When will the 'real' and 'virtual' merge? in 2045 says visionary inventor Ray Kurzweil. He calls that transition the 'Singularity.' What used to fit in a building now fits in your pocket, and what fits in your pocket today will fit inside a blood cell in 25 years. By 2045 we'll have multiplied the human-machine civilization a billionfold. We will gain power over our fates. Our mortality will be in our own hands. Many focus on what they perceive as a loss of some vital aspect of our humanity. The essence of being human is not our limitations, it is our ability to reach beyond our limitations. The 'Singularity' offers the hope of an artificial afterlife, but it could also lead to our own extinction. War, global warming, or disease could all do us in, but what if it's our own technology?
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Monday, May 13, 2024
I Robot, I Media
Q. How can we ensure that our development as moral and social animals keeps pace with our rapidly evolving communications technology?
A. By playing an active role in our media consumption, trusting reporters who demonstrate fairness and reliability over time, offering corrections when they get something wrong, and when we care enough--reading the original documents they worked from.
Friday, May 3, 2024
Four Dead In Ohio
54 years ago today, May 4 [1970] -- Four students at Kent State
University in Ohio, two of them women, were shot to death by a volley of National Guard gunfire. At
least 8 other students were wounded. But why?
1) Who might Neil Young be referring to in the line “found her dead on the ground”?
2) What did students at Kent State think about the Vietnam war then? What do they think now?
3) Do you think everyone agreed with Neil Young’s view of what occurred at Kent State? Why do you think “Ohio” might have also been a “touchstone of opposition” for people that supported the Vietnam War?
4) In what ways do you think the song “Ohio” might have been a more effective method of expressing shock and opposition than any journalism could have been?
Monday, April 29, 2024
Don't Panic
Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, journeyman Arthur Dent is swept off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, an alien researcher penning a new edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Do movie trailers appeal to our 'deep' or 'hyper' attention?
Douglas Adams cult classic may have been the stuff of Science Fiction in the 1970s, but one can't help compare his fictitious guide to existing modern-day technology. Never before have we had access to so much information at our fingertips. So why is it we seem to know so little?
Isn't now the time to panic?
1) Which had the most impact on the way we get the news? The least? Explain.
2) Where Do you get most of your news from? Why?
3) What new technologies have changed media in your lifetime? The future?
Monday, April 15, 2024
The Matrix In Me
You can see it when you look out your window... when you turn on your television... when you go to work. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. The truth that like everyone else you were born into a prison that you can not smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind. More precisely the prison OF your mind.
Implicit.harvard.edu
How do the outcomes of this test compare to similar tests on racial bias?
How do the outcomes of this test compare to similar tests on racial bias?
1) Which of these dolls is the 'good' one? Why?
2) Which of these dolls is the bad one? Why?
3) Which of these dolls looks most like you?
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Friday, April 5, 2024
Full Disclosure
In Chapter 9 Brooke proposed that reporters aren't supposed to make the world better.
Their job is to tell us what is going on, so WE can make it better...
Would you trust them more if you knew more about them?
Video conferencing is pulling back the curtain on our private lives, as our friends & colleagues finally get a peek into our homes. Correspondent Mo Rocca talks with designer Jonathan Adler, fashion commentator Simon Doonan, and New York Times critic-at-large Amanda Hess about what Zoom is divulging about us.
1) What can we learn about our reporters and celebrities by 'peeking' into their living rooms and offices?
2) Do you trust them more or less? Why?
3) What is in your 'Zoom' background and what does it 'disclose' about you?
Thursday, March 21, 2024
And Thats the Way It Was...
A pioneer broadcast journalist who began his distinguished career as a wire service reporter, Cronkite was a longtime champion of journalism values who was often referred to as the most trusted man in America.
By the mid-1950s more than half the nation's living rooms have a TV set, which serves as a kind of national mirror. It reflects a populace that is white, Christian, and middle-class. It has no accent. It defines normal. It defines America.
When Walter Cronkite ends his CBS newscast with his rock-solid assertion, 'And that's the way it is,' it's a sweet finish to his nightly suppertime slice of reality. Facts, unseasoned and served deadpan. (Gladstone, pg. 103)
Watch the interview and then answer these questions:
1) What event that Walter Cronkite reported do you think was the most significant? Why?
