Monday Office Hours

Hello all. Just advanced notice that I will not have office hours on Monday, March 19th due to a faculty meeting - those meetings are posted in Nicholson at the beginning of the semester. I will be checking email that day before and after the meeting if you have questions about your papers.

Midterm Reminder

Hello all. Just a reminder that your midterm is tomorrow, Wednesday. Remember that you can have one page (notes on each side) with you in class. You will also need a Blue Book. Here is a reminder from the review sheet given out two weeks ago: • In class, we discussed the ethics of using a faceless image on the evening broadcast news as a visual representation of obesity. (Remember that is only an ethical issue; it is completely legal to use an image taken in a public place.) Consider these questions based on your readings: o What does this practice tells us about the roles of obesity and image? o About the role of health and responsibility? o About media representation of fatness in news versus entertainment? o About health and being an American?

Midterm Practice Answer

Here is a link to an outline a student wrote about the newspaper article posted earlier. This is how she thought through the P-C-A process. Please note that the student went on to summarize, apply and analyze in her answer.

Midterm practice

Hello all. Below is a midterm-style question based on the newspaper story about labor. Consider your answer and compare it to the answer from a previous semester that I will post this weekend.


Consider this weekend's media coverage of the battle over collective bargaining in Wisconsin, such as this story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

How would you apply the working definition of framing that we began the class with to the media's coverage of the battle over collective bargaining in Wisconsin?: "Frames are organizing principles that are socially shared and persistent over time that work symbolically to meaningfully structure the social world."
Remember to consider P-C-A.

Food Inc. Viewing Questions

Here are some questions to think about while watching the documentary, Food Inc.

Food,  Inc.                                                                                                   

1. What right to a certain quality of life do animals have? How does the treatment of animals impact our food supply?

2. What right to do people have to know what is in their food  and/or how their food was grown or raised?

3. Who is responsible for keeping our food safe? What are the political realities connected to these decisions?

4. Should access to healthy food be a right for everyone? Why or why not? Who should be in charge of this decision? What is the role of government? Of business?

5.  When deciding what to eat, how much should we consider the workers who pick, process, and transport it? How easy or difficult is it to find this information? What role does/should social class/living wages play?

6.  Does it matter to you which food companies produce your food? Why or why not? How often do you look at the company/conglomerate producing your food?

7.  Should companies be able to own the DNA contained in plant seeds? What are the advantages and/or the disadvantages?

8.  Should a company have the power to decide what information to give consumers about the food it produces? Why? What role should government play? Why?

9.  What individual or collective actions should consumers be willing to take to improve our food system, and what would be their impact?

10. What roles do documentaries play in the mediated messages about food?

Research Paper Proposal

Here is a link to the research paper proposal form. You received a hard copy in class.

Research topics/questions

Here is a good blog post on developing research topics/questions.

Here is another resources -some of the material might be helpful.