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

[dbiers.livejournal.com]

After listening to Spider's instructions, D'anna removes her laptop from her rucksack and logs back into the site from Friday and begins to read for content instead of surf for photographs. The longer she reads, the more serious her expression becomes. She doesn't want to repeat the articles chosen by her classmates, but as she reads on, somethings became very clear to her. First, this publication had a very specific target audience in mind. Second, she was not included in that. Third, this fabled thirteenth colony had no concept of a cohesive identity as a planetary unit.

Sure the colonies had their disputes with each other, but each colony saw itself as a unit; first as one global colony and then as one of twelve parts of the Federation of Colonies. It was easy to understand back home if someone from say, Saggittaron felt disconnected from someone on Picon - they were from different planets. But even then, they were connected through government and technology despite having existing separately for at least the last two thousand years. Earth, colony of legends and prophecy, was so divided and out of touch with big picture at D'anna was amazed. It was difficult for her to come to terms with how cut-off and disconnected these colonists?, er, Earth people? seemed from each other.

With these thoughts swirling in her head and her coffee gone cold, D'anna begins to speak, "It is difficult to choose just one article from a site which is awash in bias towards those from this planet; those knowledgeable in certain areas of popular culture. It is geared for readers from a specific city that, I gather, is quiet large and influential. The publication assumes that the reader will be familiar with local recent events. The hypertext links provided in some articles were helpful but in quiet a few cases, much of the information referenced is likely to be unknown to many of those here on the island."

She pauses a moment before continuing, "You can pick a up a bent in each of the pieces. This one (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/08/national/08polio.html?hp&ex=1131426000&en=d3e5b6fa9ea2add5&ei=5094&partner=homepage) in favor of immunizing children, that one (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/business/07link.html?ex=1131512400&en=918e55d7af9398b1&ei=5070) of the opinion that politicians are not technically suave, or another (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/04/science/space/04nasa.html) that thinks space exploration needs more funding. However, they each ascribe to the same fundamental fallacy; that their reader is of extremely local origin and up on recent happenings. Or rather, up on anything and everything of major cultural importance which has ever occurred on Earth, in some way."

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

Duce tilts her head at D'anna. "That's an interesting take on things. In quite a few of our space-fiction television shows and movies, the non-Terran lifeforms have gathered their knowledge of Earth from broadcasts of Earth news and radio. You mean that doesn't really happen?"

(ooc: Spider/D: I absolutely cannot get to NYTimes for love nor money - have tried from both work and home and it gives me a big fat error message saying my login failed due to script error.)

[dbiers.livejournal.com]

"No." D'anna snorted then regained her composure, "Sorry Duce. Where I'm from Earth is a myth. Something the priests speak of when they want to touch on the topics of discord and hope. No one actually believes it exists." D shrugs and says quietly, "I didn't till I wound up enrolled here." She didn't add that she half expected to wake every morning back on Leonis to find that the last two months had been nothing more than a fever dream.

[ooc: From what I can gather from D's canon, her galaxy really is far, far away. Also, the tribe that went to Earth (hence the mythical knowledge of its existence) split off from the other twelve that make up the colonies of D's world some two thousand years ago or more. We're (bsg watchers) not sure how the Colonial time line fits in ours at all.]