the longitudinal study discussed above, the following article initially creeped me out beyond belief. If you recall my manual transmission analogy, at no point did I tell Amy not to be "too hard on" / "abuse" the car during her frustration. Understanding that the car was an inanimate object, I was more than happy that Amy took her frustration out on it rather than me sitting next to her in the passenger seat! However, Doering, Sharber, and Veletsianos appear to invest "Joan," the pedagogical agent described in their study, with much more human-like qualities than I do my car. Although the qualitative data gathered was possibly referred to as "abuse suffered at the fingertips of... social studies students" as a sort of rhetorical device to hook the reader into the study, I initially found the conceptualizing, or "anthropomorphizing" as the authors put it, of Joan as anything but an inanimate, man-made "object" EXTREMELY uncomfortable to process. However, after some reflection, such anthropomorphizing of Joan really made me think about how our perceived relationship to the technologies we use may actually influence the specific ways we communicate with each other as global citizens.
Prior to reading this article, I considered the computer on which I write these blog entries to hold a subordinate position in relation to myself, identical to the subordinate position the author's discovered Joan to hold in relation to "her" student users. Although I by no means consider my computer to be ANYTHING more than the some of its parts after reading this article, it does make me question if such a collective, dominating attitude toward the technology we use not only as isolated users, but as a collective, global community, is "healthy" given the interconnectedness between actual human beings the technology affords. If this study suggests that human beings are so willing to exercise their power over the device when they perceive a anonymity, what does such behavior mean for the "real" human beings that we use technology to communicate with?
Basically, what I'm getting at is the following... Although it still creepes me out beyond belief to conceptualize the technology we use as something that can actually "feel" the verbal / physical abuses that we might direct at, it's a fact that the human being with which we are using technology to communicate with can. As such, although I'm not advocating that we should treat the technology we use as our "equals," I am advocating that we begin to conceptualize the technologies we use as a true extension of our very selves. If students are learning that it's socially appropriate to direct such extreme violence, hatred, and abuse toward a make-believe approximation of a human being, what does that say about how they might communicate with their peers, parents, teachers, and the countless other individuals they encounter throughout their lives? The authors echo this very concern as they state,
"These conversations are the online equivalents of face-to-face conversations that students could exchange with each other in the hallway or with a teacher. These types of comments are considered serious offenses in schools, punishable by detention, expulsion, and sexual harassment lawsuits."
In short, what makes me feel "concerned" for Joan is the fact that "she" represents not only women, but perhaps subordinated human beings as a whole. If students were so willing to treat "her" the way that they did, how might they treat similar subordinated groups in our society? Will they work with them to gain power? Or work to keep them subordinate to their power? If we as educators are so concerned about agency through critical literacies that we preach, these are some questions that we need to address.
That is all!
Goodbye 5472! I wish the best of luck to you all!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
CI 5472 Post (For Fun) 7.1 - Hamlet (Facebook News Feed Addition?)
A pop culture "translation" of Hamlet?
You can view the full "translation" bellow or at...
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2008/7/30schmelling.html
You can view the full "translation" bellow or at...
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2008/7/30schmelling.html
HAMLET (FACEBOOK NEWS FEED EDITION).
BY SARAH SCHMELLING
- - - -
Horatio thinks he saw a ghost.
Hamlet thinks it's annoying when your uncle marries your mother right after your dad dies.
The king thinks Hamlet's annoying.
Laertes thinks Ophelia can do better.
Hamlet's father is now a zombie.
- - - -
The king poked the queen.
The queen poked the king back.
Hamlet and the queen are no longer friends.
Marcellus is pretty sure something's rotten around here.
Hamlet became a fan of daggers.
- - - -
Polonius says Hamlet's crazy ... crazy in love!
Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet are now friends.
Hamlet wonders if he should continue to exist. Or not.
Hamlet thinks Ophelia might be happier in a convent.
Ophelia removed "moody princes" from her interests.
Hamlet posted an event: A Play That's Totally Fictional and In No Way About My Family
The king commented on Hamlet's play: "What is wrong with you?"
Polonius thinks this curtain looks like a good thing to hide behind.
Polonius is no longer online.
- - - -
Hamlet added England to the Places I've Been application.
The queen is worried about Ophelia.
Ophelia loves flowers. Flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers. Oh, look, a river.
Ophelia joined the group Maidens Who Don't Float.
Laertes wonders what the hell happened while he was gone.
- - - -
The king sent Hamlet a goblet of wine.
The queen likes wine!
The king likes ... oh crap.
The queen, the king, Laertes, and Hamlet are now zombies.
Horatio says well that was tragic.
Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, says yes, tragic. We'll take it from here.
Denmark is now Norwegian.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
CI 5472 Post 7 - Studying "Celebrity"
Although an otherwise extremely comprehensive, detailed, and useful course text, I feel that Professor Beach fails to address what I believe to be a very important component of media studies - detailed study of celebrities / "celebrity" as a concept. Besides Beach briefly mentioning the "culture of celebrity" as one of the many focuses of media studies in his very first chapter, little discussion / integration of this concept as it specifically relates to our work in the classroom follows throughout the remainder of the text. In their study titled "The role of media figures in adolescent development: relations between autonomy, attachment, and interest in celebrities" which I will refer back to several times throughout this posting, Giles and Maltby argue a similar lack of the detailed study of "celebrity" as they state, "The influence of figures from the mass media on adolescent development has been somewhat neglected in the literature to date (813)." As such, I would like to spend some time discussing how to integrate discussions of celebrity influence on adolescents into our classrooms, a concept which I'm interpreting to raise questions such as:
What is a "celebrity"? What does it mean to be a "celebrity"? What type of power does "celebrity" afford? How am I influenced by what "celebrities" do / say / act / advocate? To what extent is my perception of reality (ideologies, assumptions, motives, values, whatever vocabulary you can come up with as a class!) shaped by what celebrities have done / said / acted / advocated?
But first, I'd like to continue to rationalize why I think studying the "culture of celebrity" is important if we are challenged / questioned by administrators, other teachers, parents, and so on (because let's face it, I'm sure that you can already hear some variation of "Whaaaaat?! Your students / my child is talking about Angelina and Brad in your class?! What are they possibly learning from that?!").
In the very first chapter of his book, Professor Beach rationalizes the inclusion of general media studies into the English curriculum, arguing that students need to understand how the media constructs reality: "Another rationale for studying the media in school has to do with helping students understand and critique the role of media in constructing or mediating reality... Studying media representations of gender, class, and race... helps students recognize that these are social and cultural constructions that are shaped and influenced by media texts" (4). Focusing on the key word "mediate" in Beach's rationale, Giles and Maltby continue to explore in their aforementioned study the degree to which celebrity figures may act as "mediators" / shapers of adolescents' perceptions of the world: "The present study was designed to explore more closely the link between adolescent autonomy and the formation of parasocial relationships with celebrities... In the present study, it was predicted that autonomy would be associated with greater interest in celebrities, indicating a possible switch in idealisation from parents to media figures" (815). At the conclusion of their study, Giles and Maltby discovered that their results beautifully support their original hypothesis: "The results lend support to the hypothesis that emotional autonomy and attachment to celebrities increase during adolescence... as predicted, as parents become deidealised for adolescents, media figures take over some of the functions that parents had fulfilled in childhood" (820). NOTE: For the specifics on data collection and analysis methods used, consult the original study, I have linked to it throughout this post.
In other words, depending on what Giles and Maltby specifically mean by "media figures take over some of the functions that parents had fulfilled in childhood" (they never really clarify), their research may suggest that celebrities play a HUGE role in not only reinforcing, but actually teaching (just as parents do!) ideologies, assumptions, and motives that adolescents integrate into their personal schemas and use to make sense of their world. What is extremely interesting to me about this study is the conclusion that this "mediating / shaping" power may come from adolescents perceiving some kind of relationship with / attachment to celebrity figures. If these findings are indeed accurate, consider this: in addition to the viewer forming a strong relationship with the specific information they choose to identify with / internalize into their schema as their perception of reality (e.g., "You're not beautify if you're not slim"), G&M's research may suggest that the viewer forms an equally strong relationship with who / where they specifically learned it from (e.g., "Angelina Jolie is the definition of beauty; she is white, slim, has large breasts... anything else is NOT beautiful"). In other words, as Giles and Maltby seem to support, I argue that celebrities themselves are EXTREMELY powerful "mediators" of our individual perceptions of reality as they function in part as "face(s)" / material subjects to which we attach /externalize (whether consciously or unconsciously) the ideologies, assumptions, motives, values, and so on that we chose to internalize.
Although adolescents' strong identification with celebrities can cause them to integrate "inaccurate / skewed" perceptions of the world into their personal schema (I take extreme caution how I state this; who am I to say what is the way to live?), I argue that this can work to our advantage as educators. If viewers attach / externalize so much meaning to the specific individuals / celebrities responsible for perpetuating specific ideologies, assumptions, values, and motives, that very celebrity figure can become a subject of inquiry in the classroom. In other words, a celebrity can be treated as a "text" with which to conduct the type of critical inquiry we as educators encourage in our classrooms. By closely examining celebrities, teachers and students can explore questions such as:
What is a "celebrity"? What does it mean to be a "celebrity"? What type of power does "celebrity" afford? How am I influenced by what "celebrities" do / say / advocate? To what extent is my perception of reality shaped by what celebrities have done / said / advocated? And the list goes on and on.
Given this framework...
While poking around the internets (thanks for the noun G.W.), I found an extremely interesting article on MTV's website titled "In the Viral Age of Video, Downloads, and Plummeting CD Sales, What Makes a Star?" by Gil Kaufman. Although by no means scholarly research, Kaufman does a wonderful job of complicating the criteria / standards by which the idea of "celebrity" was conceptualized in the past vs. the present:
"Even if you were the most famous rapper on the planet or the winner of "American Idol," your album might have gotten lost in the shuffle as music fans spent their time downloading free albums... scouring gossip sites for news... dialing up Soulja Boy ringtones, watching bootleg clips on YouTube, buying the latest J. Lo fragrance or trying on some of Gwen's L.A.M.B. clothes. All of which made those artists even more famous (or infamous) and maybe rich, even if it didn't really add up to huge album sales on the Billboard charts, which used to be the main way of separating flavors-of-the-week from the truly mega... So, if the tried-and-true Billboard charts can't really be relied on to tell us who is the hottest artist at any given moment — what can?"
The article then goes on to suggest two criteria that can be applied to any person / phenomena to explore the degree / type of "celebrity" they / it hold (again very anecdotal and subjective, but interesting to consider); impact (number of records sold, dollar amount of records sold, place on the billboard charts, and so on) and popularity (number of "hits," as in YouTube hits, number of blog entries about the subject, number of headlines about the subject, number of Facebook posts about the subject, and so on).
Another anecdotal article that I discovered titled "What Makes a Celebrity a Cult Celebrity" by Darien Peters offers educators two more criteria (Ordinary vs. Cult Celebrity), with which to explore the degree / type of "celebrity" someone / something has attained:
What is a "celebrity"? What does it mean to be a "celebrity"? What type of power does "celebrity" afford? How am I influenced by what "celebrities" do / say / act / advocate? To what extent is my perception of reality (ideologies, assumptions, motives, values, whatever vocabulary you can come up with as a class!) shaped by what celebrities have done / said / acted / advocated?
But first, I'd like to continue to rationalize why I think studying the "culture of celebrity" is important if we are challenged / questioned by administrators, other teachers, parents, and so on (because let's face it, I'm sure that you can already hear some variation of "Whaaaaat?! Your students / my child is talking about Angelina and Brad in your class?! What are they possibly learning from that?!").
