The Guide to Teaching
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Using Newspapers in the Classroom
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 08:31:08 -0600
From:Kenneth Janda <k-janda@nwu.edu>
I have a rather long but I hope helpful response to Patrick O'Neil's
inquiry about using a newspaper in teaching American government and
politics. It comes in two parts:
First, this excerpt from my 1996 SYLLABUS for a class of 150:
I am only using one text in the course [naturally, THE CHALLENGE OF
DEMOCRACY] because students must become actively involved in studying
American government through one of four additional routes to learning: (1)
daily reading of The New York Times, which they can purchase at a discount
for the spring term; (2) viewing a series of videos on laserdisc in the
Kresge Language Laboratory (see my "Videopaths" article); (3) surfing the
internet to acquire information on American politics (see Manrique); or (4)
analyzing public opinion or congressional voting data using the CROSSTABS
program and associated datasets. These choices are discussed at length in
the handout on "Options for Research Papers."
Regardless of the route chosen, each student must write a term
paper of no more than seven pages. Those who choose reading the New York
Times will be expected to critique any editorial or Op-Ed essay using
concepts and information learned in the course. Those who view the videos
must write on one of the questions posed at the end of each unit. Those
who surf the internet must write a paper based on the information they
acquire. Whichever option you choose, your paper is due at your final
section meeting, May 25 or 26.
Second, this excerpt from description of the TERM PAPER Options
Option 1: Analyzing the New York Times
This assignment is based on daily reading of The New York Times, which you
can purchase on a subscription basis for eight weeks at special price:
$16.00 for five daily issues (Monday to Friday) starting on April 1. This
assignment expects you to create a file of clippings from the Times from
which you can choose a topic for analysis. Nearly all journalists,
political analysts, or political scientists, maintain a clipping file of
interesting news articles, Op-Ed pieces and editorials. I do that
regularly, and now you will too. Look in particular for editorials or
Op-Ed pieces dealing with
tradeoffs between freedom and equality and between freedom and order
principles or mechanisms of majoritarian or pluralist democracy
By the end of May, when your paper is due, you should have collected about
twenty clippings. I suggest labeling your clippings with date and page and
neatly mounting them--using glue sticks on 8.5x11 inch paper. (Clippings
may be placed on both sides of the paper and folded over on the back to
fit, if needed.) Mounting and organizing them will give you a sense of
control over the assignment and will pay off at the end, when you decide
about writing your paper.
Once you have chosen a clipping, you must critique it. The critique should
employ the models, concepts, and knowledge gained through the course in
analyzing the conclusions, biases, or assumptions of the article. It will
be judged for relevance and importance of topic as well as for quality of
analysis. It should be typewritten and should be no longer than 3.5 pages,
double spaced. So that there is no doubt about the assignment, let me
clarify some terms:
critique--a "critical estimate or discussion"; i.e., an
penetrating analysis requiring/employing careful judgment; a critique need
not be completely negative
model--a simplified, theoretical account of how or why
something works; e.g., the majoritarian model of democracy, or the
competitive market model of the economy
concept--a major idea; e.g., pluralism, balance of powers,
socialism
analysis--refers to separating something into its component
parts and examining those parts; more loosely it refers to a detailed
examination
conclusion--"the logical consequence of a reasoning process"
bias--an opinion for or against something (often without
adequate basis)
assumption--something that is taken as given, supposed;
e.g., capitalists assume that people act as they do because of individual
self-interest. Capitalists have a bias toward freedom as a central value,
and they conclude that a competitive market is the best guarantee of
freedom. Socialists would have different assumptions, biases, and
conclusions.
relevance --something that applies to the issue. Is the
discussion necessary or helpful to answer some question of interest, or to
explain some interesting phenomenon; does it directly or indirectly
influence some aspect of the central topic (conditions affecting it,
opportunities, constraints, demands)?
quality of analysis-- some criteria are (1) clarity (the
reader can understand what you are trying to say); (2) logical consistency
(your points are related to one another, not contradictory); (3) accuracy
(the models, concepts, etc. are used correctly; you are fair to the author
of the article in representing his/her position, etc.); (4) focus
(concentrating on one or more central points, rather than random listing of
anything and everything you can think of); (5) depth (thoughts are
developed, rather than stated and immediately abandoned); (6) central
issues are discussed (rather than trivial ones; e.g., the implication of a
president's speech for U.S. policy rather than for sales of a product
mentioned in the speech)
Here are some analytic questions useful in beginning your paper:
1. What is the article talking about? What relationships
does this information have to other things you know about U.S. politics?
