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KARE 11 News **** I have added my viewing table as an attachment as well for more a more organized format.
5:00 pm, Monday March 24, 2008
Initial Preview: top stories are touched on: mineral-based make-up,
Sarah Jane Olson, Iraq contractor possible remains found
15 sec
Top National News (local interest): Sarah Jane Olson back in prison after being released. Reported from studio, switch to clips of Sarah Jane Olson getting off a plane originally, go to phone interview with Olson’s attorney, more photos and clips, back to studio to wrap up
2 min 35 sec
National News: Possible remains found of contractor lost in Iraq in Nov 2006: picture of contractor shown, map of where remains found shown
30 sec
National News: Bush makes special recognition of 4000 casualties to date in Iraq. News reported from studio speaking while clip of Bush speaking is on screen.
20 sec
National News: Witness is in same jail with person they are testifying against. Witness is beaten badly. Picture is shown of the violent inmate. Screened, taped interview of witness who was beaten is shown. Skewed clips of victims face are shown to display injuries, but conceal identity.
1 min 55 sec
National News: Mother and 4 children murdered in Iowa City. Husband is missing. Showed several clips of area.
15 sec
National News: Home sales improving with housing prices lowest in years.
20 sec
National News: Truck companies regulating speed carefully---cuts down on fuel costs. (footage of general highway truck driving is shown)
30 sec
National News: Pilot’s gun goes off on commercial plane. Was accident---part of Federal law passed for pilot’s protection ( to carry gun). Told by main news reporters from studio.
20 sec
National/ Local News: George Clooney and Renee Zellweger in Duluth. Focus on women fascinated with Clooney. Spoke to press for 45 min—“more to come at 6:00�
45 sec
Teaser: Protestors at Olympic flame lighting, weather
25 sec
Commercial
National News: Tibetan protestors at flame lighting for Olympics in China. Flame to go to top of Everest---controversial+ Chinese rule of Tibet.
45 sec
National News: Update on Detroit Gov. accused of infidelity with advisor. “Youngest Governor� “text messages�
15 sec
Local News: Academic All-Star---Blaine students---clips of student at school, interview with student, student’s principal, other students.
2 min 20 sec
Teaser: Twins, mineral-based make-up, weather
15 sec
Commercial
National News “interest�: Easter Egg Role @White House—since 1872—footage of event
20 sec
Weather: inside studio, Backyard, radar map
3 min 45 sec
Mineral-based Make-up (finally!!!): sales up, health benefits= “bogus�, quotes from dermatologists.
1 min 5 sec
Sports: Twins sign Joe Nathan, preview of opening line-up—“more at 10:00
2 min
Teaser: results of competition, preview of nightly news to come
Commercial
Interest: World Champion in Marbles
5 sec
Nightly News Preview with Brian Williams in Nightly News Studio:
Now fewer commercials---as asked for
5 min
Closing—“see you at 6�
This was an interesting broadcast time to analyze the news. The overlying factor that struck me the most was how the information itself was geared more to a female/older audience (make-up was a multiple teaser throughout the segments) perhaps because it was an earlier news segment (???), while the teasers for news later on in the night was much more male oriented: Sports would be extended. Although, in general, much of the teaser spots touched on news that would be expanded on in the later newscasts at 6pm and 10pm.
The “National� news was focused heavily on stories that were locally relative such as the Sarah Jane Olson segment, which held one of the largest time spots. The other key time segment, aside from the Minnesotan obsession with the 3+ weather spot, was the Academic All-Star highlight of a Blaine High School student, which was over 2 min.
There was also a careful balance of positive and negative stories. The Iraq news stories were very brief. The local news stories of homicides and violence were followed up with rise in home sales and truck companies monitoring speed to compensate for higher gas prices. The “heavier� and serious stories were covered at the beginning, and the last half of the news was fairly “light:� Easter Egg Roll @ White House, weather, marble-contest winner.
It almost seemed like a preview for the night of news to come. Many of the commercials were for KARE 11 News or spots that were sponsored by the station. The last segment was a piece by Brian Williams plugging for less commercials in NBC Nightly News. The very last statement was “we’ll see you at 6.�
YouTube Exploration:
I have recently explored the use of YouTube in my classroom during my 8th grade Non-Fiction Unit. We have been analyzing different articles based on conditions and perspectives of Education in different parts of the World. These You Tube clips, in particular, helped students to get a better perspective on Tone, Bias and Inference---as these tend to be more difficult concepts for them to grasp.
2 Million Minutes:
This You Tube clip was a good follow-up to a Star Tribune article we read on US Reading test scores. This was the first clip we looked at. We only viewed the trailer. This provided a good opportunity to view the strong bias that US students are lazy and falling behind in school. It was also interesting to see how bias can be so easily persuasive to the viewer without other background knowledge. For example, we had read several articles on the lack of education students are receiving in many parts of India and Africa---especially for female students. This helped to put in perspective the large populations this clip presents; we know that not all of those students are receiving an education.
News 8 story on 2 Million Minutes:
This was a clip from a news story reviewing the release of this controversial documentary. The News station is in Indiana: the State where the represented US students in 2 Million Minutes live. This also helped to show bias, tone, and inference by showing the flip-side of the story: well-balanced US students are also valuable and competitive.
Education Today and Tomorrow:
This clip was great for inference. There are just clips of images and information, and from these, students can gather the point that the modern classroom needs to be media-savvy.