2) After listening to 'Uncle Walt' why do you think America found him so trustworthy?
3) How has reporting changed since the 'Golden Age of Objectivity?'
4) Do you think there will ever be a reporter as trusted as Walter Cronkite? If so who? If not why?
5) Cronkite's famous tagline: 'and that's the way it is' was legendary. If you were a national news anchor what would your tagline be? Explain.
The Golden Age of Objectivity
If the highest law of journalism is 'to the tell the Truth and shame the devil' then the Golden Age of Objectivity was the 1950s. The 1951 government film 'Duck and Cover' advised on what to do if the see the flash of a nuclear bomb. Fear of Communism and the threat of atomic war moved us into the 'donut hole' of consensus.
Objectivity pt. 1
Yet all around their was a grinding, dehumanizing poverty reflected in the eyes of these 'newsies' selling papers on city streets. Before WWI people viewed the world as being cruel but rich with opportunity. Horatio Alger novels told stories of how the humblest orphans could ascend into the middle class through hard work.
This view changed following the war. As damaged soldiers returned home with stories and the hideous and meaningless death of millions of young men a deep cynicism sets in and 'Dadaism' is born. Its basic philosophy: everything is meaningless.
Friday, March 15, 2024
WAR! Ernie Pyle & GI Joe
As a roving correspondent for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, he earned wide acclaim for his accounts of ordinary people in rural America, and later, of ordinary American soldiers during World War II. His syndicated column ran in more than 300 newspapers nationwide.
At the time of his death he was among the best-known American war correspondents. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his spare, poignant accounts of "dogface" infantry soldiers from a first-person perspective. "No man in this war has so well told the story of the American fighting man as American fighting men wanted it told", wrote Harry Truman. "He deserves the gratitude of all his countrymen."
Thursday, March 14, 2024
The Charge of the Light Brigade
In 1854, London Times reporter William Howard Russel reports on the charge of the British Light Cavalry Brigade in Crimea. He writes of soldiers ill-fed, ill-led, and left on the field to die. Prince Albert is furious. Russell's reporting turns the public against the government, prompting history's first order of military censorship. Henceforth any reporter who reports information that could be useful to the enemy will be expelled. Russell is hailed as the 'father of war reporting.'
Monday, March 11, 2024
I'd Like to Thank the Academy...
After watching these memorable Oscar Speeches , imagine you have just won an Oscar! What will you say? Who will you thank? Will you laugh? Cry? Will you have an inspirational or political message? Write and record your speech using your phone or think pad and share the link on Google Classroom.
Sunday, March 3, 2024
The Great Refusal
Few reporters proclaim their convictions. Fewer still act on them to serve what they believe to be the greater good. In times of profound moral crisis, most reporters make the 'Great Refusal.' The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
In his poem 'Inferno' Dante tours the underworld and sees a swarm of anguished souls barred from heaven and hell doomed to limbo. They are the neutrals, whose lives meant nothing because they refused to commit themselves. They have all made what Dante calls the 'Great Refusal.'
Read the summary and then answer these Dantes's Inferno Questions.
Take the Inferno Test to see which level of Hell you would be banished to. Do you agree? Share your comments in our Google Class comments.
Monday, February 26, 2024
Rosebud
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Goldilocks Number
Once upon a time--- November 2005--- someone said a very SCARY number...
What was it? Read Chapter 5 in the book (pgs. 49- 55) to find out.
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Birds On a Wire
Brooke Gladstone compares the press to blackbirds perched on a wire, saying, “one bird will fly to another wire, and when it doesn’t get electrocuted, all the birds will fly to that other wire.”
Senator Eugene McCarthy came up with that; but what does it mean?
If 'courage and caution' are the 'yin and yang' of journalism, when can a little bit of caution a good thing?
Sunday, February 11, 2024
Success
Congratulations to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs: back-to-back Superbowl Champions! Today's lesson focuses on success and what it takes to get to the top; whether it's in football, entertainment, or high school.
People measure success in many different ways and on many different levels. When setting goals in life, we must identify what success means to us personally, so that when we succeed we will know it. For example, most people measure success in business according to their income; however, this may not be an accurate assessment.