Is it illustrative of something? Does it disclose influence, constraints,
linkages between actors or aspects, things that facilitate?
2. What is the author trying to do? If a news report, why
report this? What is its importance? Is any information left out that
would be important to know? If an editorial or opinion piece, is the
opinion documented? With what information? Does the information support
the opinion, or is other information necessary? What alternative opinions
might be held? What alternative arguments could be made? Is there any
particular reason the author takes this position (i.e., is it related to
some specific political interest or some particular value or values)? If
identifying a problem, who thinks it's a problem? Why? What are the
sources of the problem (do people agree on this assessment)? What
potential solutions exist? Are they feasible? If not, why not? Would
these solutions create other problems?
3. What information, state of affairs, or structures are
presupposed by the article? (e.g., it may assume that you know that . . . .)
4. What values are presupposed (e.g., you will accept the author's
conclusion if you agree that ...)
5. Who would support or oppose the prospective development
(the reported trend, the conclusions, etc.)? People with what values,
political commitments, political and economic interests?
6. On what grounds? What arguments would be made? What
justifications proposed?
7. What effects does this (would this) have? On what
aspects of government/politics--branches of government (executive,
legislative, judicial), actors (interest groups, parties, voters), values
(freedom, order, equality)? How would it affect them? Would it increase
(decrease) power? Scope? Influence? In all areas or just a few? Would it
impose (remove) constraints on behavior?
*******************
A special advantage of having students write on items from THE
TIMES published ONLY since the beginning of the quarter is that it
virtually eliminates "recycled" papers from previoius courses in American
politics. For the record, the other three options were
Option 2: Analyzing Political Data Using CROSSTABS
CROSSTABS 3.0 is a computer program (which versions for both IBM-compatible
and Macintosh computers) that processes two self-contained datasets: (1)
Voters contains 56 variables representing the responses of 2,313
respondents interviewed before and after the 1992 presidential election,
and (2) Congress has 41 variables pertaining to 435 members of the House of
Representatives in 1993-94. This program is available on Macintosh and DOS
computers in the computer laboratory in Scott 401, and it can also be
obtained through ACNS servers under the Janda directory/folder.
Option 3: Learning about American Politics through Multimedia
Students who choose this option will be expected to go to the Kresge
Language Laboratory to view five different laserdisc units dealing with
recent political history: (1) the Watergate Affair; (2) Ideology, Mass
Media, and Participation, (3) Presidential Popularity; (4) Civil Rights and
Equality; and (5) the Vietnam War. The philosophy and operation of this
multimedia approach to learning is described in Kenneth Janda, "Videopaths
to Learning American Government," T.H.E. Journal, Special Macintosh Issue
(Fall, 1990). (The laserdiscs and the computer software were developed
with a grant by Apple Computer.)
Option 4: Accessing the Internet to Study American politics
Amidst all the talk of the information superhighway and cruising the world
wide web (www) on the internet, this may be the most fashionable option,
but it is also the least structured--and thus the most risky. The internet
titillates the appetite by offering a smorgasbord of tasty tidbits
available on web or gopher sites. The task is to make a nutrious meal from
the variety of handy snacks. To cease the metaphor and talk plainly,
while many people use the internet to answer specific questions on American
politics, few scholars have had much experience using the internet to do
sustained research. So be warned that students who choose this option will
be need to be both dogged in searching out material and creative in
figuring out how to use what you find.
***********************************
Professor Kenneth Janda
Department of Political Science
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL 60208 USA
Fax: 847-491-8985 Phone: 847-491-2634
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