The Guide to Teaching

Using Newspapers in the Classroom

[This file contains the topic statement and all responses. It is intended primarily for printing.]

Author: "Patrick H. O'Neil" poneil@ups.edu
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 08:03:02 -0800

I'm wondering to what extent others have integrated newspapers into the
classroom as part of the assigned reading. I'm going to be teaching
Introduction to International Relations next semester, and in some
courses--especially International Political Economy--I often have had
students bring in articles that they have clipped from the local paper.
I'm thinking that the course would benefit from tying the readings in to
real world events on a regular basis.

To what extent have people required newspaper subscriptions in their courses?
How did they integrate them into class--assignments, course discussions?
What are the benefits or downsides to this?

I'd like to hear from anyone who has used newspapers in any type of course.
Many thanks!

Patrick

Patrick H. O'Neil, Ph.D.
University of Puget Sound
Department of Politics and Government
Tacoma Washington USA 98416
253.756.8219 fax 253.756.3500
http://www.ups.edu/polgov/oneil


Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 14:12:27 -0700
From: Barry Daniel <fac_dani@mail.western.edu>

Patrick,

I have not required newspaper subscriptions in my IR classes because I am
in a rural area and there are few choices. I have however, used with some
success subscriptions to weekly news magazines. US News is the cheapest.
I can get a 15 week subscription for (This term $6.16 per student.)

Barry Daniel
Western State College
Dept of Pol Sci.


Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 13:18:53 +0000
From: Jerry Parker <parker@powernet.net>

Patrick,

When I took my Political Science course in 1988-89, the instructor
required us to subscibe to either the New York Times, the Wall
Street Journal or the Christian Science Monitor. But I can not
recall, now, just how he made use of these papers.

In my Poli-Sci classes, I use newspaper clippings as current event
illustrations of the points that I am making in my lectures.
Further, I require students to follow political figures and this
requires them clipping and using newspaper articles.

I have, in the past, required students to keep a notebook of
newspaper and magizine clippings on political subjects of their
choice; the enviroment, gun control, health care, etc.

Hope this helps.

Jerry
Truckee Meadows Community College


Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 14:14:59 -0800 (PST)
From: Philip L Fetzer <pfetzer@polymail.cpunix.calpoly.edu>

In my general education American Politics class I require students
to either (1) subscribe to the NYTimes (with educational discounts) or
access the Times on the internet. I integrate the Times into the class by
(1) giving a number (usually 5 per ten-week quarter) of unannounced "news
quizzes" that count 20% of the course grade. Students know that's part of
the course expectation as it is so indicated on the syllabus. I give
these quizzes based on information contained in the front page of the NYT
from the day before the class is scheduled (so that students have had enough
time to read the paper). I ask them to list
three facts from the story and then in a sentence explain the "political
significance" of the story (usually how does it help hurt Demos/Repubs or
the White House) In addition, I regularly refer to "significant stories"
that appear anywhere in the paper during a "current issues" portion of the
class. Since I incorporated the
Times into the class I have received thanks from quite a few students that
I was the first one who ever expected them to regularly read a newspaper
(and think about what they had read from a political standpoint). I have
also received affirmative responses from colleagues.

Phil Fetzer
Political Science Department
California Polytechnic State
University, San Luis Obispo


Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 09:27:00 -0500 (EST)
From: Edith Klein <eklein@chass.utoronto.ca>

In teaching courses on Russian/Soviet Foreign Policy and East European
politics, I have found it useful to incorporate daily newspapers in
classroom discussion for the purpose of improving media literacy. This
was especially useful during the war in former Yugoslavia.


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


From: bdonovan@post.wesleyan-college.edu (Barbara Donovan)
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 1997 11:20:27 -0500

On newspapers in the classroom:

I have students subsribe to the NYT (which has excellent student subsription
rates) in my American Govt and International Relations classes. They are
expected to submit a discussion (via email) of one article a week. In my
American Govt class, they are to select articles on any one of five policy
areas that I have selected for students to focus on in debates and policy
papers required for the course. Their reading of the newspapers thus feeds
into their preparation for these assignments. I have found that students' reading
of the Times has enhanced considerably class discussion and students'
political awareness. I also found that linking reading of the newspaper to a required
assignment was essential. Last year, I just suggested daily reading of the
Times as a way of enhancing class discussion and, of course, no one complied!