In the very first chapter of his book, Professor Beach rationalizes the inclusion of general media studies into the English curriculum, arguing that students need to understand how the media constructs reality: "Another rationale for studying the media in school has to do with helping students understand and critique the role of media in constructing or mediating reality... Studying media representations of gender, class, and race... helps students recognize that these are social and cultural constructions that are shaped and influenced by media texts" (4). Focusing on the key word "mediate" in Beach's rationale, Giles and Maltby continue to explore in their aforementioned study the degree to which celebrity figures may act as "mediators" / shapers of adolescents' perceptions of the world: "The present study was designed to explore more closely the link between adolescent autonomy and the formation of parasocial relationships with celebrities... In the present study, it was predicted that autonomy would be associated with greater interest in celebrities, indicating a possible switch in idealisation from parents to media figures" (815). At the conclusion of their study, Giles and Maltby discovered that their results beautifully support their original hypothesis: "The results lend support to the hypothesis that emotional autonomy and attachment to celebrities increase during adolescence... as predicted, as parents become deidealised for adolescents, media figures take over some of the functions that parents had fulfilled in childhood" (820). NOTE: For the specifics on data collection and analysis methods used, consult the original study, I have linked to it throughout this post.
In other words, depending on what Giles and Maltby specifically mean by "media figures take over some of the functions that parents had fulfilled in childhood" (they never really clarify), their research may suggest that celebrities play a HUGE role in not only reinforcing, but actually teaching (just as parents do!) ideologies, assumptions, and motives that adolescents integrate into their personal schemas and use to make sense of their world. What is extremely interesting to me about this study is the conclusion that this "mediating / shaping" power may come from adolescents perceiving some kind of relationship with / attachment to celebrity figures. If these findings are indeed accurate, consider this: in addition to the viewer forming a strong relationship with the specific information they choose to identify with / internalize into their schema as their perception of reality (e.g., "You're not beautify if you're not slim"), G&M's research may suggest that the viewer forms an equally strong relationship with who / where they specifically learned it from (e.g., "Angelina Jolie is the definition of beauty; she is white, slim, has large breasts... anything else is NOT beautiful"). In other words, as Giles and Maltby seem to support, I argue that celebrities themselves are EXTREMELY powerful "mediators" of our individual perceptions of reality as they function in part as "face(s)" / material subjects to which we attach /externalize (whether consciously or unconsciously) the ideologies, assumptions, motives, values, and so on that we chose to internalize.
Although adolescents' strong identification with celebrities can cause them to integrate "inaccurate / skewed" perceptions of the world into their personal schema (I take extreme caution how I state this; who am I to say what is the way to live?), I argue that this can work to our advantage as educators. If viewers attach / externalize so much meaning to the specific individuals / celebrities responsible for perpetuating specific ideologies, assumptions, values, and motives, that very celebrity figure can become a subject of inquiry in the classroom. In other words, a celebrity can be treated as a "text" with which to conduct the type of critical inquiry we as educators encourage in our classrooms. By closely examining celebrities, teachers and students can explore questions such as:
What is a "celebrity"? What does it mean to be a "celebrity"? What type of power does "celebrity" afford? How am I influenced by what "celebrities" do / say / advocate? To what extent is my perception of reality shaped by what celebrities have done / said / advocated? And the list goes on and on.
Given this framework...
While poking around the internets (thanks for the noun G.W.), I found an extremely interesting article on MTV's website titled "In the Viral Age of Video, Downloads, and Plummeting CD Sales, What Makes a Star?" by Gil Kaufman. Although by no means scholarly research, Kaufman does a wonderful job of complicating the criteria / standards by which the idea of "celebrity" was conceptualized in the past vs. the present:
"Even if you were the most famous rapper on the planet or the winner of "American Idol," your album might have gotten lost in the shuffle as music fans spent their time downloading free albums... scouring gossip sites for news... dialing up Soulja Boy ringtones, watching bootleg clips on YouTube, buying the latest J. Lo fragrance or trying on some of Gwen's L.A.M.B. clothes. All of which made those artists even more famous (or infamous) and maybe rich, even if it didn't really add up to huge album sales on the Billboard charts, which used to be the main way of separating flavors-of-the-week from the truly mega... So, if the tried-and-true Billboard charts can't really be relied on to tell us who is the hottest artist at any given moment — what can?"
The article then goes on to suggest two criteria that can be applied to any person / phenomena to explore the degree / type of "celebrity" they / it hold (again very anecdotal and subjective, but interesting to consider); impact (number of records sold, dollar amount of records sold, place on the billboard charts, and so on) and popularity (number of "hits," as in YouTube hits, number of blog entries about the subject, number of headlines about the subject, number of Facebook posts about the subject, and so on).
Another anecdotal article that I discovered titled "What Makes a Celebrity a Cult Celebrity" by Darien Peters offers educators two more criteria (Ordinary vs. Cult Celebrity), with which to explore the degree / type of "celebrity" someone / something has attained:
"Whereas being an ordinary celebrity requires success in some mainstream endeavor, being a cult celebrity is more about uniqueness and involves either a kind of genius or a kind of madness or simply a keen ability to attract attention. Typically they are people who are high on charisma and presence, sometimes being outspoken on topics and sometimes doing and saying controversial things. Cult could be used to describe everyone from Frank Zappa to Dame Edna or from Morrissey to Rolf Harris. Usually cult celebrities are amusing distractions from the humdrum business of everyday celebrities and in some cases they provide us with brilliant heroes that very few others share. However, in some cases celebrities go from being cult' in the positive sense to cult' in the more sinister religious or ideological sense. Aleister Crowley, Charles Manson, and L. Ron Hubbard all slid down this slippery slope into infamy."
Although the diction you and your class agree upon to use may differ, my argument remains the same; it may be beneficial to work with your class to generate a clear, commonly understood vocabulary / system by which to explore and analyze 1.) What is a "celebrity"? and 2.) what does it mean to be a "celebrity"?
Then...
----------------------------------------
ASSIGNMENT ONE!
You could use this assignment to explore the following question:
What is a "celebrity"? What does it mean to be a "celebrity"?
1.) After you have built a vocabulary / system with your class, place it into a format that can be used as a viewing log.
NOTE ONE : Although I'd like to give you a specific format, it really depends on what you and your class come up with. Although I feel like I'm cutting corners by not being more specific, it really depends on you and your class!
However, just to give you some kind of idea, I'm thinking of something along the lines of a "spectrum" format that looks something like this: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd429dsq_53hffskcft.
Then, students could insert celebrity names or phenomena (e.g., YouTube clips) along the spectrum based on where students think each falls. For example, the viral "Chocolate Rain" YouTube clip could fall in the lower right corner as it was a "cult video" and generated TONS of views and blog posts vs. money, record sales, and things of that nature.
NOTE TWO - EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: In addition to recording the specific celebrity / phenomenon along the spectrum, require students to write a 2-3 sentence explanation of WHY they selected this specific placement over another for each entry, as well as WHERE (the specific source) they got it from.
2.) Over the course of a few days to a week (again the time is really up to you and your schedule), have your students commit to viewing a form of the media and complete their viewings logs.
NOTE: You could modify this task really any way you'd like. For example, you could open viewing up to ANY form of the media. OR, you could assign one group of students to concentrate on VHI, one group to the specific show Soup, one group to a morning show, one group to scouring YouTube, whatever you wish!)
3.) When the log is complete, have a "master" viewing log projected onto the board. With your students, complete the log by entering specific examples, reasons why students classified them how / where they did, and where they found their information.
4.) Large group discussion; I imagine that this will be the fun AND EXTREMELY random part. Hopefully, you will get some disagreement on where "someone / something" should be placed on the spectrum of the class log. If so, and I imagine you will, you could further analyze with your class where they / it should go, and work to come to some sort of class consensus.
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ASSIGNMENT TWO!
You could use this assignment to explore the following questions:
-What type of power does "celebrity" afford?
-How am I influenced by what "celebrities" do / say / act / advocate?
-To what extent is my perception of reality (ideologies, assumptions, motives, values, and so on) shaped by what celebrities have done / said / acted / advocated?
1.) As a class complete the following statements in writing:
For each category, complete the sentence stems with AT LEAST 3 details per stem. (For example, "I believe a hero is someone who is 1.) selfless, 2.) helps others, and 3.) doesn't back down from a challenge").
I believe a "hero" is someone who...
I believe a "criminal" is someone who...
I believe a "parent" is someone who...
I believe a "student" is someone who...
I believe a "liar" is someone who...
I believe a "brother / sister" is someone who...
I believe a "friend" is someone who...
I believe a "bigot" is someone who...
I believe a "leader" is someone who...
I believe a "terrorist" is someone who...
NOTE: This writing could be done however you want it to be. For example, you could do it in the form of a free write, or a formal writing assignment, it's up to you!
2.) As a class, have everyone share their complete stems. By doing this, you will help students uncover / expose and verbalize their underlying perceptions of what they believe each of these concepts / underlying sets of values "are," why exactly they think so, and where, specifically, they think they learned so. I recommend modeling this step to break the ice and show students how an appropriate response "should" sound (for example, "I believe that being a hero means having the ability to use your 'expert knowledge' to save people when in need. I believe that 'Sully,' the pilot who safely landed the airplane in the Hudson River saving everyone on board, taught me this."
As students are sharing completed stems, record them on a master list to be projected back to the class for the next part of the assignment.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Stress that there are no "right" or "wrong" answers and that everyone's response is valid. You will have to have a classroom culture very open to sharing for this.
3.) For homework...
-For each of their entries, students will then record AT LEAST 1 celebrity who they believe "fits" each description and why they think so, and AT LEAST 1 celebrity who they believe does not "fit" each description and why they think not.
NOTE ONE: This can be actual news they heard about the celebrity in reality (I've heard that Sean Penn is a bad father because...) and / or a character portrayal (Dennis Leary as firefighter Tommy Gavin in Rescue Me is a hero because...).
NOTE TWO: If done AFTER the first assignment I mention, students will have a clear idea of what a celebrity "is" by this time.
4.) As a class, return to the "master" list of the former concepts / completed stems, adding who the group perceives to "fit" into each concept and why, and who the group perceives to not "fit" into and why not.
Then, pose the following questions and discuss with the large group:
To what extent are celebrities responsible for...
-reinforcing our understandings of what "criminals, parents, students..." are?
-teaching us what "criminals, parents, students..." are?
-**reinforcing what we value as negative / positive, good / bad, desirable / undesirable?**
-**actually teaching us what we value as negative / positive, good / bad, desirable / undesirable?**
Although there will of course be no concrete answers, this assignment and discussion will get students thinking about the power celebrities have to not only reinforce the ideologies and assumptions about the world that they have already learned, but actually teach them new ideologies and assumptions to integrate into their schemas.
----------------------------------------
ASSIGNMENT 3! INTEGRATING VISUAL LITERACIES
You could use this assignment to explore the following questions:
-How am I influenced by what "celebrities" do / say / act / advocate?
-To what extent is my perception of reality (ideologies, assumptions, motives, values, whatever vocabulary you can come up with as a class!) shaped by what celebrities have done / said / acted / advocated?
Thinking back to Beach's chapters and what we have learned about visual literacies (I'm thinking back to film / photography techniques in particular), closely look at the following advertisements:
For an in class activity, you could split students up into groups of 6, distributing ONE picture to each group. Then, you could have students dissect the advertisements based on 1.) what kinds of camera shots, lenses, lighting, special effects, and anything else from the film techniques chapters you'd like! and 2.) the specific effect(s) each are creating.