I also choose one clip to look at that if I had time would be interesting to show my classes. It is a news story clip on high school students who have the opportunity to volunteer in hands-on health care career situations. It would be interesting, in comparison to the other clips we have looked at, to be able to infer from this clip, that US students to have many fortunate opportunities. Also, to interperate fromt the clip the bias that hands-on learning beyond the classroom is important.
I also looked at several other related clips that portrayed "education" in different forms:
I looked at a couple of different clips from the Ed in '08 channel. These clips take several different perspectives to communicate the need for Education to be a vital topic in this next Presidential election.
This particular clip is a montage of facts and opinions to advocate for supporters of edcuation:
This clip uses faces and voices of students to portray the outcome if we do not begin to address the needs of public education:
Here, Kanye West, as a pop-culture icon who identifies with a large section of struggling and failing students, adresses the need to support all students:
These next few clips that I viewed give good samples of the portrayal of teachers and classrooms in the pop-culture media--particularly film.
This clip is a bit more lengthly, but a great collection of teachers seen through movies. Although, through these clips it also gives a great portrayal of the exaggerated issues of teachers and the classroom.
This clip is the trailer of the new Chalk film--spoofing the trials of the new teacher---slightly painful in it's realistic portrayals!!!!
Facebook:
At the age of 29, I created a Facebook account for myself about 3 months ago. One observation I have about Facebook is my reason I had for not creating one earlier. In the world of Secondary education, it seemed so taboo to be tied into this media frenzy. Although, to be fair, that is mostly the association I have with My Space---hence my Facebook account. I had been invited by friends to join, and actually I joined by “accident.� Curiosity got the best of me and I went to check out my friend Anna’s page that lives in Montana. I did not know enough about this media tool to know I needed a page to see hers. So by default, without even knowing it, I had created a page. My reasons for not creating a page surrounded my experiences in school with discussions of cyber bullying, at-risk girls being involved with less than tasteful situations, and the parent-school conversations that surrounded these topics.
What I would like to incorporate in my observations of Facebook in my past few months of participation are not only my online observations, but my face-to-face conversations that have occurred since I have become more aware of this media tool. I feel that both represent the different groups and purposes that this tool serves. For I have most definitely found that it goes way beyond my teacher-paranoid narrow scope that I came into it with.
Student-Student:
Quote observed:
( student 1) “ I have 72 friends on my Facebook account. How many do you have?�
( student 2) “ I only have 15,( funny look by other student) but I only let my friends look at my page.�
(student 1) “ Oh really?! I accept anyone that asks to be my friend, just so I can have as many friends on my page as possible---even if I don’t know who they are!�
(Student 2) “ ugh, I don’t want strangers looking at my page! Creepy!�
Two things came to mind when I pictured the online interactions these students were having with their Facbook pages. One, student 1 was just throwing random pieces of information on her page for reaction while student 2 was actually communicating and sharing things with her friends in a different form. Two, I couldn’t help, as a teacher, to notice the different level of parental involvement with these two students. Student 2, as I would assume, clearly had someone setting guidelines and teaching her about her online involvement.
This also heightened my awareness of how we need to bring media literacy into the classroom to raise the bar and tap into these tech-savvy students and their interests.
Adults---that I don’t communicate with on Facebook:
My husband and I had our friends over. They are married. She is a lawyer. He has worked in “business,� currently at Target. I was sharing with them that I recently got a Facebook page.
(Katie): “ Really? I feel like I am too old to have a Facebook page. I think of my younger sister, and how she talks about it and I’m just not into that.�
(Me): “ I thought the same thing, but you’d be surprised how many people use it. Actually, I have reconnected with a lot of people I haven’t talked in a while that I could never find their contact information.�
(Hallie): “ Yeah, I have one.�
( Katie—his wife): “ Seriously? You do?�
(Hallie): “Yeah, a lot of people through work actually use it quite a bit---as a networking type of tool.�
I really thought it was interesting to have that piece put in their about the business side of things. I later had my friend Megan working in Chicago tell me that she was “ actually encouraged to be on Facebook through work.� This is clearly going to be a part of our future.
My Direct Observations on Facebook:
To me:
“ Hey good to see you out running. How’s life…?�
---We haven’t see each other in years. Swam together in college, crossed paths on the Lake--- we never talked through Facebook until we actually saw each other. Interesting how for some people I have connected with it actually took that face-to-face to encourage communication even online.
“Finished the Kite Runner and loved it!�—posted as message
Profile Pictures:
Solo at the beach
Recently engaged with finance
Speaking to a crowd at a podium
Hiking on trail in Mexico
Picture with spouse and baby
Out at a bar with friends
….I have found profile pictures the most interesting. What people choose and how they want people to portray themselves is so true to their personalities and their main interests---this is how they want people to perceive them as well. Also, it is interesting how they change depending on what is going on with their lives. It is interesting to see which people chose pictures to represent their leisure time, interests, or career accomplishments.
** The other part I noticed was, as adults, how many people didn’t participate in many of the gadgets of Facebook. I can compare it to the judgements surrounding mass forwards through email. It seems that there is this unspoken rule that participating in these “parts� ( Pokey the virtual dog, LOTS of quizzes—a few are OK, games, etc) seem to portray that all you have time for is Facebook---and don’t waste my time by making me sift through these dumb notifications you’re sending.