I will be setting up something similar in my IR class this spring.

Barbara Donovan, PhD
Department of Political Science
Wesleyan College
4760 Forsyth Rd.
Macon GA 31210
Barbara_Donovan@post.wesleyan-college.edu


From: crawford@creighton.edu
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 10:43:47 -0600 (CST)

Pat,

One strategy that has worked for me (as a faculty member and
as a student) is the use of 1-2 page short writing assignments that
require students to tie a news article to class concepts/theories. They
are probably most effective if used often (once a week or once every other
week). Two downsides: 1) the volume of grading; 2) this heavy of an
investment in news analysis makes it difficult to incorporate much other
writing in the course. If you are willing to use weekly assignments, you
could alternate news analysis with some other type of analytical writing
to address problem (2). As an undergraduate, my instructor dealt with the
first problem by using graders. She looked at the papers and our comments
periodically, but did not have the big stack of papers every Friday.

If the main purpose is to have the material for discussion, asking for the
article citation and 1/2 page summary with one paragraph
about the connection to class material might be enough. That would
require them to find an article, but would not be as writing (or grading)
intensive. I may try this strategy in my American Government class next
semester.

Sue Crawford
Creighton University


Date: Thu, 06 Nov 1997 11:44:51 +0800
From: Denis Thornton <thornton@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu>

I have used the Christian Science Monitor for years in the two classes that
I teach: American Government and Politics and Introduction to Non-Western
Politics. I make extensive use of current events in the two classes and use the
Monitor as the major source of stories. In the Non-Western class I go much
further. We spend a lot of time on what news coverage on the Third World
is presented to the American people and I bring into class the relevant
portions of one of the major networks (usually the students choose NBC).
We keep track of what subjects are covered, how they are presented and how
the USA is portrayed. They have two short assignments during the semester
in which they compare what they have seen on TV with the Monitor, first as
to how the Third World is portrayed and secondly how the US is portrayed.
I have found that these assignments are hard for students to do well but
that they quickly understand what kind of news the networks present (when
they present any at all, it gets depressing sometimes!) and how distorted
the presentation of the news is when you have no background in the subject
and get no help from a 2 minute story. They also reallize that the Monitor
is significantly different and that therefore all media are not the same.
Secondary benefits include the need for them to set up categories in which
to "file" the NBC stories they see, the need to decide what a Third World
country actually IS so I know what countries to record, and they have to
grapple with the whole idea of bias and how you measure it. I also try to
provide some background to the stories being presented so that the students
have some context in which to place what they have seen and read. The
downside is that this part of the course has grown into much more than I
wished since we start out every class period with the news. I think this
spring I shall try doing it once a week and directly comparing a TV story
to coverage on the same topic in the Monitor.

I hope that this has been of some help to you. Feel free to contact me if
I may be of any further use to you in this matter.
Denis Thornton


From: "Shieh, Shawn" <JZ7L@MARISTB.MARIST.EDU>
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 1997 11:44:51 +0800

Patrick,

I often require students to read newspapers in some of my classes, i.e.
International Politics, 3rd world politics, etc. I ask for examples
at the beginning of class as a way to stimulate discussion, and
try whenever possible to get students to articulate how a current
event relates to themes or issues we've been discussing in class, i.e.
the colonial legacy, imperialism, development, democratization. I have
tried to integrate newspapers into the course more formally. For ex.,
in my Int'l Politics class, I quizzed them regularly. In my 3rd world,
I ask them to keep a journal in which they are required to discuss
2 articles a week. I've tried requiring clippings, but find it doesn't
ensure that students will read the paper regularly since some just wait
til the end of the semester and get articles off of Lexis-Nexis (which
we have available on-line here), or some other source.

I think bringing newspapers into the classroom can be a good pedagogical
tool. Students always want more current events (which some equate
with politics, as opposed to history which is about anything that
happened before the semester started), and it does give them a chance
to see how those events are linked to the abstractions we go over in
class. The danger of using newspappers, I think, is that one can
spend a good chunk of the class discussing current events, to the
exclusion of other material, i.e. the assigned readings. I try to limit
discussions of current events to no more than 10-15 min.

