WEEK TWO SUMMER 2002
Instructor: Jack Lule
On this page are the assignments for Monday, May 27 and Thursday, May 30. DEADLINES: You should have Monday's assignments completed by Thursday, May 30, at 7 p.m. You should have Thursday's assignment -- your first full research paper -- completed by the following Thursday, June 6, at 7 p.m.
WEEK TWO, MONDAY: War is perhaps the most dramatic, significant action a nation can take. Reporting about war is, likewise, perhaps the most dramatic, significant action that the news undertakes. Thus, war raises some of the most important issues facing international communication. Tension between the military and national news media during wartime is natural and may be healthy. The military is dedicated to a successful war effort. The news media are dedicated to reporting that effort. The two objectives, both crucial to society, often clash. For this week, we will study some of the issues surrounding the reporting of war. Our first readings are drawn from, "America's Team: The Odd Couple -- A Report on the Relationship Between the Media and the Military," an interesting and innovative study undertaken by a journalist and military officer — Frank A. Aukofer and William P. Lawrence. Their research was intense. They studied press coverage and press briefings. They interviewed reporters and officers. Their "Introduction" captures many of the issues that arise from reporting on war. And they offer an excellent history of war reporting in two different chapters: "The First Two Centuries" and "Grenada to Desert Storm." A procedural note: The links above will bring you to copies of the chapters at my site. The complete study used to be available chapter by chapter as web pages, published by the Freedom Forum. Now, however, the study must be downloaded complete as an Acrobat file. You can do that if you are very interested. Or you can just read from my site at the links above. For your assignment, I would like you to do two things: 1) Read the three chapters by Aukofer and Lawrence and consider the evolution of American war reporting. Then, please send me an email message at jack.lule@lehigh.edu summarizing and analyzing in your own words the evolution of war reporting. There's no need to repeat the details of the chapters. But try to capture the history and evolution of war reporting in your own words. 2) We will want to talk about some of these things in conference. As you will see from the readings, one of the most passionate and provocative issues in international communication concerns news coverage of the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s. More than 30 years later, that war still affects media coverage of war. After you finish the readings, think about why Vietnam war coverage was so different from coverage of other wars. Why was it so controversial? Also, think about what you have read and heard and seen about Vietnam war coverage. Books, movies, TV shows and other media have looked at the news and the Vietnam War. Then let's talk about it: What do you think? What have you heard? What did the readings say? Did the U.S. news media help "lose" the war in Vietnam? Was it good to have that kind of reporting? Have you discussed this in classes? With friends? Family? Bring anything you can to our conference. It's an important and interesting issue. See you there. Remember, to attain the best grade for conference discussions: You should post once early, at least once before midnight Wednesday, responding to the assignment and perhaps making reference to the readings. Then before Thursday, 7 p.m. you should post again, at least twice, commenting on one or more of your classmates' postings. On Thursday, we will look more closely at news coverage of conflicts you perhaps are more familiar with: The Persian Gulf War and the recent military action in Afghanistan.
FIRST RESEARCH ESSAY: We have spent our conference time thinking about the difficult issues raised by news reporting of the Vietnam War. Though you were young, you have now lived through two other wars in which the reporting is also extremely controversial: the Persian Gulf War and the military action in Afghanistan. These are the most recent war efforts launched by the United States. How have journalists reported these wars? What were they allowed and not allowed to do? How was coverage of these wars different from others? I would like you to addresss those questions in your first research essay. As you recall, you have two research essays for this semester, each worth 20 percent of your grade. The research essays are quite different from your email responses to me and our conference discussions. Rather than your personal thoughts and opinions, you will need to study assigned readings, look at other research, and organize a well-written essay based on what these researchers have found and proposed. The research essay should be 1,000 to 2,000 words, perhaps 4 to 8 double-spaced, typewritten pages or 2 to 4 single-spaced pages. It should have footnotes and a bibliography. You should probably write it in a word processing program first, such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect, saving as you go along. Be sure to make a copy on a disk. You can then send the file to me via email. If you have trouble doing it, you could paste the text into an email message but a file is preferable. As in any class, essays need to be written with care. Email is often "allowed" to be somewhat sloppy with bad grammar and spelling. These essays should be done more carefully. One big hint to help you write and edit carefully: Keep your paragraphs small. Long blocks of writing are difficult for you to organize and edit. Mistakes easily slip by. You have a full week, until Thursday, June 6, at 7 p.m. We'll have other class assignments so plan your time well. In previous years, people have done very well when they started work immediately on the assignment. Write the essay as a descriptive analysis of reporting about the Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan. From your research, describe the reporting. Analyze how it was similar and different from reporting of previous wars. Perhaps you can find different viewpoints about the reporting. Who thought the reporting was successful? Who thought it was a failure? Keep in mind that you're writing a research essay. You'll want to quote the writers of articles and people who have been quoted in the articles. You will need endnotes or footnotes. Show clearly where your information came from. Provide full URL addresses if the information was taken online. You should probably start first with a good summary article, taken once again from "America's Team: The Odd Couple — A Report on the Relationship Between the Media and the Military," by Frank A. Aukofer and William P. Lawrence. Their chapter on "Coverage of the Persian Gulf War" offers a good summary of the issues. You can find a copy on my site at: "Gulf War." The reading is somewhat long -- though quite interesting. Please give yourself enough time to read and consider it. You need at least two more sources, more for a superior grade. You'll need to do some research on your own. What else have people written about Gulf War reporting? How has the reporting been in Afghanistan? I'm interested in giving you experience at gathering your own resources. Because the Afghanistan war is so recent, you will find information in newspapers and magazines. Though the Web, of course, will have plenty of information, traditional sources of information may be as valuable. Libraries will have excellent books exclusively devoted to coverage of the Gulf War that are perfect for this paper. Infotrac, Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature and other library sources will also lead you to good articles about both wars. Again, you have lots of time
-- till Thursday, June 6, 7 p.m. We have no other assignment and no
bulletin board discussion until Monday, June 3, so you will be able
to get a good start. It's really an interesting topic so have fun and
let me know if you have questions: jack.lule@lehigh.edu.
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