Posts Tagged ‘Jour494’
Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 29 — What is this REALLY about?
My day never really gets going until I read what Nancy Nall has to say, as well as her regular commenters. Reading her blog has been a daily habit for, gosh, maybe a decade now. Lately, both in class and in the Kaimin critiques on Friday (the student-run paper at the University of Montana), I’ve…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 24 — television without pity
Busy class on Wednesday. We finished up critiquing the personal essay riffs: Dustin on “Lost”; Cody on “The Gong Show” reruns; Ashley on “Supernatural” and boy bands; Allison on “The Office’s” Jim & Pam romance; and Carli on loving the ’80s, even though she missed the ’80s entirely. Good discussions. Then we talked about progress…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 22 — personal essay critiques
Although I didn’t plan it this way, it worked out nicely that Monday’s critique session in class was the day Alice Thorpe came to visit Journalism 494. Alice is the mother of Anthony Pollner, the Montana alum in whose memory all of this happens. She came from New York for her annual trip to visit…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 17 — How they did that scene story
We spent most of Wednesday’s class period talking about the five scene stories I assigned for readings. These are each different kinds of scene stories, and I want the students to keep these handy as they work on their own scene stories, due Nov. 7. The first one is a ride-along (literally), as Dan Zak…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 15 — the divine scene story
We’re delving into scene stories now, and what do I mean by that? It’s a feature that’s not too long, heavy on narrative and vivid detail, that takes a reader into a place they might not normally go, or were too busy to get to, or don’t have the access to. Reporting on a trial…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 10 — Juggalos and other frights
Today’s assignment was to watch Sean Dunne’s remarkable, 23-minute documentary, American Juggalo, and think about how you would have handled that assignment — to spend a couple of days in the midst of the juaggalos at their annual bacchanal in an Illinois campground each August. Factor in everything: the kind of people you’d be talking…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 8 — personal essaying (continued)
Quick-like, today. Once more with the personal essays on popular-culture forget-me-nots. Koestenbaum on Jackie Kennedy’s Zapruder moment. Rakoff on the fact that “Rent” is a piece of junk. Franzen on the heartbreaking perfection of Charlie Brown. Yeah, yeah, yeah we get it. THE PERSONAL ESSAY. (Did you even do the readings? I have my doubts.…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 3 — Getting personal
Just a quick recap today. I’m in Shreveport, La., for a long weekend to be a judge at the first-ever Louisiana Film Prize, where 20 short films are competing for a $50,000 win. It’s a big street party. With movies! Check it out. Meanwhile, back in Missoula … On Wednesday, we discussed three (almost four)…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 1 — The Context of No-Context
George W.S. Trow’s long essay about American culture and the irreversible effects of television on the national psyche, Within the Context of No-Context, was first published in the New Yorker’s Nov. 17, 1980, issue. It took up nearly the whole magazine. It changed people — and also irritated many. It still has the effect of…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Sept. 26 — group critiques of essays
We spent the entire class period Wednesday doing roundtable critiques of the reported essays. For the handful of you reading this blog way outside of room 301, this is where we’re mostly going to have to leave you out of the fun. When it comes to this part of the process, what happens in room…
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