Aside from day-to-day discussions of the news, I also use longer, more
substantial articles from papers such as the NY Times to stimulate
discussion. For ex., I use a in-depth report from the Times of Shell
Oil's involvement in Nigeria last year to stimulate discussion of
the relationship b/t development, democracy and multinationals in the
3rd world. I have students take the perspective of different sides in
the conflict -- i.e. the Nigerian govt, Shell Oil, environmental
activists -- and examine the causes of the conflict from their
different perspectives. What emerges is a lively debate b/t all 3
sides, after which we discuss the larger issues involved. This
activity always seems to work well, and the students always cite it
as one of the best things about the class.

hope this helps.

Shawn Shieh
Political Science
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY
shawn.shieh@marist.edu


Date: Fri, 07 Nov 97 10:00:56 -0500
From: "Sue Davis" <daviss@gvsu.edu>

I have had several good experiences using newspapers, etc in class.
I have used the Washington Post Weekly for AmGov, the New York Times
for Comparative classes, and the Economist for IR.
The Economist works very well. It comes once a week and students
prefer that to an everyday newspaper. Plus it allows us to spend part
of one day each week discussing current events with reference to one
basic source. It provides them a different perspective than American
papers, it is more in depth and is quite literate. They offer an
educational discount and a free copy to the instructor. We used it
this semester for 13 weeks (I do not start the subscription till week
2 and end it prior to finals when the students have no time to read
anyway) and it cost the students about $20. A very good deal.
I agree with your assessment that tying current events to theory
and coursework is a good idea. The students really like that. This
semester I have gone a little further and have had students write two
short papers tying the Economist and coursework together. Their first
paper was on the Mid-East Peace Accords since Netanyahu's election and
the other is on the Kurdish question in Turkey. Their assignments
were to discuss the basic issue and address what interests the US had
in these conflicts, our policy options, and so on. The students have
learned alot and enjoyed it.

Sue Davis
Grand Valley State University
daviss@gvsu.edu


Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 09:04:22 -0800 (PST)
From: Lawrence Woods <woods@unbc.ca>

I have designed a media file/research essay assignment for my students
which requires them to discuss nine newspaper articles of their choice
under one overarching theme and three subthemes of their choice. It is
essentially a critical thinking/media literacy exercise in which they draw
connections to themes in the course and assess aspects of the ways in
which these stories are reported. There are certain minimum
bibliographical requirements for the research component, including
scholarly journal articles, "alternative media" sources, and websites.

I begin this course - Intro to International Studies - by showing
"Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media," in its entirety. The
companion text to this documentary (Mark Achbar, ed., Black Rose Books,
Montreal) is also one of the required texts in this course. I have used
this approach for the past three years (having previously taught this
course in a more traditional and unsatisfying way using a more traditional
and unsatisfying text) and it works like a charm! Students now speak of
my course in the hallways as the "Chomsky course" and take my course in
some cases primarily in order to see and discuss film. The important
thing to me is that they come and that they learn to think about things
international from a variety of different perspectives, many of which do
not seem to be taught in many other classes/programs.

Larry Woods
University of Northern British Columbia
On Thu, 6 Nov 1997, Patrick H. O'Neil wrote:

***************************************************************
NB - PLEASE NOTE MY NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS AND AMEND YOUR DDRESS
BOOK ACCORDINGLY, IF NECESSARY. MANY THANKS! LW

Dr. Lawrence T. Woods
Associate Professor
International Studies Program
University of Northern British Columbia
3333 University Way Tel: (250) 960-6635
Prince George, BC Fax: (250) 960-5544
CANADA V2N 4Z9 E-mail: woods@unbc.ca


Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 09:04:10 -0500
From: Bob Trudeau <rtrudeau@providence.edu>

I, and a couple of other colleagues here at Providence, do integrate
newspapers. In my case, a subscription to the New York Times is required
-- although the web version is acceptable. I ask students to clip or print
out one article from each day, M to F, hand those in in folders, from which
I pick one article and ask for short essays integrating the article with
the texts and class materials. Typically, a student writes three such
essays during a semester.

People wishing more details about this assignment may surf to a syllabus at:

http://www.providence.edu/polisci/trudeau/201-s96.htm

(The New York Times assignment is about 40% down in this unfortunately
long "page")

Feedback more than welcome!!!
Bob


Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 13:24:05 -0800
From: Austin Jack Smith <ajax@otn.net>

Greetings,

I have finally achieved a goal that I have been working on for several
months. I now have a class of students that are all on the net, either
with their own email accounts or one of the many free email accounts.