Then you could pose questions such as:
-What kind of ideologies, assumptions, motives, and values is your advertisement supporting? How are specific film techniques being used to support this?
For example, the first ad with Anjolina Jolie may be supporting the ideal and assumption that the definition of beauty is white, slim, and so on. The film techniques may support this by showing a close up of her flawless, beautiful white face. Also, you could argue that she is being digitally enhanced to look even MORE beautiful; more beautiful then she probably actually is.
-What kind of ideologies, assumptions, motives, and values is your advertisement challenging? How are specific film techniques being used to support this?
For example, the 3rd and 4th ads of Queen Latifah may challenge the dominant ideology and assumption that the definition of beauty is being white, slim, and so on. The film techniques may challenge this dominant ideology / assumption by showing a close up of her face, which is rather heavy-set, yet still beautiful, in comparison to Angelina's. Also, Queen Latifah is of course an African American, and the close up of her face works to accentuate and beautify her physical features that are unfortunately often associated as "inferior" to white individuals'; her hair, nose, and lips.
For homework, students could find an advertisement utilizing a celebrity and do a similar analysis, identifying AND analyzing...
-What film techniques are present.
-How they contribute to the overall effect(s) of the ad.
-AND how they work to support or challenge dominant ideologies, assumptions, motives, and values.
Thanks for reading!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
CI 5472 Post 6.2 - Assignment / Rationalle #2
**ASSIGNMENT TWO**
Title: Close analysis of newscast language
Objectives:
Students will identify and analyze the use of language, paying special attention to verbs, across a range of both “real” and “fake” newscasts to explore…
-potential underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives that news personal, news networks, advertisers, and so on may hold toward the subjects of their stories.
-how the specific use of language in both “real” and “fake” newscasts both reflect and work to shape certain ideologies, assumptions, and motives.
-what / how specific types / patterns of language are used across "real" and "fake" newscasts to perpetuate certain ideologies, assumptions, and motives.
Procedures:
Lay a conceptual framework: spend time discussing:
• The ideologies, assumptions, and motives that we bring to our realities in order to make sense out of our lived experiences may manifest themselves / be reflected in the very language that we speak.
• Critical analysis of the specific language used in both “real” and “fake” newscasts (in particular verbs) may give us a “window” into the underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives of the news personalities, network at large, and / or advertisers, sponsors, and affiliates.
Show and discuss the bellow examples:
Example #1
When juxtaposing these two stories:
Top story...
-What specific language does the writer use to describe what the young African American man is doing? ("Looting" a grocery store).
-What underlying ideologies, assumptions, or motives might this specific word choice reveal about the writer? About the news source (AP)? About the subject of the story?
NOTE: Depending on your specific class (ability levels, maturity levels, and so on) and your intended purpose, you might want / need to spend some time unpacking these and the following tough questions. I by no means intend to rattle them off in my post without acknowledging that additional scaffolding might be needed to "get" to this point, including discussing what exactly ideologies, assumptions, and motives are, as well as classroom appropriate ways to discuss this type of potentially controversial material.
Bottom story...
-What specific language does the writer use to describe what the two young white individuals are doing? ("Finding" bread and soda from a local grocery store).
-What underlying ideologies, assumptions, or motives might this word choice reveal about the writer? About the news source (AFP)? About the subjects of the story?
Example #2 (Although it's not a piece of news media, it is another wonderful way to model specific language study to uncover potential underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives).
-How do the characters refer to the bloated bag that "Mexican Batman" brings into the house? What is questioned to be in it? ("Keys").
-In the context of this episode (a house full of individuals of Mexican descent), what might the viewer associate with this word?
Ideally, a discussion will develop in which someone will bring up the literal association (house keys), as well as another possibly more symbolic association (drugs; a key / kilo of measurement). Either way, make sure that the later symbolic association is clear to everyone.
NOTE: when I used this video during my media unit, my students immediately leaped to the symbolic drug association! I had to actually explain that the other association could simply be "real" keys as they all just moved into the house. Either way, my experience with the text makes me confident that students will not have a problem teasing out this symbolic assumption on their own.
-Do you think the producers of this show intended the viewer to possibly make such an association? Why or why not?
-Does this association represent individuals of Mexican descent in a positive or negative light? Why do you say so?
-What underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives might this specific association work to reflect / shape?
-Does it make a difference that these "actors" are "fake" cartoons characters? Why do you say so? Would the association have more or less of an impact if the "actors" were real vs. "fake" people? Why do you say so?
After you and your class get "good" at this sort of language study (again, my class of seniors were pretty ready to jump right into it with minimal scaffolding, but depending on your personal classroom context, you might need to do more or less scaffolding), assign the following as homework:
HOMEWORK
-However you want to split things up, designate 1/2 the class as the "fake" news group, and the other 1/2 of the class as the "real" news group.
-Over the course of a few nights (I'm thinking 2-3, but it's really up to you), have students consistently watch a newscast associated with their group designation, keeping a viewing log that records 1.) the specific station viewed, 2.) the specific newscast viewed, 3.) specific story headlines, 4.) short summaries of each story, and most important 5.) a list of specific language used throughout each story, paying special attention to verbs.
NOTE: you might want to distribute this task across a range of networks / shows to ensure diversity of material and perspectives for the later class discussion. For example, assign 1/2 of the "fake" news group to The Daily Show on Comedy Central, and assign the other half of the "fake" news group to the news segment of SNL. Likewise, assign 1/2 of the "real" news group to ABC, and assign the other half of the "real" news group to CNN. Again, however you want to do it!
-When viewing logs are completed, place students into small groups based on what they were assigned to view. Have some sort of template created where EACH student per small group will insert: ONE specific headline, the summary for that headline, and ALL the verbs used during the story. As a group, students then discuss underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives as inferred from each student's analysis (this part may need further scaffolding).
-EACH small group then pick TWO examples to present to the entire class. (In the end, the entire class will be left with 4 detailed "real" news examples, and 4 detailed "fake" news examples.
NOTE: While EACH group is presenting their ONE specific story, keep some sort of log going of specific verbs on the board / overhead / LCD projector.
-As a class, discuss / analyze the following questions:
---------------------------------------
RATIONALE
Topping the list of the observations that shocked me during my student teaching experience was my students' taking the every day language they use for granted and failing to recognize the power of the words they speak. After having to scold one of my seniors for singing his self-composed, highly offensive "breast" song (a song filled with expletives about the female chest) as he strolled carelessly into class, I experienced first hand the idea that we become so accustomed to the language that we use that we seldom stop to think about, or perhaps never learn to think about in the first place, the underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives that our very words both reflect and perpetuate. After hearing a painfully innocent "What's wrong Mr. Filipkowski? I'm just joking" in response to my frustration toward the "breast" song, I decided to incorporate a language study lesson similar to the one above in my media unit.
In his book A Web-Linked Guide to resources and Activities, Professor Beach supports applying specific language study to the news as he states, "Students can also study how news writers may use metaphors or hyperbolic language to describe an event in a manner that represents a particular attitude toward that event" (91). Although Professor Beach goes on to discuss specific language use as reflective / supportive of potential underlying ideological orientations to the event in question, my above lesson digs even deeper to uncover potential underlying ideological orientations to the specific subjects implicated in each specific event. For example, where critical analysis of my student's singing of the "breast" song reveals a potential underlying patriarchal ideology of women as objects, the specific language use in the above news article reporting on Hurricane Katrina reveals a potential underlying ideology of African Americans as inherently conscienceless, lawless thieves. In each case, critical analysis of the specific language used to communicate something reveals a potential underlying ideology, assumption, or motive that is not visible on the surface, and possibly unconscious to the speaker themselves for that matter, that threatens to do harm to another group of subjects. In short, critical analysis of the specific things we say, as well as how we say them, allows us to slow down our realities, uncover the ideologies, assumptions, and motives that we have internalized, scrutinize them, and ask if they are where we want to "end up" as a people. This is a skill that students NEED to be taught and practice as they live in no other moment than the present.
Furthermore, with adult-themed, animated programming such as Family Guy and adult-themed, "fake" newscasts such as The Daily Show so wildly popular, current students are even more inclined to internalize the potentially harmful ideologies, assumptions, and motives they see as "OK" as they perceive such programming as absolutely hilarious to watch. As such, I argue that it is extremely important to view texts that use comedy / humor, hold them up to the light, inspect them, and ask ourselves if they communicate the specific ideologies, assumptions, and motives that we perceive as being "healthy" to our world and futures.
In her article "When Fake is More Real: of Fools, Parody, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Ana Kothe discusses comedy's use of the "it's just a joke" defense as she states: "The 'it's just a joke' argument that protects comedians... while simultaneously allowing them to voice unofficial criticism needs further investigation, particularly in relation to mean-spirited use of comedy..." (3-4). Although I sincerely believe that my senior had no true "mean-spirited" intent toward the women in my class, he had internalized somewhere in his life education the idea that anything is OK as long as it's a joke, unconsciously utilizing the exact "relax, it's just a joke" defense Kothe describes - "What's wrong Mr. Filipkowski? It's just a joke." In short, it is extremely important for students to critically dissect programming responsible for shaping their perceptions of reality and ask if it is cloaking otherwise undesirable ideologies, assumptions, and motives, in laughter to make them more desirable, digestible, and easier to internalize.
Thanks for reading, watching, and listening.
Title: Close analysis of newscast language
Objectives:
Students will identify and analyze the use of language, paying special attention to verbs, across a range of both “real” and “fake” newscasts to explore…
-potential underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives that news personal, news networks, advertisers, and so on may hold toward the subjects of their stories.
-how the specific use of language in both “real” and “fake” newscasts both reflect and work to shape certain ideologies, assumptions, and motives.
-what / how specific types / patterns of language are used across "real" and "fake" newscasts to perpetuate certain ideologies, assumptions, and motives.
Procedures:
Lay a conceptual framework: spend time discussing:
• The ideologies, assumptions, and motives that we bring to our realities in order to make sense out of our lived experiences may manifest themselves / be reflected in the very language that we speak.
• Critical analysis of the specific language used in both “real” and “fake” newscasts (in particular verbs) may give us a “window” into the underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives of the news personalities, network at large, and / or advertisers, sponsors, and affiliates.
Show and discuss the bellow examples:
Example #1
When juxtaposing these two stories:
Top story...
-What specific language does the writer use to describe what the young African American man is doing? ("Looting" a grocery store).
-What underlying ideologies, assumptions, or motives might this specific word choice reveal about the writer? About the news source (AP)? About the subject of the story?
NOTE: Depending on your specific class (ability levels, maturity levels, and so on) and your intended purpose, you might want / need to spend some time unpacking these and the following tough questions. I by no means intend to rattle them off in my post without acknowledging that additional scaffolding might be needed to "get" to this point, including discussing what exactly ideologies, assumptions, and motives are, as well as classroom appropriate ways to discuss this type of potentially controversial material.
Bottom story...
-What specific language does the writer use to describe what the two young white individuals are doing? ("Finding" bread and soda from a local grocery store).
-What underlying ideologies, assumptions, or motives might this word choice reveal about the writer? About the news source (AFP)? About the subjects of the story?
Example #2 (Although it's not a piece of news media, it is another wonderful way to model specific language study to uncover potential underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives).
-How do the characters refer to the bloated bag that "Mexican Batman" brings into the house? What is questioned to be in it? ("Keys").
-In the context of this episode (a house full of individuals of Mexican descent), what might the viewer associate with this word?