1) What makes someone successful?
2) How do we measure success?
2) Who is more successful Travis Kelce or Taylor Swift? Why?
4) Performing at the Superbowl Halftime Show is a pinnacle of success; but how did Usher get there? Was it just talent. Or looks? Or was it hard work and practice?
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Superbowl Commercials
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Truthiness
Does one TV News Network have more 'Truthiness' than the others?
How do our poll results compare to the national poll?
Which network does the rest of America trust the most for their news? Why?
Which network does the rest of America trust the most for their news? Why?
What should be the ultimate goal of any news network?
Why is it the more news outlets there are, the less we seem to trust them?
Why is it the more news outlets there are, the less we seem to trust them?
Monday, February 5, 2024
Canis Journalisticus
If journalists really are like dogs, 'barking at anything that moves', then Helen Thomas agrees.
Reporters are celebrated not because of the truth of their story, but according to whether their story fits the public's mood.
Without a free press doing its job as a journalistic watchdog, citizens are left to guess if their elected officials are doing their jobs, or if the people they have entrusted have earned that trust.
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Does Secrecy Make Us Safer?
When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked details of massive government surveillance programs in 2013, he ignited a raging debate over digital privacy and security. That debate came to a head this year, when Apple refused an FBI court order to access the iPhone of alleged San Bernardino Terrorist Syed Farook. Meanwhile, journalists and activists are under increasing attack from foreign agents. To find out the government's real capabilities, and whether any of us can truly protect our sensitive information, VICE founder Shane Smith heads to Moscow to meet the man who started the conversation, Edward Snowden. Watch the episode.
Described by WIRED as “the most wanted man in the world,” Edward Snowden is being sought for leaking top-secret documents that unveiled widespread surveillance programs overseen by the federal government. He currently is hiding out in an undisclosed community in Russia, where he says he goes mostly unrecognized.
1) Is Edward Snowden a 'traitor & a coward' or a 'patriotic hero? You decide.
2) What does the rest of the world think?
3) Should we have secrets from our Government? Explain.
4) Should our Government have secrets from us? Explain.
5) Where does our right to 'privacy' end and the Government's right to 'know' begin?
1) Is Edward Snowden a 'traitor & a coward' or a 'patriotic hero? You decide.
2) What does the rest of the world think?
3) Should we have secrets from our Government? Explain.
4) Should our Government have secrets from us? Explain.
5) Where does our right to 'privacy' end and the Government's right to 'know' begin?
7) Do you agree or disagree with this decision? Is it biased?
8) If you were directing the movie who would you choose? Why?
Watch an Oscar nominated documentary about Snowden .
Watch the pivotal moments in 'Citizen Four' and learn how they came to life on the screen.
Should Edward Snowden be 'pardoned?'
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Freedom of the Press
A press that is free to investigate and criticize the government is absolutely essential in a nation that practices self-government and is therefore dependent on an educated and enlightened citizenry.
1) How is our Freedom of Press essential to our Democracy?
2) What does the 1st amendment say about Freeodom of Press?
3) In what ways is our Freedom of Press unique?
4) In what ways has the Press been limited throughout our History?
5) What were the 'Pentagon Papers' and how did they challenge the 1st Amendment?
More than 1 billion of those people live in China. How does Chinese censorship work?
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
In the Beginning...
...there were no journalists. But in every place written language emerges you can find publicists.
The ancient Maya civilization of Central America left behind a riddle: an intricate and mysterious hieroglyphic script carved on stone monuments and painted on pottery and bark books. Because the invading Spanish suppressed nearly all knowledge of how the script worked, unlocking its meaning posed one of archaeology's fiercest challenges. Until now.
Thursday, January 18, 2024
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
This expression has been attributed to everyone from Voltaire to Uncle Ben in the Spider-Man comic book; but what does it mean?
Friday, January 12, 2024
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Is It News?
What makes one thing worth reporting, while another thing is not. We offer a test for news which can work in all societies. We consider what makes some news stories stronger than others. Finally, we look at how news comes to journalists, and the areas of life where we most often find it.
Monday, January 8, 2024
What Is Current Events?
What do you think was the biggest story of 2023? What predictions do you make about 2024?
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