Now when I see an article that is of interest to the students, or
something that I intend to cover in the next few lectures, I am able to
send it to my entire class in one fell swoop. It’s amazing to me when I
see how few newspapers students seem to read. I can’t blame them
because the only local newspaper is extremely conservative, not even
believing in public education, for instance, and limits itself to
roughly four pages of slanted news.

By providing my students some basic material and a lot of information
sites that require ongoing research on the students’ part, it often
seems as if textbooks are superfluous. This seems, to me, a system that
is close to the English lecture method, where the lecturer has much
greater latitude in his/her presentation..

At any rate, I feel that it has added a new dimension to my teaching
strategies, by allowing me to transmit to my students very timely input
of "fast breaking" news which seems to be happening in our discipline.

I feel that we need to provide our students with the wealth of the web
and, at the same time, require of them good research skills for using
the web. When I was doing my undergraduate work at the College of the
Pacific, at Stockton California, (now the Univ. of the Pacific), I was
fortunate to take a class taught by the College President, Tully
Knowles. [How often do we see that today?] Dr. Knowles often said, "A
college education is an in-depth instruction on how to use a library.”
I guess that dates me - I'm 71 - but applying that to today’s "library"
which I believe the web is fast becoming, it makes a lot of sense to
train our students in this vital research service.

I rest my case with the previous discussions on the Congressional pay
raise.
Researching this on the web soon put some misconceptions to rest and
explained the whole misunderstanding. Without the rapid ability to
research the original question, this could have drug on for years of
academic discussion.

At this time I’ve received highly favorable reactions from my students.
Most of them are very happy with this (new to some) method, and feel
their understanding of what is going on in the real world of political
science has been greatly enhanced. Their class participation is much
more informed, discerning, and makes me aware of how much this
additional information means to them.

I have listed below just a very few examples of my email to my class.

34. Party Politics, Should amendments to a bill before Congress be
restricted to the contents of the bill?
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=5820517-a39

35. Web sites where British au pair ruling to be posted
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=5818794-721

22. National Testing
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=5798917-210

23. Perot Sues Rep., Dem.& FEC
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=5803857-2c1


Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 14:38:23 -0600 (CST)
From: Wade Riddick <riddick@mail.la.utexas.edu>

> Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 13:24:05 -0800
> From: Austin Jack Smith
> mailto:ajax@otn.net
>
> I have finally achieved a goal that I have been working on for several
> months. I now have a class of students that are all on the net, either
> ...
> Now when I see an article that is of interest to the students, or
> something that I intend to cover in the next few lectures, I am able to
> send it to my entire class in one fell swoop. It’s amazing to me when I

This is a violation of the copyright laws, unless the website and article
explicitly permit distribution. You're much safer if you simply send the
web URL to your students instead of the entire article. You may think
this is absurd but many sites rely on the ad revenue generated by visitors
and if you undermine this source you will undermine the future
availability of these useful articles. You also expose your institution
to considerable liability as this use is not normally exempted under fair
use statutes.

Wade Riddick
Department of Government
University of Texas
RIDDICK@JEEVES.LA.UTEXAS.EDU


Date: Tuesday, November 11, 1997
From: Austin J. Smith

[Comment from Wade Riddick]

> This is a violation of the copyright laws, unless the website and article
> explicitly permit distribution.

[snip!]

Of course you are right, Wade, that is exactly what I do. I send the
Web URL to the students. I'm sorry if I caused anyone problems. If I
didn't make that clear in my synopsis. I thought by sending an example
it would indicate that is what I am doing. I believe by passing along a
URL I am not breaking any copywriter laws, anymore than an Instructor
who ask his students to read a certain newspaper, however in difference
to your suggestion I will run this past our legal type.

I share your feelings in this area, I believe that we should set an
example for our students and our colleagues as well, after all if you
can't trust a Political Science Instructor, who can you trust?

This is a copy of one of my last letters to my class[es]

"Class,
I am attaching a few more web sites that will interest you. For an
assignment I would like you to do some research on Prop. 209 and Federal
Legislation on Affirmative Action.

Because everyone is on the email list we will discuss the Federal
Affirmative Action Program this coming Thursday, this is the an
opportunity to improve your class standing (grades) I believe you will
be surprised at the wealth of information that you will turn up by
researching the web sites that I have given you so far.

Be sure and look at the various national newspapers archives. New York
Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Examiner as well as
the Sacramento Bee.