Ideally, a discussion will develop in which someone will bring up the literal association (house keys), as well as another possibly more symbolic association (drugs; a key / kilo of measurement). Either way, make sure that the later symbolic association is clear to everyone.
NOTE: when I used this video during my media unit, my students immediately leaped to the symbolic drug association! I had to actually explain that the other association could simply be "real" keys as they all just moved into the house. Either way, my experience with the text makes me confident that students will not have a problem teasing out this symbolic assumption on their own.
-Do you think the producers of this show intended the viewer to possibly make such an association? Why or why not?
-Does this association represent individuals of Mexican descent in a positive or negative light? Why do you say so?
-What underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives might this specific association work to reflect / shape?
-Does it make a difference that these "actors" are "fake" cartoons characters? Why do you say so? Would the association have more or less of an impact if the "actors" were real vs. "fake" people? Why do you say so?
After you and your class get "good" at this sort of language study (again, my class of seniors were pretty ready to jump right into it with minimal scaffolding, but depending on your personal classroom context, you might need to do more or less scaffolding), assign the following as homework:
HOMEWORK
-However you want to split things up, designate 1/2 the class as the "fake" news group, and the other 1/2 of the class as the "real" news group.
-Over the course of a few nights (I'm thinking 2-3, but it's really up to you), have students consistently watch a newscast associated with their group designation, keeping a viewing log that records 1.) the specific station viewed, 2.) the specific newscast viewed, 3.) specific story headlines, 4.) short summaries of each story, and most important 5.) a list of specific language used throughout each story, paying special attention to verbs.
NOTE: you might want to distribute this task across a range of networks / shows to ensure diversity of material and perspectives for the later class discussion. For example, assign 1/2 of the "fake" news group to The Daily Show on Comedy Central, and assign the other half of the "fake" news group to the news segment of SNL. Likewise, assign 1/2 of the "real" news group to ABC, and assign the other half of the "real" news group to CNN. Again, however you want to do it!
-When viewing logs are completed, place students into small groups based on what they were assigned to view. Have some sort of template created where EACH student per small group will insert: ONE specific headline, the summary for that headline, and ALL the verbs used during the story. As a group, students then discuss underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives as inferred from each student's analysis (this part may need further scaffolding).
-EACH small group then pick TWO examples to present to the entire class. (In the end, the entire class will be left with 4 detailed "real" news examples, and 4 detailed "fake" news examples.
NOTE: While EACH group is presenting their ONE specific story, keep some sort of log going of specific verbs on the board / overhead / LCD projector.
-As a class, discuss / analyze the following questions:
- What types of language patterns do you see?
- What are the general tone(s) created by each of of these patterns? Can we lump them into any categories (e.g., funny, happy, joking, sad, angry, cynical, hateful, sarcastic, serious, indifferent, random, whatever else you and your class can think of!
- What types of language patterns appear to be associated with the "real" news?
- What types of language patterns appear to be associated with the "fake" news?
- How does word choice (what's said) AND tone (how it's said) work to represent the subjects in question?
- What underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives might be reflected / perpetuated by word choice (what's said) and tone (how it's said)?
- Is the tone funny? Does the humor divert your attention away from an issue? If so, what specific issue? How can you tell? Or does the humor focus your attention on an issue? If so, what specific issue? How can you tell?
- Is the tone serious? Does the seriousness focus your attention on an issue? If so, what issue? How can you tell? Or does the seriousness divert your attention away from an issue? If so, what specific issue? How can you tell?
- Any other questions you can think of to analyze / explore the patterns across "real" and "fake" news that you and your class can think of!
---------------------------------------
RATIONALE
Topping the list of the observations that shocked me during my student teaching experience was my students' taking the every day language they use for granted and failing to recognize the power of the words they speak. After having to scold one of my seniors for singing his self-composed, highly offensive "breast" song (a song filled with expletives about the female chest) as he strolled carelessly into class, I experienced first hand the idea that we become so accustomed to the language that we use that we seldom stop to think about, or perhaps never learn to think about in the first place, the underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives that our very words both reflect and perpetuate. After hearing a painfully innocent "What's wrong Mr. Filipkowski? I'm just joking" in response to my frustration toward the "breast" song, I decided to incorporate a language study lesson similar to the one above in my media unit.
In his book A Web-Linked Guide to resources and Activities, Professor Beach supports applying specific language study to the news as he states, "Students can also study how news writers may use metaphors or hyperbolic language to describe an event in a manner that represents a particular attitude toward that event" (91). Although Professor Beach goes on to discuss specific language use as reflective / supportive of potential underlying ideological orientations to the event in question, my above lesson digs even deeper to uncover potential underlying ideological orientations to the specific subjects implicated in each specific event. For example, where critical analysis of my student's singing of the "breast" song reveals a potential underlying patriarchal ideology of women as objects, the specific language use in the above news article reporting on Hurricane Katrina reveals a potential underlying ideology of African Americans as inherently conscienceless, lawless thieves. In each case, critical analysis of the specific language used to communicate something reveals a potential underlying ideology, assumption, or motive that is not visible on the surface, and possibly unconscious to the speaker themselves for that matter, that threatens to do harm to another group of subjects. In short, critical analysis of the specific things we say, as well as how we say them, allows us to slow down our realities, uncover the ideologies, assumptions, and motives that we have internalized, scrutinize them, and ask if they are where we want to "end up" as a people. This is a skill that students NEED to be taught and practice as they live in no other moment than the present.
Furthermore, with adult-themed, animated programming such as Family Guy and adult-themed, "fake" newscasts such as The Daily Show so wildly popular, current students are even more inclined to internalize the potentially harmful ideologies, assumptions, and motives they see as "OK" as they perceive such programming as absolutely hilarious to watch. As such, I argue that it is extremely important to view texts that use comedy / humor, hold them up to the light, inspect them, and ask ourselves if they communicate the specific ideologies, assumptions, and motives that we perceive as being "healthy" to our world and futures.
In her article "When Fake is More Real: of Fools, Parody, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Ana Kothe discusses comedy's use of the "it's just a joke" defense as she states: "The 'it's just a joke' argument that protects comedians... while simultaneously allowing them to voice unofficial criticism needs further investigation, particularly in relation to mean-spirited use of comedy..." (3-4). Although I sincerely believe that my senior had no true "mean-spirited" intent toward the women in my class, he had internalized somewhere in his life education the idea that anything is OK as long as it's a joke, unconsciously utilizing the exact "relax, it's just a joke" defense Kothe describes - "What's wrong Mr. Filipkowski? It's just a joke." In short, it is extremely important for students to critically dissect programming responsible for shaping their perceptions of reality and ask if it is cloaking otherwise undesirable ideologies, assumptions, and motives, in laughter to make them more desirable, digestible, and easier to internalize.
Thanks for reading, watching, and listening.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
CI 5472 Post 6.1 - Assignment / Rationale #1
**ASSIGNMENT ONE**
Title: Telling it like it is? Or white-supremacist morning radio?
Objective:
• Students will analyze the complex uses of comedy in popular morning radio programs to explore the potential underlying purposes of comedic / humorous approaches to news. After their analysis, students will be able to craft an informed, well supported thesis arguing how a morning radio program of their choice uses comedy to “distort” or “clarify” reality as objectively as possible.
Procedures:
Lay a conceptual framework: spend time discussing:
• Although comedy can make us laugh, laughter alone is RARELY the underlying purpose for using comedy.
• Comedy can be EXTREMELY powerful; comedy can attack, embarrass, and bring an individual to tears for circumstances / attributes either in or out of their control (their weight, health, job, race, sexuality, education, and so on), OR comedy can expose and bring to justice a liar, bigot, thief, criminal, and so on.
Generate specific criteria / concepts if you wish:
• Possible underlying forces responsible for the varying uses of comedy may include...
• Potential underlying network ideologies / assumptions / motives
• Potential underlying personal ideologies / assumptions / motives
• The potential pressure from advertisers and sponsors who hold their own sets of ideologies / assumptions / motives
• (Anything else you, your colleagues, and your students can think of!
• **The idea is that by critically viewing / listening to morning show news segments’ specific uses of comedy, we as the audience can 1.) explore the potential ideologies, assumptions and motives behind its use, 2.) ask if comedy is being used to “distort” or “clarify” our reality as objectively as possible (in other words, comedy as perpetuating harmful ideologies / assumptions OR fighting to challenge harmful ideologies / assumptions and more accurately represent humanity as objectively as possible), and finally 3.)ask if these underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives are what we want / where we want to go as a global community.**
Gather examples and stuff to talk about in class!
• I recommend going to iTunes and downloading examples from the following FREE podcasts; KQ Morning Show (from MN based classic rock station 92.5 KQRS), Half-assed Morning Show (from MN based hard rock station 93.7 93X), KS95 Morning Show (from MN based alternative rock station Cities 97 97.1), The KDWB Morning Show (from MN based pop station KDWB 101.3), The Jack Diamond Morning Show, the list really goes on and on.
• NOTE: Your selection of texts here really depends on what you want to accomplish. If you want to explore the possible underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives unique to your specific community (in this case the Twin Cities), the TC morning shows would work great. However, if you wanted to perhaps compare the content of these to other morning shows, it would be beneficial to pull in texts from other regions of the country, or from the English speaking world for that matter (for accessibility purposes). Either way iTunes gives you a ton of accessibility to whatever you want for free.
Pull out some salient specific excerpts from shows to critically analyze as class.
Using the KQ Morning Show as an example, see bellow. NOTE: finding and editing specific, salient examples of anything can take a very long time. Although the initial time commitment may be great, you really only have to do it once. Then, the texts can be reused for as long as you see fit / relevant.
Again, the way you work through these texts with your students is largely dependent on your overall purpose. However, I recommend exploring questions of varying and increasing complexity such as the question set bellow. Also, you might want to publish these on a hand out so students can refer back to them while writing their summative assessments.
• What, specifically, do you hear during the story / stories? (For example, when it comes to the KQ morning show, the sound tech plays laughter, fart sounds, vomit sounds, random bits of
audio from past shows, burp sounds, train wreck sounds, basically a huge assortment of sounds).
• How, specifically, do these sound drops effect meaning in the story / stories during which they occur? (For example, when it comes to KQ, the sound tech will play a fart / poop sound during a news story that is talking about someone falling, someone yelling “HOMO!” or “FATTY!” during a story talking about gay marriage or obesity, and a gong if a person or topic of Asian descent is mentioned).
• What underlying ideologies, assumptions, or motives toward the subjects in this story / stories might these sounds reflect? How can you tell?
• Where does the news story / stories “fit” within the overall structure of the show? (For example, when it comes to KQ, stories may be sandwiched between the “Who is that porn star?” listener game show, and people calling in for Erick Clapton concert tickets. Also, a story about terrorism may come immediately before or after a story about illegal immigrants in the U.S.).
• How, specifically, does this placement effect the meaning of the story or stories?
• What underlying ideologies, assumptions, or motives toward the subjects in this story / stories might this placement reflect? How can you tell?
• What kind of commentary do the hosts give about the story / stories at hand? What specific word choices do they use? What kind of tone do they use?
• How, specifically, might this commentary, language, tone reflect the underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives toward the subjects in this story / stories?
• What types of advertisers did you hear during commercials breaks, and what kind of
promotions and sponsors did you hear during the show?
• How might the sounds you hear, what the hosts say, and the placement of stories reflect the underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives of any of these entities?
• How might the sounds you hear, what the hosts say, and the placement of stories reflect the underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives of the overall network?
• How, specifically, are the story / stories and the groups of people that they concern represented? Are they represented in a “positive” light? Or a negative light? How can you tell?
