miniEssays

please create your own google doc of you mEssay drafts, and post links w your name on this page. thanks. e MARCH 20 = writing & submitting mEssay and Cover note: CREATE A GOOGLE DOC: NAME_mEssayFinal_cover Cover Note Questions 1) what has gone smoothly? what do you mean? 2) what has been bumpy? what do you mean? 3)what aspect of your process are you most pleased with? why? 4) any regrets? why? 5) what do you want me to focus on while giving feedback? 6) what can i do differently to make your process go more smoothly? 7) what else do you want me to know?

[]

=mEssay 2: applying theory to our op-eds= Suggestions from another Instructor using Schudson: Frames are “principles of selection, emphasis and presentation composed of little tacit theories about what exists, what happens, and what matters." (Frames are not "bias.") I. Identify repeated patterns in news coverage, using various techniques A. Read a lot of news coverage of a particular story and/or theme B. Look for broad forms of emphasis or selection, such as 1. headlines 2. what is put first and what left for later in a story 3. placement of stories in the news (front page vs. page 20; top of the newscast vs. bottom) [] ): Three Frames, one Story and an Analysis Notice how the first version of the story finds relevance in the fact that the child's mother is a teenager on welfare. As with much reporting about poverty in the United States, the story implies that ignorance and lack of personal responsibility are at the root of America's urban problems. The second version of the story is another typical way of discussing poverty in the United States, as a kind of "contractual dispute" between parties. The implication of such stories is that "if we had better landlords" (or better teachers, doctors, etc.) and "more responsible tenants" (or more responsible students, patients, etc.), then horrible things like children getting bitten by rats would not happen. Stories like this often lead to calls for "more effective communication" between the parties. The third version of the story frames the rat bites as a sympton of a broader public health crisis facing a poor community. The third version of the story frames the rat bites as a sympton of a broader public health crisis facing a poor community. This story assumes a relationship between public policy choices (e.g. cutbacks in housing inspection programs) and human behavior. Unlike the first two versions, version 3 implies that the**//reader//**must share some responsibility for this state of affairs; after all, anti-poverty programs would not be cut if the people would put pressure on politicians to fund them. A final important point to remember is that rarely if ever is the dominant story frame**//obvious//**and/or explicitly identified by the reporter or speaker. Clark Kent and Lois Lane never come out and say "we are framing our stories about street-widening in Metropolis as a contest between bureaucratic city planners and neighborhood activists concerned with urban sprawl." Many times news reporters are not even themselves aware of how a story is framed; for some it simply feels "natural" to cover stories in a certain way. Often news reporters learn "that there are certain ways to cover stories around here and certain ways not to cover them." Regardless of how or why a story gets framed in a particular way, critical readers, watchers, and/or listeners are good at identifying news frames and making an assessment as to their appropriateness for the topic under discussion
 * Applying Theories & Models to empirical data** **Use PK: we all frame, all the time! We all engage in Magical T & Storytelling and CT!** **Start with “AS”, e.g. the author frames the war as….(good and necessary, or bad and a disaster)** **Frames carry judgments: are they binary or more complex?** **Do they echo the Bush Administration's frames?** **Detecting the MAGIC** **Detecting CT** **constructing a complex frame**
 * **Version 1: Rats Bite Infant** || **Version 2: Rats Bite Infant: Landlord, Tenants Dispute Blame** || **Version 3: Rat Bites Rising in City's "Zone of Death"** ||
 * An infant left sleeping in his crib was bitten repeatedly by rats while his 16-year-old mother went to cash her welfare check. A neighbor responded to the cries of the infant and brought the child to St. Joseph's Hospital where he was treated and released into his mother's custody. The mother, Angie Burns of Milwaukee, explained softly, "I was only gone five minutes. I left the door open so my neighbor would hear him if he woke up. I never thought this would happen in the daylight." || An eight-month-old Milwaukee boy was treated and released from St. Joseph's Hospital yesterday after being bitten by rats while he was sleeping in his crib. Tenants said that repeated requests for exterminations had been ignored by the landlord, Henry Brown. Brown claimed that the problem lay with the tenants' improper disposal of garbage. "I spend half my time cleaning up after them. They throw the garbage out the window into the back alley and their kids steal the garbage can covers for sliding in the snow." || Rats bit eight-month-old Michael Burns five times yesterday as he napped in his crib. Burns is the latest victim of a rat epidemic plaguing inner-city neighborhoods labeled the "Zone of Death." Health officials say infant mortality rates in these neighborhoods approach those in many third world countries. A Public Health Department spokesman explained that federal and state cutbacks forced short staffing at rat control and housing inspection programs. The result, noted Juan Nunez, M.D., a pediatrician at St. Joseph's Hospital, is a five-fold increase in rat bites. He added, "The irony is that Michael lives within walking distance of some of the world's best medical centers." ||

http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/Courses/sociology_of_news/index.html