1. Greenhouse Gas (this is answer to a question that was raised in class
at our Tues. meeting)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/climate-summit.html

2. Elections News
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=5766230-eb1

3 Smog In Indonesia (an example of what effect pollution has around the
World)
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=5761737-b02

4. Affirmative Action Appeal (This is the focus of our Thur, discussion)
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=5764869-97e"

Wade, I do appreciate your taking the time to insure that I am not
putting myself in "Harms Way". It is always a pleasant experience when
a Colleague is interested in your work enough to comment on it. Thank
You.

Sincerely,
Austin J. Smith
http://www.otn.net/mypage/smithaj


Author: "Patrick H. O'Neil" poneil@ups.edu
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 08:32:17 -0800

In response To Wade Riddick's comments about the use of newspaper articles
on a website and this being a violation of copyright law, it is not at all
certain that this is the case. To take one example, Virginia Tech has moved
forward with an ambitious project to convert their reserve library section
into PDF on the web, giving students the ability to download these
documents from remote sites at their convenience. VT is relying on the
guidelines provided by the Conference on Fair-use, which can be found at
http://www.cc.columbia.edu:80/~rosedale/guidelines.html

In my search to find the "absolute truth" regarding what is and is not fair
use, I have found that much of this remains open to interpretation, debate,
and ongoing litigation (note that some websites are attempting to restrict
even hyperlinking a site, saying THAT is an infringement of copyright! If
this were to pass legal muster, the web would be webless!). In short, what
you can and cannot do still lacks a bright line. For those with an
interest in this debate I recommend the website and discussion list of the
Coalition for Networked Information: http://www.cni.org.

Patrick H. O'Neil, Ph.D.
University of Puget Sound
Department of Politics and Government
Tacoma Washington USA 98416
253.756.8219 fax 253.756.3500
http://www.ups.edu/polgov/oneil


Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 15:45:47 -0600
From: Gary Klass <pos209s1@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu>

Patrick is right that the Fair Use law is very ambiguous (see Ted Lowi).
I favor a liberal interpretation for classroom use, but making a
copyrighted article available to the whole world, rather than just copies
for students, seems to go a bit beyond this.

For classroom use, I suggest that a password-protected directory of
documents -- fair use documents that otherwise could be xeroxed legally and
distributed to a class --might be OK. Once the law is clarified, however,
you will probably find your university imposing limitations even on this.


Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 22:48:47 -0600 (CST)
From: Wade Riddick <riddick@mail.la.utexas.edu>

In response to "Patrick H. O'Neil" <poneil@ups.edu> on copyright:

To be picky, even forwarding email can be considered a copyright violation
under the international Berne Convention which the US only recently signed
on to. Of course, several parts of the Berne Convention are not
compatible with US law, so where things stand is anybody's guess.
Browsing and fair use guidelines have themselves changed substantially in
the last year due to international negotiations. If you do, in fact, have
permission from the publisher or from a clearing house of some sort you're
on good ground.

But scanning existing reserve or library materials and making them
available to students who could otherwise access them by walking into the
library is entirely different than visiting the CNN web site, downloading
the text of an article and emailing it to a hundred of your students. Fair
use would certainly apply to quoting part of it in a paper or publication
but it's not so clear with respect to other applications. Lawyers have
been fighting over this pretty fiercely for the last four or five years.
And I wouldn't at all say that it's slim odds you might not later face
some sort of restriction on whose sites you can link to from your own web
site, especially when you consider that the two companies involved in this
dispute - Microsoft and Ticketmaster - have plenty of money to hire plenty
of more lawyers.

In the end, you're safest if you remember Pascal's famous bet on religion.
Pascal said he believe in God because it didn't cost him anything. If he
was wrong, so what? But if he was right and bet the other way, he was in
for some considerable trouble after he died. When it comes to copyrights,
we're all better off believing there *isn't* a God. So if you can send
the URL instead of the article, do it. It costs you nothing and avoids
plenty of potential nastiness.

This issue may seem silly to a lot of people but, frankly, you should see
how silly some of the proposed changes are that they're still considering.
Ask any school's legal counsel. It's been a rancorous debate to say the
least. (Up until last year there was a good shot that the law would be
redefined to make all web browsing some form of copyright violation.)

If you're interested, I'd encourage you to look at many of the materials
you can find on the web.