• Based on your experience with these groups, are these portrayals accurate? Why or why not?
• **Does this morning show’s use of comedy work to “distort” or “clarify” our world? Why do you say so?**
And the list really goes on and on depending on your specific purpose. NOTE: These are just some ideas. I could see someone EASILY spending a number of days on one or two of these questions.
As far as format wise, these questions could be handled…
• As an entire class in the large group setting
• Distribute different questions / tasks to small groups and reconvene as a class
• Individual
• And so on
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
As homework, chose a specific morning show to commit approximately ½ hour to. Feel free to podcast shows if you can’t catch them as they’re on live.
Using SPECIFIC examples from the morning show you pick, how does the show’s use of comedy work to “distort” or “clarify” our world? Think back to the questions / analysis we talked about in class!
During class on the assignment's due date, students could pair into similar groups (everyone who picked the KQ Morning Show in one group, everyone who picked the KS95 Morning Show in another group, and so on), or you could mix the groups up the best that you could. Students could then discuss and share their assignments. From there, the class could continue to have a discussion on how morning show news content reflects specific ideologies, assumptions, and motives across networks, advertisers, geographical regions, cultural groups, and so on.
----------------------------------------
RATIONALE
Although extremely anecdotal evidence, Radiotime.com (portal to all things talk radio) confirms my hypothesis that morning talk radio is a significantly viewed source of news media. Using the wildly popular TC based KQ Morning Show as an example, Radiotime.com states, “KQRS has been number-one in the market among the 25 to 54 year-old demographic for thirteen consecutive years. In addition to playing great music, KQRS is known for its dominant morning show. The show is 100% local, and is the "go to" source for current events among Minnesotans between the ages of 18 and 64.” Although I have not verified these specific statistics against any other more credible sources, the point remains the same either way; morning radio is perceived as a significant source of news by a huge portion of the population, including young people. As further anecdotal evidence, I used to, and in fact still do, tune into morning shows as I commute back and forth to school and work. Furthermore, during my time student teaching at Simley High School, not a day would go by that I wouldn’t hear a group of students discussing something that they heard on the radio during their drive in (e.g., the swine flue, Somali pirates, and so on).
What makes morning shows so popular and entertaining, particularly the KQ Morning Show, is the integration of comedy / humor into their various segments. In addition to approaching every news story with a commentary-filled comedic / humorous tone, the listener is further entertained as stories are sandwiched between call in game shows, chances to win prizes and concert tickets, celebrity interviews, and the occasional piece of music. After all, it is a radio station.
In her article “When Fake is More Real: of Fools, Parody, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Ana Kothe cites theory that supports comedy’s / humor’s power to afford critical reflection of what we view as news as she states, “…the sort of humor that ridicules abusive politics has the effect of creating a space where rational reflection on issues can take place – it provides a more balanced perspective when the official news cannot” (4). However, depending on how it’s specifically used, Kothe counters that “mean-spirited” comedy / humor can also be used to continue to protect (support) those with power and attack (subjugate) those without (4). In other words, just as comedy / humor has the power “clarify” our world and render it as objectively as possible, it also has the power to “distort” it based on certain prejudiced ideologies, assumptions, and motives extremely pervasive in our global community.
If the above statistics are correct, and people do indeed spend so much time listening to and deriving their perceived understanding of the world from morning radio, it is EXTREMELY important for them to question…
1.) how specifically comedy / humor is being used
2.) what ideologies, assumptions, and motives it is working to reflect / shape
3.) how it is working to reflect / shape them
4.) if this is the direction in which we want our global community to go
5.) what group(s) it is working to give power to
6.) what group(s) of power it is working to take power from
7.) and if it is working to “clarify” or “distort” our overall perceptions of the world.
Furthermore, critical analysis of morning radio shows affords students the opportunity to explore how the news may be used as yet another corporate tool to perpetuate certain dominant ideologies, assumptions, and motives. Labeled as the "propaganda model," Chomsky and Herman propose that corporations "propagate their own ideological perspectives in news content and coverage" (Beach 92). As such, it is extremely important that students learn to detect, analyze, and question when corporations are exerting their power in the news, how exactly they are doing so, to what end, and if said end is desirable. Because morning radio is funded and supported by a host of advertisers and sponsors (and they are not bashful to say so "more of the KQ Morning Show brought to you by McDonalds!"), critical analysis of morning shows across the country afford students a limitless supply of material to explore "the problems of news sponsorship" (Kothe 5).
Thanks for reading, watching, and listening!
Title: Telling it like it is? Or white-supremacist morning radio?
Objective:
• Students will analyze the complex uses of comedy in popular morning radio programs to explore the potential underlying purposes of comedic / humorous approaches to news. After their analysis, students will be able to craft an informed, well supported thesis arguing how a morning radio program of their choice uses comedy to “distort” or “clarify” reality as objectively as possible.
Procedures:
Lay a conceptual framework: spend time discussing:
• Although comedy can make us laugh, laughter alone is RARELY the underlying purpose for using comedy.
• Comedy can be EXTREMELY powerful; comedy can attack, embarrass, and bring an individual to tears for circumstances / attributes either in or out of their control (their weight, health, job, race, sexuality, education, and so on), OR comedy can expose and bring to justice a liar, bigot, thief, criminal, and so on.
Generate specific criteria / concepts if you wish:
• Possible underlying forces responsible for the varying uses of comedy may include...
• Potential underlying network ideologies / assumptions / motives
• Potential underlying personal ideologies / assumptions / motives
• The potential pressure from advertisers and sponsors who hold their own sets of ideologies / assumptions / motives
• (Anything else you, your colleagues, and your students can think of!
• **The idea is that by critically viewing / listening to morning show news segments’ specific uses of comedy, we as the audience can 1.) explore the potential ideologies, assumptions and motives behind its use, 2.) ask if comedy is being used to “distort” or “clarify” our reality as objectively as possible (in other words, comedy as perpetuating harmful ideologies / assumptions OR fighting to challenge harmful ideologies / assumptions and more accurately represent humanity as objectively as possible), and finally 3.)ask if these underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives are what we want / where we want to go as a global community.**
Gather examples and stuff to talk about in class!
• I recommend going to iTunes and downloading examples from the following FREE podcasts; KQ Morning Show (from MN based classic rock station 92.5 KQRS), Half-assed Morning Show (from MN based hard rock station 93.7 93X), KS95 Morning Show (from MN based alternative rock station Cities 97 97.1), The KDWB Morning Show (from MN based pop station KDWB 101.3), The Jack Diamond Morning Show, the list really goes on and on.
• NOTE: Your selection of texts here really depends on what you want to accomplish. If you want to explore the possible underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives unique to your specific community (in this case the Twin Cities), the TC morning shows would work great. However, if you wanted to perhaps compare the content of these to other morning shows, it would be beneficial to pull in texts from other regions of the country, or from the English speaking world for that matter (for accessibility purposes). Either way iTunes gives you a ton of accessibility to whatever you want for free.
Pull out some salient specific excerpts from shows to critically analyze as class.
Using the KQ Morning Show as an example, see bellow. NOTE: finding and editing specific, salient examples of anything can take a very long time. Although the initial time commitment may be great, you really only have to do it once. Then, the texts can be reused for as long as you see fit / relevant.
Again, the way you work through these texts with your students is largely dependent on your overall purpose. However, I recommend exploring questions of varying and increasing complexity such as the question set bellow. Also, you might want to publish these on a hand out so students can refer back to them while writing their summative assessments.
• What, specifically, do you hear during the story / stories? (For example, when it comes to the KQ morning show, the sound tech plays laughter, fart sounds, vomit sounds, random bits of
audio from past shows, burp sounds, train wreck sounds, basically a huge assortment of sounds).
• How, specifically, do these sound drops effect meaning in the story / stories during which they occur? (For example, when it comes to KQ, the sound tech will play a fart / poop sound during a news story that is talking about someone falling, someone yelling “HOMO!” or “FATTY!” during a story talking about gay marriage or obesity, and a gong if a person or topic of Asian descent is mentioned).
• What underlying ideologies, assumptions, or motives toward the subjects in this story / stories might these sounds reflect? How can you tell?
• Where does the news story / stories “fit” within the overall structure of the show? (For example, when it comes to KQ, stories may be sandwiched between the “Who is that porn star?” listener game show, and people calling in for Erick Clapton concert tickets. Also, a story about terrorism may come immediately before or after a story about illegal immigrants in the U.S.).
• How, specifically, does this placement effect the meaning of the story or stories?
• What underlying ideologies, assumptions, or motives toward the subjects in this story / stories might this placement reflect? How can you tell?
• What kind of commentary do the hosts give about the story / stories at hand? What specific word choices do they use? What kind of tone do they use?
• How, specifically, might this commentary, language, tone reflect the underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives toward the subjects in this story / stories?
• What types of advertisers did you hear during commercials breaks, and what kind of
promotions and sponsors did you hear during the show?
• How might the sounds you hear, what the hosts say, and the placement of stories reflect the underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives of any of these entities?
• How might the sounds you hear, what the hosts say, and the placement of stories reflect the underlying ideologies, assumptions, and motives of the overall network?
• How, specifically, are the story / stories and the groups of people that they concern represented? Are they represented in a “positive” light? Or a negative light? How can you tell?
• Based on your experience with these groups, are these portrayals accurate? Why or why not?
• **Does this morning show’s use of comedy work to “distort” or “clarify” our world? Why do you say so?**
And the list really goes on and on depending on your specific purpose. NOTE: These are just some ideas. I could see someone EASILY spending a number of days on one or two of these questions.
As far as format wise, these questions could be handled…
• As an entire class in the large group setting
• Distribute different questions / tasks to small groups and reconvene as a class
• Individual
• And so on
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
As homework, chose a specific morning show to commit approximately ½ hour to. Feel free to podcast shows if you can’t catch them as they’re on live.
Using SPECIFIC examples from the morning show you pick, how does the show’s use of comedy work to “distort” or “clarify” our world? Think back to the questions / analysis we talked about in class!
During class on the assignment's due date, students could pair into similar groups (everyone who picked the KQ Morning Show in one group, everyone who picked the KS95 Morning Show in another group, and so on), or you could mix the groups up the best that you could. Students could then discuss and share their assignments. From there, the class could continue to have a discussion on how morning show news content reflects specific ideologies, assumptions, and motives across networks, advertisers, geographical regions, cultural groups, and so on.
----------------------------------------
RATIONALE
Although extremely anecdotal evidence, Radiotime.com (portal to all things talk radio) confirms my hypothesis that morning talk radio is a significantly viewed source of news media. Using the wildly popular TC based KQ Morning Show as an example, Radiotime.com states, “KQRS has been number-one in the market among the 25 to 54 year-old demographic for thirteen consecutive years. In addition to playing great music, KQRS is known for its dominant morning show. The show is 100% local, and is the "go to" source for current events among Minnesotans between the ages of 18 and 64.” Although I have not verified these specific statistics against any other more credible sources, the point remains the same either way; morning radio is perceived as a significant source of news by a huge portion of the population, including young people. As further anecdotal evidence, I used to, and in fact still do, tune into morning shows as I commute back and forth to school and work. Furthermore, during my time student teaching at Simley High School, not a day would go by that I wouldn’t hear a group of students discussing something that they heard on the radio during their drive in (e.g., the swine flue, Somali pirates, and so on).
