Topic: The Media and the Gulf Wars Instructor: Jack
Lule On this page are the assignments for Week Two, Day Two. DEADLINES: You should have Thursday's assignment -- your first full research paper -- completed by the following Thursday, at 7 p.m.
WEEK TWO, THURSDAY: 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 three other wars in which the reporting is also extremely controversial: the first Persian Gulf War, the military action in Afghanistan, and Gulf War II and its aftermath. 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 (or endnotes) and a bibliography. You should probably write it in a word processing program first, such as Microsoft Word, 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 and online discussions are 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 next Thursday, 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 summary and analysis of reporting about the first Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan, and the second Gulf War. From your research, describe the reporting. Analyze how it was similar and different from reporting of previous wars, such as Grenada and Vietnam. Be specific. In some ways, reporting was quite different. 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 citations and a bibliography. Show clearly where your information came from. Provide full URL addresses if the information was taken online. In your paper, cite book authors like this (Smith, 2003, p. 45). Then give a full, traditional reference to Smith in your Bibliography. In your paper, cite online authors like this (Freedom Forum, 1995, para. 23). Then in the Bibliography, give the full citation: Freedom Forum (1995). Coverage of the Persian Gulf War. Retrieved June 12, 2005, from http://www.lehigh.edu/~jl0d/246-04/warGulf.html. Be very careful with online sources to avoid plagiarism. If you use information from any source, always cite it. Lots of sources and citations are a good thing in a research essay so when in doubt, always cite a source! 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 distinct sources for a passing grade, more for a good grade. You'll need wide-ranging research. Strive for a variety of magazines, books, newspapers, online sources. You'll find plenty of material. What else have people written about Gulf War reporting? How was the reporting from Afghanistan? I'm interested in giving you experience at gathering your own resources. Because the Afghanistan and second Gulf wars are 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 coverage of the wars. Again, you have lots of time
-- until next Thursday, 7 p.m. 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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