This course concentrates on issues discussed on the front page of the New York Times. Each week a group of students will engage in researching the historical background and general content of the cover story of the NY Times as well as the way other major newspapers in the US and Europe discuss that same topic. The idea is to keep up-to-date with current issues and to analyze their media coverage. You will practice to research issues in a scholarly manner in order to be able to talk knowledgably about them. At the same time, you will get a clearer idea of the media landscape and its interconnections. Course work requires you to present on the media coverage of one particular issue and its discussion in papers during that week as part of a group. In addition, you will have to create a blog-entry for your topic. Modulleistung consists of a written paper. Students will be able to subscribe to the New York Times for the duration of 12 weeks (cost: ca. 12€).
REQUIRED READING:
Primary Sources
Cover story and connected articles of The New York Times for every Saturday from April 30 onwards.
Blog entries for each week on Thursday night.
Secondary Sources
Folkenfilk, David. Page One: Inside the New York Times and the Future of Journalism. New York: Public Affairs, 2011. Print.
Fellow, Anthony R. American Media History. Wadsworth: Cengage Learning, 2010.
Van Dijk, Teun A. News Analyses: Case Studies of International and National News in the Press. Hillsdale, N. J.: L. Erlbaum, 1988.
Cramer, Janet M. Media/History/Society. A Cultural History of U.S. Media. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, 13-90.
Admission settings
The course is part of admission "Anmeldung gesperrt (global)".