What makes morning shows so popular and entertaining, particularly the KQ Morning Show, is the integration of comedy / humor into their various segments. In addition to approaching every news story with a commentary-filled comedic / humorous tone, the listener is further entertained as stories are sandwiched between call in game shows, chances to win prizes and concert tickets, celebrity interviews, and the occasional piece of music. After all, it is a radio station.
In her article “When Fake is More Real: of Fools, Parody, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Ana Kothe cites theory that supports comedy’s / humor’s power to afford critical reflection of what we view as news as she states, “…the sort of humor that ridicules abusive politics has the effect of creating a space where rational reflection on issues can take place – it provides a more balanced perspective when the official news cannot” (4). However, depending on how it’s specifically used, Kothe counters that “mean-spirited” comedy / humor can also be used to continue to protect (support) those with power and attack (subjugate) those without (4). In other words, just as comedy / humor has the power “clarify” our world and render it as objectively as possible, it also has the power to “distort” it based on certain prejudiced ideologies, assumptions, and motives extremely pervasive in our global community.
If the above statistics are correct, and people do indeed spend so much time listening to and deriving their perceived understanding of the world from morning radio, it is EXTREMELY important for them to question…
1.) how specifically comedy / humor is being used
2.) what ideologies, assumptions, and motives it is working to reflect / shape
3.) how it is working to reflect / shape them
4.) if this is the direction in which we want our global community to go
5.) what group(s) it is working to give power to
6.) what group(s) of power it is working to take power from
7.) and if it is working to “clarify” or “distort” our overall perceptions of the world.
Furthermore, critical analysis of morning radio shows affords students the opportunity to explore how the news may be used as yet another corporate tool to perpetuate certain dominant ideologies, assumptions, and motives. Labeled as the "propaganda model," Chomsky and Herman propose that corporations "propagate their own ideological perspectives in news content and coverage" (Beach 92). As such, it is extremely important that students learn to detect, analyze, and question when corporations are exerting their power in the news, how exactly they are doing so, to what end, and if said end is desirable. Because morning radio is funded and supported by a host of advertisers and sponsors (and they are not bashful to say so "more of the KQ Morning Show brought to you by McDonalds!"), critical analysis of morning shows across the country afford students a limitless supply of material to explore "the problems of news sponsorship" (Kothe 5).
Thanks for reading, watching, and listening!
Friday, June 19, 2009
CI 5472 Post (For Fun) 5.4 - Speaking of Comedy... A Note for William Carlos Williams
Response...
From a website titled "Future Cave Paintings:"
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
CI 5472 Post (For Fun) 5.3 - Vlog Experiment: Another Teaching Idea
Hey everyone, I thought I'd take a stab at creating a vlog entry with a little help from a friend...
Just for fun, bellow is an attempt that my little "helper" wrecked because she couldn't seem to stop talking. Oh my I need a life, but at least I'm having fun!
Just for fun, bellow is an attempt that my little "helper" wrecked because she couldn't seem to stop talking. Oh my I need a life, but at least I'm having fun!
CI 5472 Post 5.2 - Analysis / Teaching Ideas: FOX 9 News @10
PART TWO: ANALYSIS
In chapter 9 of A Web-Linked Guide to Resources and Activities, Professor Rick Beach states that students should not only be taught how to and / or the value of following the news, but how to / the value of critically analyzing the news (90). To begin this critical analysis, Beach continues that it is important to begin critically analyzing what exactly constitutes "news" by asking if the content / event in question is significant, relevant, sensational, practical, and / or has an impact on the community (90). An additional concept that runs through each of these criteria is that the perception of whether or not something is "news" is largely dependent on the specific audience that is viewing it and / or it is intended for. For example, when dealing with the variable of relevancy, Beach states, "A group of high school students may perceive the passing of a school bond referendum as highly relevant to the education future, while perceiving the opening of a new business as irrelevant to their lives" (90). Similarly, although sports fans might perceive the bellow newscast's report on Brett Favre to be EXTREMELY relevant to their lives, I perceive absolutely NO relevance to this story as I could care less about sports in general. Throughout the remainder of this post, I'd like to practice what I preach by applying the above criteria (significant, relevant, sensational, practical, community impact, and audience) to several of the stories in the bellow viewing log to critically explore the question; is this particular content / event "news"?
Top / lead story: ~2 minutes, 30 seconds
Local man gets stuck in quicksand-like mud near White Bear Lake
As the anchors opened up the 10pm news, the sensational nature of this particular story immediately captured my attention by forcing me to ask questions such as "What in the world was the man doing in the mud? Is he O.K.? How exactly did he escape? Did anyone else get stuck in the process?" However, after sitting through the entire story, I realized that the answers to these questions were of no real significance or relevance to me. Other than gaining the potential practical knowledge of how to get out of quicksand-like mud (don't thrash, spread your body weight out, and so on) on the off chance that either myself or someone living near a lake finds themselves in a similarly idiotic predicament, the story of the man held virtually no significance, relevance, practicality, or otherwise impact on me and / or any other individuals / communities that I can think of off the top of my head (again, other than someone else living near a muddy lake, who I hope would have enough sense to stay the hell out of muddy looking bogs in the first place).
Other than this top / lead story succeeding in peaking my initial interest in the broadcast, this interest ended up being extremely superficial. As such, I don't perceive this story to be "news." However, I'd like to stress the observation that the sensational nature of this story did persuade me to plant my backside in the couch cushion and foster at least an initial interest in the newscast.
Local news story: ~20 seconds
The search is now on for a missing 10 year old boy from Beltrami County of Black Duck, MN
As opposed to the previous story, I perceived this story to have an EXTREMELY strong community impact. Although the city of Black Duck, MN, and its surrounding country are not my specific community, a helpless child has gone missing from the larger MN community. As such, residents of this community, as well as greater MN, would most likely find this information extremely significant and relevant because they would have the want / need to know where it happened, a description if available (kidnapper, child kidnapped, vehicle, and so on), and a possible motive if available, to 1.) stay alert to keep their families safe, and 2.) help find the missing child. Furthermore, if some of this information was not available, the reporters could have explicitly said so vs. leaving the information out entirely and generating so many questions.
However, I perceive this story to have a relatively small degree of practicality as the reporters did not go into ANY detail at all. As anecdotal evidence of this lack of detail, look at this story's approximate run time - a meager 20 seconds to a missing child vs. the nearly 2.5 minutes devoted to an idiot who got himself stuck in the mud and burned up MN tax dollars to be rescued. Although a simple description was given, instructions informing the public exactly what to do in case of a sighting were not provided. As a result, I was left asking myself questions including "What if I think I spot this child? Should I alert any authorities? If so, what specifically authority do I alert? What is the contact information?" As soon as these questions popped into my mind, the reporters already moved on to another story. Although I cannot be certain, this lack of detail might have a degree of intentionality to it. Aside from the fact that the reporters might simply not have the specific information that I'm looking for, they could be making the conscious choice to leave it out, strategically using my desire / need to find out more details to keep me glued to their particular newscast. Also, although this was not specifically stated during the broadcast, the reporters could be operating on a "when I know, you'll know" attitude. Because I am trusting that they simply don't yet have the information I'm looking for (again, perhaps an incorrect assumption), I'm encouraged to continue viewing to make sure I'm tuned in as soon as they get it.
Overall, given the community impact, significance, and relevance to not only myself, but the entire state of MN, I perceive this story as "news."
The last story I want to take a detailed look at:
Lifestyle news story:
Food you should be eating for healthier looking skin
As this story was alluded to in not one, but two "teasers" before commercial breaks, I initially perceived it to have a relatively high degree of significance, relevance, and practicality as I thought to myself "Hmm... a healthy lifestyle is important, and if they're going to actually tell me specifically what I can eat to not only stay healthy, but look damn good in the process, I'll sit through the rest of the newscast and wait for it!" However, at the end of the story, I feel as though I was not supplied with any information that I didn't already know / haven't already heard before.
In short, the story consisted of Dr. Nicholas Periton, dermatologist and author, arguing that the road to healthy looking skin is as simple as committing to a consistent diet. Dr. Periton then described the types of food that promote tight, wrinkle-free, healthy looking skin including fruit, vegetables, small amounts of meat, minimal sweets, and plenty of water. As Dr. Periton discussed each of these foods and the chemical properties found in them that promote healthy looking skin, the screen cut to images of the specific food being described.
So what you're telling me is that if I eat healthy fruits, vegetables, meat, drink plenty of water, and watch my intake of sweets that I will both feel and look healthier? NO WAY! Just like the purely sensational top / lead story of the newscast, I perceived this story to hold little significance, relevance, and practicality as I, presumably along with many other viewers, where not surprised to hear that an overall healthy diet promotes an overall healthy body. However, looking outside of myself and viewers like me, I can imagine a particular audience that might find this story significant, relevant, and practical - individuals trying to diet. Even though this very same information may come as "old news" to people working hard, and potentially struggling, to change their diets, this report may be perceived as a "motivator / motivation" to stay on track. Furthermore, this report contains extreme close-up shots of women scrutinizing their faces in the mirror, as well as extreme close-ups of people measuring their waist lines, potentially working to reinforce the stereotypes / assumptions associated with being beautiful and / or overweight. After viewing these stereotypes, individuals could be further motivated by their desire to not be associated with negative stereotypes concerning their weight. "Ugh, look at that ugly / disgusting person, I don't want to look like that!"
Lastly, another important rhetorical strategy that this particular story uses is an appeal to authority by having Dr. Periton endorse the diet with his "expert" opinion. Because we generally invest Doctors with a high degree of authority and integrity, viewers are similarly encouraged to assume 1.) that the Dr. knows what he's talking about, as well as 2.) that he intends to use this knowledge and authority to help others. As such, viewers are more inclined to make the assumption that this story must be important, personally helpful news as a Doctor is endorsing it. The random shots of scientists doing labword then works to reinforce this perception of the Doctor and news station as "knowing their stuff," therefore further working to legitimize the story.
Other than dieters perhaps finding this story as significant, relevant, and practical due to its fulfilling of their desire / need for positive reinforcement / motivation to stay on track with their diets, I don't perceive this story as "news." However, again notice that the initial degree of significance, relevancy, and practicality that I perceived during the first "teaser" for this story motivated me to stay glued to my T.V., and patiently wait through all of the other stories and ads until I finally could hear Dr. Periton's absolutely genius diet.
----------------------------------------
PART THREE: TEACHING TECHNIQUES
IDEA #1
I would like to discuss and modify an activity that I used during my student teaching experience to teach the 6 criteria for identifying if something is "news" or not; significance, relevance, sensational, practicality, community impact, AND audience.
During my media unit, I led my students through a series of lessons and activities where they evaluated an article's overall effectiveness as based on its potential uses of logos, ethos, and / or pathos, and how those uses either "fit" or did not "fit" with the article's intended audience.
In class, I first handed out a packet that gave definitions, descriptions, and examples of our vocabulary; logos, pathos, ethos, intended purpose, and intended audience. I then distrubuted an article to the entire class (because we were talking about environmental issues, an article on the issue of overpopulation from the Taking Sides series), walking the students through the type of analysis that I was looking for. From there, I put the students in groups, handed out a selection of articles that I found the night before (1 article per group covering various aspects of a particular issue), and had the students use the bellow worksheet to help them answer "How effective is this article?" NOTE: This activity could be constructed around any issue that you're currently discussing in class. For example, if you're discussing issues of earth sustainability like my class was, find several articles on overpopulation, global warming, alternative energy sources, alternative fuels, and so on.
Each group then got up in front of the class, displayed / read through their article on the LCD projector for everyone else to hear / see, and stated why or why not they felt that the ad was effective as based on specific instances of the article's use of logos, pathos, and / or ethos, as well as how these uses "fit" with the article's intended audiences. NOTE: Due time time contraints, you might want to take exerpts from several articles, or exerpts from a single artile. It totally depends on your needs and the nature of the task you're trying to do.