Wade Riddick
University of Texas
riddick@jeeves.la.utexas.edu


Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 13:54:46 -1000
From: Vincent K Pollard <pollard@hawaii.edu>

While not requiring newspaper subscriptions in the introductory
political science courses I have taught (or another one I will begin
teaching within two weeks), I have integrated student evaluation of
newspaper reporting into these courses in several ways.

Let me briefly indicate two of these:

1. Assigning "media watch" assignments.

In this assignment students are asked to pick a topic or an issue
about which they are very concerned and to "follow" it for a specified
number of weeks in local or international newspapers. Students then
summarize the general theme of the articles while answering a series of
questions designed to foreground the underlying journalistic norms and
values, as well as the reporters' use of evidence.

2. Using newspaper articles, combined with focused questions, to
elicit discussion from students organized into small groups.

A representative (whose position rotated from the previous time
the small group met) reports to the entire class on what answers the group
came up with, as well as if there was any dissent. These exercises are
integrated more tightly into the other assigned readings for the day and,
in turn, into subsequent writing assignments.

I hope this information is of some assistance.

Cordially,

Vincent K Pollard
Ph.D. Cand., Dept. of Political Science * University of Hawai'i-Manoa
Phone: (808) 956-4240 (Futures Studies) FAX: 956-6877 (Political Science)
Adjunct Professor * Kansai Gaidai Hawai'i College, Honolulu * 808 377-5402


Date: Fri, 26 Dec 1997 16:52:53 -0500 (EST)
From: mgroarke@email.gc.cuny.edu (Margaret Groarke)

I am going to take the risk of responding to this long ago thread, because
I was too busy to do so during the semester.

I do an exercise with my Introductory American Government class in
which we compare the coverage of various newspapers. I ask the students
to bring newspapers to class. Here in NYC, we have four English-language
daily newspapers, one in Spanish, and in the surrounding counties a few
others (from Long Island and Westchester). The Westchester papers mostly
belong to the Gannett chain, which gives us an opportunity to see what
that is like. I try to bring in the Washington Times and Post as well, so
that we have the very obvious political contrast they provide.

I group the students so that each small group has a few newspapers from
the same date, and ask them to take note of what stories got top billing in
each newspaper, what kinds of stories they are (political, crime, celebrity,
international ....) and how the coverage of each story differs from paper to
paper.

This allows us to discuss political slants, catering to different customer
profiles, selling newspapers with sensational headlines, the relative
absence of international and national political news in tabloids, the
influence
of corporate ownership on media, and depending on the news, a variety of
other things. I used to do this whenever I got to media in the semester, but
now I try to do it early on so that they will read the newspapers more
carefully throughout the semester.

I first got this idea from Lowi and Ginsberg's _Analyzing Government_
a supplement to their American Government textbook, and have adapted
it for classroom use.

Margaret Groarke
Graduate School and University Center
City University of New York


Date: Mon, 29 Dec 1997 10:36:50 -0600
From: Jerry Goldman, <j-goldman@nwu.edu>

Pride of authorship requires that I reply to Margaret Groarke's classroom
exercise comparing different newspapers for the same date. She attributes
this idea to Lowi and Ginsburg. In fact, the idea appeared in the first and
second editions of THE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRACY as a feature in the media
chapter. We reproduced the front-page above-the-fold images for the Wall
Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and the New York Daily News.

It is nice to see others pick up on our ideas.

Jerry Goldman
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jerry Goldman j-goldman@nwu.edu
Northwestern University 847.491.2637 (voice)
Department of Political Science 847.475.4101 (fax)
601 University Place 847.475.6671 (home)
Evanston IL 60208 http://www.nwu.edu/people/j-goldman OYEZ DATABASE: http://oyez.nwu.edu HISTORY AND POLITICS OUT LOUD: http://oyez.nwu.edu/history-out-loud/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 14:04:15 -0500 (EST)
From: Joel J Schwartz <jjschwar@email.unc.edu>

A common but sometimes overlooked source of materials for use in political
science courses are quality newspapers or weekly news magazines. The
stories and events reported cover virtually all of the sub-fields of
political science -- American, comparative, international and public
policy. Most faculty who report use of these materials cite the New York
Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and The Economist as
their preferences.

Use of these types of materials also contributes to engaging students in
the subject of political science because they enable the instructor to
link concepts and theories to everyday political events in the "real
world".

