Journalism Class - Monday November 7

[jerusalem-s.livejournal.com]

Spider is slumped behind his desk looking pissed as hell. There's a button on his jacket that reads 'Do not attempt to converse with me' and one below it that reads 'This means YOU'. The cat is nowhere to be seen.

Once there are several people in the classroom, he snarls, "For today's class assignment, please go to The New York Times website. Find an article with a definite slant or bias. Copy it, explain why it is biased and how and highlight the words or phrases that reveal the bias. Discuss amongst yourselves as to whether you agree or disagree with the original author of the article and/or your classmate's diagnosis."

Comments

Re: Youths vs. Police

[courier-gavin.livejournal.com]

"The use of "hundreds of youths" makes it sound as though the poor police was completely overwhelmed. Using "when shooting took place" makes it uncertain who fired shots, but because of the context, makes it sound like it was the youths." Jake took a deep breath. "And they're telling us that policemen were wounded, but not whether any of the, ah, youths were. "Rampaging" and "attacked" are bias words too."

Re: Youths vs. Police

[chasingangela]

"And it's horribly written," Angela interjects. "Passive voice all over the place. Were burning, was rammed, was considered ... nobody actually does anything in this article."

"I agree with Jake -- it's a very anti-rioters article."

Re: Youths vs. Police

[courier-gavin.livejournal.com]

Jake nodded, leaning back. "And the use of those passive voices? Makes it sound like they're reporting rumours rather than fact. At least I think it does."

Re: Youths vs. Police

[krycek-rat.livejournal.com]

"And the focus on injuries to a police officer - non life-threatening at that, with, again, no mention of any injuries to the 'youths'."

Re: Youths vs. Police

[chasingangela]

"At the very least, it confuses the reader by not letting them know who's saying or doing what," Angela says in agreement. "Also? They let us know it was "hundreds" of youths, but not how many police were there."

Re: Youths vs. Police

[mycanonhatesme]

"They might not wanted to have admitted how outnumbered they were - or how much extra and unneeded force they sent in."

Re: Youths vs. Police

[courier-gavin.livejournal.com]

"Well, no, maybe not the police, but I don't think journalists should depend on police statements only." Jake squinted. "Isn't there a rule or something that things should be backed up from at least three different sources?"

Re: Youths vs. Police

[mycanonhatesme]

"Yes, but 'should be' is the operative word in that sentence. Just because something should be done, it doesn't mean that all journalists do it. In fact, there was a guy who was fired from this paper for totally making up his own sources."

Re: Youths vs. Police

[chasingangela]

Angela leans back, twirling a pen. "Yeah, journalists are like anyone else -- sometimes they get lazy and don't do their jobs right. I think we can guess this article was pretty much entirely based on police sources."

[OOC: Jayson Blair was my first editor in college.]

Re: Youths vs. Police

[mycanonhatesme]

Chloe nods. "That's what it looks like to me too."

[ZOMG really? That's kinda cool. *g*]

Re: Youths vs. Police

[chasingangela]

[OOC: Yeah. I had no problems with him -- though in fairness, *any* editor would have impressed me at the time -- but a lot of my friends were, ahem, not surprised when he went down in flames.]