For homework, students were tasked with finding an article based on our issue on their own, using the worksheet as a template for their analysis, and writing a short paper discussing how effective their article was as based on our vocabulary. Similar to another activity I have posted, this activity provided students with plenty of scaffolding as they 1.) heard my discussion / analysis, 2.) worked with the vocabulary in small groups, and 3.) heard the discussion, analysis, and overall process of their peers. Students then shared their articles and analysis in small groups the next day.
LOGOS, PATHOS, ETHOS HANDOUT
Modified from (http://www.public.asu.edu/~macalla/logosethospathos.html)
WORKSHEET
Created by Rick Lee Filipkowski
Now, in addition to hoping that you found this activity useful, I feel as though it could easily be modified to begin to teach critical analysis of the news, specifically the above criteria of significance, relevance, sensational, practicality, community impact, and audience.
In class, first hand out a packet that gives definitions, descriptions, and examples of our vocabulary; significance, relevance, sensational, practicality, community impact, and audience. Then, project / hand out a news story to the entire class on the LCD projector, walking the students through the type of analysis that you're looking for. From there, put the students in groups, hand out a selection of varying stories that you find before (1 ad per group), and have the students use the bellow worksheet to help them answer "Is this article 'news'"? NOTE: As similar to my modified activty, you could center the stories you select around a specific complex issue relevent to the school and / or community in which you teach. In addition to reducing overall ambiguity by centering inquiry around one complex issue, student and engagement may also be increased if they perceive the particular issue that you pick to be personaly meaningful. Also, why not get your students' input? Ask them what they'd like to look further into!
Each group then gets up in front of the class, reads / displays their story on the LCD projector for everyone else to hear / see, and states why or why not they felt that the story was "news" as based on the criteria of significance, relevance, sensational, practicality, community impact, and audience. For homework, students find a story on their own based on the issue of focus, use the worksheet as a template for their analysis, and write a short paper discussing if the story is "news" or not as based on the criteria. The modified worksheet might look something like this:
WORKSHEET
Created by Rick Lee Filipkowski
The next day, students could present their articles and analysis in small / large groups, and work to synthesize the knowledge gained during their separate pieces of analysis into a single, well-informed statement and / or course of action about the issue. This issue could then be turned into a letter that could actually be sent (a letter to a factory urging them to look into their pollution control policies, a presentation to the school about the dangers and drinking and driving, and so on). The possibilities are truly endless.
IDEA #2
A second teaching idea that I thought of would to be took look at the strategies that newscasts across mediums (television, radio, paper, internet) use to capture AND maintain our interests and viewership.
First, you might select a pool of strategies to focus on throughout the lesson (for example, appeal to fear / scare tactics, need reinforcement, sensationalism, "teasers," and whatever else you could think of and that comes up along the way). Then, you could really take the lesson into whatever sort of direction you'd like. Considering Professor Beach's argument that students learn best when actively producing texts of their own, perhaps students working either individually and / or in groups could produce scripts or real "newscasts" of their own through iMovie utilizing class concepts. Then, you could hold a class viewing day where students could either act out and / or view each others' newscast, discus what / which specific strategies each group used, how exactly they used them, and how effective the story is at capturing and maintaining audience interest and viewership.
Also, what could make this type of activity really cool is that you could task different groups with different mediums (for example, one group could do print news, one group do radio, one group TV, and so on). As a result, students could get a large sample of strategies across mediums and explore how the nature of certain mediums (radio vs. TV) afford certain strategies. Lastly, what could make such an activity really cool is to center the types of student produced newscasts around a central, complex issue relevant to the school / community that you are in. To do so, you could get the students' input and pick something that is truly important to the group. From there, students could consider multiple perspectives as they write their newscasts (for example, community leaders, parents, student administrators, law enforcement, and so on), as well as consider how different strategies may be more or less effective based on the particular viewing audience.
Thanks for reading!
In chapter 9 of A Web-Linked Guide to Resources and Activities, Professor Rick Beach states that students should not only be taught how to and / or the value of following the news, but how to / the value of critically analyzing the news (90). To begin this critical analysis, Beach continues that it is important to begin critically analyzing what exactly constitutes "news" by asking if the content / event in question is significant, relevant, sensational, practical, and / or has an impact on the community (90). An additional concept that runs through each of these criteria is that the perception of whether or not something is "news" is largely dependent on the specific audience that is viewing it and / or it is intended for. For example, when dealing with the variable of relevancy, Beach states, "A group of high school students may perceive the passing of a school bond referendum as highly relevant to the education future, while perceiving the opening of a new business as irrelevant to their lives" (90). Similarly, although sports fans might perceive the bellow newscast's report on Brett Favre to be EXTREMELY relevant to their lives, I perceive absolutely NO relevance to this story as I could care less about sports in general. Throughout the remainder of this post, I'd like to practice what I preach by applying the above criteria (significant, relevant, sensational, practical, community impact, and audience) to several of the stories in the bellow viewing log to critically explore the question; is this particular content / event "news"?
Top / lead story: ~2 minutes, 30 seconds
Local man gets stuck in quicksand-like mud near White Bear Lake
As the anchors opened up the 10pm news, the sensational nature of this particular story immediately captured my attention by forcing me to ask questions such as "What in the world was the man doing in the mud? Is he O.K.? How exactly did he escape? Did anyone else get stuck in the process?" However, after sitting through the entire story, I realized that the answers to these questions were of no real significance or relevance to me. Other than gaining the potential practical knowledge of how to get out of quicksand-like mud (don't thrash, spread your body weight out, and so on) on the off chance that either myself or someone living near a lake finds themselves in a similarly idiotic predicament, the story of the man held virtually no significance, relevance, practicality, or otherwise impact on me and / or any other individuals / communities that I can think of off the top of my head (again, other than someone else living near a muddy lake, who I hope would have enough sense to stay the hell out of muddy looking bogs in the first place).
Other than this top / lead story succeeding in peaking my initial interest in the broadcast, this interest ended up being extremely superficial. As such, I don't perceive this story to be "news." However, I'd like to stress the observation that the sensational nature of this story did persuade me to plant my backside in the couch cushion and foster at least an initial interest in the newscast.
Local news story: ~20 seconds
The search is now on for a missing 10 year old boy from Beltrami County of Black Duck, MN
As opposed to the previous story, I perceived this story to have an EXTREMELY strong community impact. Although the city of Black Duck, MN, and its surrounding country are not my specific community, a helpless child has gone missing from the larger MN community. As such, residents of this community, as well as greater MN, would most likely find this information extremely significant and relevant because they would have the want / need to know where it happened, a description if available (kidnapper, child kidnapped, vehicle, and so on), and a possible motive if available, to 1.) stay alert to keep their families safe, and 2.) help find the missing child. Furthermore, if some of this information was not available, the reporters could have explicitly said so vs. leaving the information out entirely and generating so many questions.
However, I perceive this story to have a relatively small degree of practicality as the reporters did not go into ANY detail at all. As anecdotal evidence of this lack of detail, look at this story's approximate run time - a meager 20 seconds to a missing child vs. the nearly 2.5 minutes devoted to an idiot who got himself stuck in the mud and burned up MN tax dollars to be rescued. Although a simple description was given, instructions informing the public exactly what to do in case of a sighting were not provided. As a result, I was left asking myself questions including "What if I think I spot this child? Should I alert any authorities? If so, what specifically authority do I alert? What is the contact information?" As soon as these questions popped into my mind, the reporters already moved on to another story. Although I cannot be certain, this lack of detail might have a degree of intentionality to it. Aside from the fact that the reporters might simply not have the specific information that I'm looking for, they could be making the conscious choice to leave it out, strategically using my desire / need to find out more details to keep me glued to their particular newscast. Also, although this was not specifically stated during the broadcast, the reporters could be operating on a "when I know, you'll know" attitude. Because I am trusting that they simply don't yet have the information I'm looking for (again, perhaps an incorrect assumption), I'm encouraged to continue viewing to make sure I'm tuned in as soon as they get it.
Overall, given the community impact, significance, and relevance to not only myself, but the entire state of MN, I perceive this story as "news."
The last story I want to take a detailed look at:
Lifestyle news story:
Food you should be eating for healthier looking skin
As this story was alluded to in not one, but two "teasers" before commercial breaks, I initially perceived it to have a relatively high degree of significance, relevance, and practicality as I thought to myself "Hmm... a healthy lifestyle is important, and if they're going to actually tell me specifically what I can eat to not only stay healthy, but look damn good in the process, I'll sit through the rest of the newscast and wait for it!" However, at the end of the story, I feel as though I was not supplied with any information that I didn't already know / haven't already heard before.
In short, the story consisted of Dr. Nicholas Periton, dermatologist and author, arguing that the road to healthy looking skin is as simple as committing to a consistent diet. Dr. Periton then described the types of food that promote tight, wrinkle-free, healthy looking skin including fruit, vegetables, small amounts of meat, minimal sweets, and plenty of water. As Dr. Periton discussed each of these foods and the chemical properties found in them that promote healthy looking skin, the screen cut to images of the specific food being described.
So what you're telling me is that if I eat healthy fruits, vegetables, meat, drink plenty of water, and watch my intake of sweets that I will both feel and look healthier? NO WAY! Just like the purely sensational top / lead story of the newscast, I perceived this story to hold little significance, relevance, and practicality as I, presumably along with many other viewers, where not surprised to hear that an overall healthy diet promotes an overall healthy body. However, looking outside of myself and viewers like me, I can imagine a particular audience that might find this story significant, relevant, and practical - individuals trying to diet. Even though this very same information may come as "old news" to people working hard, and potentially struggling, to change their diets, this report may be perceived as a "motivator / motivation" to stay on track. Furthermore, this report contains extreme close-up shots of women scrutinizing their faces in the mirror, as well as extreme close-ups of people measuring their waist lines, potentially working to reinforce the stereotypes / assumptions associated with being beautiful and / or overweight. After viewing these stereotypes, individuals could be further motivated by their desire to not be associated with negative stereotypes concerning their weight. "Ugh, look at that ugly / disgusting person, I don't want to look like that!"
Lastly, another important rhetorical strategy that this particular story uses is an appeal to authority by having Dr. Periton endorse the diet with his "expert" opinion. Because we generally invest Doctors with a high degree of authority and integrity, viewers are similarly encouraged to assume 1.) that the Dr. knows what he's talking about, as well as 2.) that he intends to use this knowledge and authority to help others. As such, viewers are more inclined to make the assumption that this story must be important, personally helpful news as a Doctor is endorsing it. The random shots of scientists doing labword then works to reinforce this perception of the Doctor and news station as "knowing their stuff," therefore further working to legitimize the story.
Other than dieters perhaps finding this story as significant, relevant, and practical due to its fulfilling of their desire / need for positive reinforcement / motivation to stay on track with their diets, I don't perceive this story as "news." However, again notice that the initial degree of significance, relevancy, and practicality that I perceived during the first "teaser" for this story motivated me to stay glued to my T.V., and patiently wait through all of the other stories and ads until I finally could hear Dr. Periton's absolutely genius diet.
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PART THREE: TEACHING TECHNIQUES
IDEA #1
I would like to discuss and modify an activity that I used during my student teaching experience to teach the 6 criteria for identifying if something is "news" or not; significance, relevance, sensational, practicality, community impact, AND audience.