Requiring your students to read a good local or national newspaper on a
regular basis may help to reverse a widespread trend of declining
newspaper readership. One TeachPol subscriber mentioned that his students
thanked him "for expecting them to regularly read a newspaper and to think
about what they had read."

Anyone who wishes to integrate such materials must address and resolve
several key issues:

a. Access--Can students easily obtain the newspaper or magazine
that you wish to assign?

b. Cost--Does the newspaper or magazine offer a special
discounted price for students so that it is affordable?

c. Class time--How much class time do you wish to devote to a
discussion of "current events"?

d. Evaluation/your time--How much time do you want to give to
assignments based upon newspaper or magazine articles? The more
assignments, especially written, the greater the time burden for the
instructor.

e. Evaluation/assignments done in a timely manner--What mechanism
will you put in place to ensure that the reading will be done on a regular
basis?

Each of you will decide these questions for yourself. Once the
logistical issues have been addressed, then you can choose from an almost
infinite number of ways to integrate these materials into your courses.
Below are listed some of the suggestions reported to the TeachPol list by
faculty who regularly require their students to read such materials.

1. At the beginning of each class ten minutes are set aside for
students to report on stories they have read which relate to the content
or issues which are being covered in the course and how the articles
illustrate the themes being discussed.

2. Students are required to select a policy topic or a major
political personality and to make a portfolio of clipped articles which
refer to their choice. At the end of the semester students must submit an
analytical report of the policy or personality they have chosen. MAJOR
PITFALL (FROM A LIBRARIAN) If one of the purposes of the assignment is to
encourage students to read a paper on a regular basis, then articles with
summaries should be turned in on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Too often,
students spend the last few days before the assignment is due in the
library collecting the articles from the various on-line and CD-ROM data
bases, paying little or no attention to the content as they collect and
print.

Other possible ideas suggested are (a) Give pop quizzes based on
the assigned day's front page articles; (b) Require non-graded one
paragraph summaries of articles to be turned in on a regular basis; (c)
Keep weekly journal entries of articles read with reflections on how the
contents relate to the course. Periodically and randomly you should ask
students to submit journals for your perusal.

3. Students are required to write responses or letters to the
editor to a story that was reported in the press. The object here is to
provide the student with the opportunity to apply empirical knowledge
learned in class to evaluate the accuracy, selectivity, or bias which the
printed story may reflect.

4. Students can compare how the same story may be covered in
print media or television or in a liberal or conservative magazine. The
print versus television news illustrates the shortcomings of news in brief
versus news in more depth, but students could be introduced to C-Span
coverage of issues of the day if the instructor can videotape and bring to
class a Congressional hearing of particular relevance.

Assigning the reading of a magazine with a political orientation
opposite to that as self-identified by the student (and sometimes asking
the students to justify that point of view) will help students to
understand that in politics there is no "politically correct" view or
political certainty.

5. Assign a non-American source of the news such as the Economist
and have students compare an article from it with an article from an
American source. This would make them aware of the divergent and
differing views of the same event.

6. Students can be required to keep an on-going inventory of the
themes frequently reported on by the media on a daily basis. This
assignment illustrates how the media constructs and shapes the readers'
perceptions of reality.

7. If you don't wish to have students subscribe to a newspaper or
magazine and your class is too large to send them all to the library for
the same titles, then they could read daily newspapers on the Internet.
The New York Times is available on the basis of the day's (one day) paper
only, the Washington Post keeps its daily papers on-line for two weeks. A
complete listing of newspapers available full-text can be seen at AJR
Newslink http://www.newslink.org Of course, students must have
easy access to the Web to read this way.

For schools with email access for all students, you could find
an article/s you wish them to read and send the URL address to all of
them and ask them to read it on the net or you could send the full-text of
the article via email. If your school is not equipped with email
addresses for students, but your students are equipped with computers and
modems of their own or if the college has computer labs, your students
either have off-campus email addresses or can get a free one from services
like Hotmail.com Or, the old-fashioned, but perhaps easier way we should
not forget about--photocopy and distribute your reading.

8. You can also use newspaper articles in short writing
assignments. These papers can be normative position papers, analyses of a
political concept, theory, or a critique of an article or book chapter
that was assigned; the purpose here is to train students to tie a news
story to a larger and more significant issue than is covered in the story
itself.

For more detail, check the individual messages on the web page.

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