During my media unit, I led my students through a series of lessons and activities where they evaluated an article's overall effectiveness as based on its potential uses of logos, ethos, and / or pathos, and how those uses either "fit" or did not "fit" with the article's intended audience.
In class, I first handed out a packet that gave definitions, descriptions, and examples of our vocabulary; logos, pathos, ethos, intended purpose, and intended audience. I then distrubuted an article to the entire class (because we were talking about environmental issues, an article on the issue of overpopulation from the Taking Sides series), walking the students through the type of analysis that I was looking for. From there, I put the students in groups, handed out a selection of articles that I found the night before (1 article per group covering various aspects of a particular issue), and had the students use the bellow worksheet to help them answer "How effective is this article?" NOTE: This activity could be constructed around any issue that you're currently discussing in class. For example, if you're discussing issues of earth sustainability like my class was, find several articles on overpopulation, global warming, alternative energy sources, alternative fuels, and so on.
Each group then got up in front of the class, displayed / read through their article on the LCD projector for everyone else to hear / see, and stated why or why not they felt that the ad was effective as based on specific instances of the article's use of logos, pathos, and / or ethos, as well as how these uses "fit" with the article's intended audiences. NOTE: Due time time contraints, you might want to take exerpts from several articles, or exerpts from a single artile. It totally depends on your needs and the nature of the task you're trying to do.
For homework, students were tasked with finding an article based on our issue on their own, using the worksheet as a template for their analysis, and writing a short paper discussing how effective their article was as based on our vocabulary. Similar to another activity I have posted, this activity provided students with plenty of scaffolding as they 1.) heard my discussion / analysis, 2.) worked with the vocabulary in small groups, and 3.) heard the discussion, analysis, and overall process of their peers. Students then shared their articles and analysis in small groups the next day.
LOGOS, PATHOS, ETHOS HANDOUT
Modified from (http://www.public.asu.edu/~macalla/logosethospathos.html)
WORKSHEET
Created by Rick Lee Filipkowski
Now, in addition to hoping that you found this activity useful, I feel as though it could easily be modified to begin to teach critical analysis of the news, specifically the above criteria of significance, relevance, sensational, practicality, community impact, and audience.
In class, first hand out a packet that gives definitions, descriptions, and examples of our vocabulary; significance, relevance, sensational, practicality, community impact, and audience. Then, project / hand out a news story to the entire class on the LCD projector, walking the students through the type of analysis that you're looking for. From there, put the students in groups, hand out a selection of varying stories that you find before (1 ad per group), and have the students use the bellow worksheet to help them answer "Is this article 'news'"? NOTE: As similar to my modified activty, you could center the stories you select around a specific complex issue relevent to the school and / or community in which you teach. In addition to reducing overall ambiguity by centering inquiry around one complex issue, student and engagement may also be increased if they perceive the particular issue that you pick to be personaly meaningful. Also, why not get your students' input? Ask them what they'd like to look further into!
Each group then gets up in front of the class, reads / displays their story on the LCD projector for everyone else to hear / see, and states why or why not they felt that the story was "news" as based on the criteria of significance, relevance, sensational, practicality, community impact, and audience. For homework, students find a story on their own based on the issue of focus, use the worksheet as a template for their analysis, and write a short paper discussing if the story is "news" or not as based on the criteria. The modified worksheet might look something like this:
WORKSHEET
Created by Rick Lee Filipkowski
The next day, students could present their articles and analysis in small / large groups, and work to synthesize the knowledge gained during their separate pieces of analysis into a single, well-informed statement and / or course of action about the issue. This issue could then be turned into a letter that could actually be sent (a letter to a factory urging them to look into their pollution control policies, a presentation to the school about the dangers and drinking and driving, and so on). The possibilities are truly endless.
IDEA #2
A second teaching idea that I thought of would to be took look at the strategies that newscasts across mediums (television, radio, paper, internet) use to capture AND maintain our interests and viewership.
First, you might select a pool of strategies to focus on throughout the lesson (for example, appeal to fear / scare tactics, need reinforcement, sensationalism, "teasers," and whatever else you could think of and that comes up along the way). Then, you could really take the lesson into whatever sort of direction you'd like. Considering Professor Beach's argument that students learn best when actively producing texts of their own, perhaps students working either individually and / or in groups could produce scripts or real "newscasts" of their own through iMovie utilizing class concepts. Then, you could hold a class viewing day where students could either act out and / or view each others' newscast, discus what / which specific strategies each group used, how exactly they used them, and how effective the story is at capturing and maintaining audience interest and viewership.
Also, what could make this type of activity really cool is that you could task different groups with different mediums (for example, one group could do print news, one group do radio, one group TV, and so on). As a result, students could get a large sample of strategies across mediums and explore how the nature of certain mediums (radio vs. TV) afford certain strategies. Lastly, what could make such an activity really cool is to center the types of student produced newscasts around a central, complex issue relevant to the school / community that you are in. To do so, you could get the students' input and pick something that is truly important to the group. From there, students could consider multiple perspectives as they write their newscasts (for example, community leaders, parents, student administrators, law enforcement, and so on), as well as consider how different strategies may be more or less effective based on the particular viewing audience.
Thanks for reading!
CI 5472 Post 5.1 - Viewing Log: FOX 9 News @ 10
FOX 9 News
10:00pm Broadcast
Monday, June 15, 2009
Story | Time |
Top / lead story: (It looks as though this story was carried over from the 9pm report). Local man gets stuck in quicksand-like mud near White Bear Lake: Reporting live from White Bear Lake, Tom Leyden discusses a man who somehow got himself stuck in freezing, quicksand-like mud in a bog near the lake. As Tom Lyden discusses the details, his back is turned to a barely lit swamp (he doesn’t make it clear if this is the exact swamp where the man got stuck). The screen then cuts to footage of rescuers discussing the uniqueness of the situation, and the things they believe the man did “right” that were most likely responsible for his escape from the mud alive - he stayed calm, didn’t thrash around, and evenly distributed his weight to keep from sinking further. After cutting to an exterior shot of Region’s hospital, Tom Lyden announces that the man is being treated for hypothermia, but is otherwise fine. | ~2 minutes / 30 seconds |
Local news story: The search is now on for a missing 10 year old boy from Beltrami County of Black Duck, MN: After showing a close-up head shot of the boy, a description is given of what the boy was wearing before going missing. However, audience is not advised to contact the authorities if the boy is sighted, nor is any authority contact information given if such a sighting occurs. | ~20 seconds |
Local news story: Disabled NE Minneapolis woman targeted by thieves: Screen immediately cuts to extreme close-up of woman with a severely bruised / beaten looking face, describing that as she was reading her bible by the lake as she routinely does, she was struck on the head by a pipe and robbed. As she is telling her story, the screen cuts between shots of the bench that she sat on to read her bible, the walker that the woman uses, the bible itself, and an embroidered cross that she keeps with her. No description of any possible suspects is given.
| ~2 minutes |
Local / national news story: First swine flu death in MN: Reporters urge that the child that died had complications possibly contributing to their death; However, these specific complications are not described. Screen then cuts to an “expert” urging the public not to panic; however, this expert’s name and title are never cited). Screen then cuts to pictures of scientists doing random lab work as reporters continue to urge people not to panic. | ~1 minute / 45 seconds |
National news story: Chinese vaccine maker hopes to have HIN1 vaccine by end of July: Reporters explain that unfertilized chicken eggs are used to engineer and test vaccine. Screen cuts to shots of scientists working with chicken eggs as reporters explain.
| ~20 seconds |
Local news story: Police chief gets recommendation: Screen cuts to photo of the police chief in full uniform. | ~10 seconds |
Local news story: Pawlenty holding meeting to discuss state deficit: Reporters state that “School’s, local governments, hospitals, and colleges are bracing for impact.” | ~15 seconds |
International / local news story: Protests in Iran following election of Ahmadinejad: Screen cuts to video of streets filled with protestors in Iran. Screen then cuts to images of writing in Arabic.
Transition…
Students gather on UofM to protest Ahmadinejad: Screen cuts to video of students protesting on UofM campus as reporters state that protestors demand an investigation into election fraud. | ~30 seconds |
Local news story: Nomination of police officer of the year: Cut to photo of nominee. | ~15 seconds |
Consumer story teaser #1: Technology designed to help keep golfers safe: Screen cuts to images of golf course, golf golfers, and what looks like a GPS system. |
|
Lifestyle story teaser #1: How your diet can give you more beautiful skin: Screen cuts to images of fish, berries, and vegetables.
|
|
Sports story teaser #1: More news on Brett Favre’s possible future with the Vikings? Screen cuts to images of Brett Favre. |
|
Ads / commercial break: House, Mental, Wisconsin Dells, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Subway, La Quinta Inns and Sweets |
|
National / Local news story: Drop in postal office revenue may affect your mail delivery: Reporter emphasizes the word “your” as they read this headline. | ~10 seconds |
National news: Airlines still doing poorly | ~10 seconds |
National / local / consumer news: How to protect your trees from the Emerald Ash Bore | ~30 seconds |
Continuation of consumer news story: Technology designed to help keep golfers safe: As the screen cuts to the golf course, course representative walks viewer through a weather system designed to alert golfers of impending sever conditions by sending alerts to view screens attached to the course’s carts. Reporters use “cute” golf lingo / metaphors during report:
“When it comes to lightening, you rarely get a mulligan.” “When it comes to lightening strikes, the number 0 is the par for the course.” | ~3 minutes |
Weather: Before jumping into national and local weather conditions, meteorologist Ian Leonard dove-tails previous story by briefly discussing lightening safety, tornado safety, and lightening / tornado statistics. As he discusses these tips and statistics, screen cuts to dramatic still images of lightening and tornadoes. | ~4 minutes / 30 seconds |
Local news story: 2009 Special Olympics kicks off. | ~15 seconds |
Lifestyle story teaser #2: Food you should be eating for healthier looking skin: Screen cuts to images of fish, berries, fruit, and vegetables. |
|
Sports story teaser #2: More news on Brett Favre’s possible future with the Vikings? Screen cuts to images of Brett Favre. |
|
Ads / commercial break: TMZ, preview of Tuesday morning newscast, Wal-Mart, Progressive Auto Insurance, Chaos Water Park, Rainbow Foods |
|
Continuation of lifestyle news story: Food you should be eating for healthier looking skin: Dr. Nicholas Periton, dermatologist and author, discusses the types of food that promote tight, wrinkle free, healthy looking skin including fruit, vegetables, berries, small amounts of meat, and water. While Dr. Periton describes these foods, the screen cuts to images of the foods that he is describing, images of various women looking at themselves in the mirror and appearing to be self-conscious as they touch their faces, and close-up shots of people measuring their waist lines. | ~2 minutes |
Sports news story teaser #3: More news on Brett Favre’s possible future with the Vikings? Screen cuts to images of Brett Favre. |
|
Ads / commercial break: Seinfeld, Fantasyvictory.com, Titanic Exhibit, Menards, Visa, Atlantis Pool and Spa, Appliance Mart, Subaru |
|
Continuation of spots story: More news on Brett Favre’s possible future with the Vikings? Sports reporter discusses Favre’s appearance on the sports show “Joe Buck Live” where in response to the question “Will you be playing for the Viking’s next year?” Favre responded “Maybe, it depends on how my arm feels.” The screen then cuts to a video clip from “Joe Buck Live” where the viewer sees and hears Favre utter such profound, highly anticipated words.
Sports reporter then quickly runs through coverage on the MN Wild possibly getting a new coach. | ~5 minutes |
Ads / conclusion of news cast: Valley Fair, Slim for Life, Glove University |
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