Popular Culture Journalism class Archives

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): More readings for further study …

December 17, 2012 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

Reading is the only way to learn how to write. I kept pushing this point all semester and I certainly assigned a lot of readings. This being college, and these being college students, we operate with this wonderful notion that everyone has the time and desire to read it all.

But anyone who ever went to college knows that’s not true. Although I “loved to read” as a teenager and college student, I didn’t truly get busy reading until after I left college. At about age 22 or 23, I suddenly wanted to read everything, especially longform feature writing, nonfiction books, cultural criticism and serious magazines and newspapers. I started reading not only for content, but to study the craftsmanship.

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Dec. 13 — The final critiques

December 17, 2012 by Hank Stuever 2 Comments

We were up before dawn on Thursday to meet one last time for a group critique of the final stories. The professor worked hard not to get verklempt, but that got exponentially more difficult when he was presented with this amazing poster (above), a gift from the class, designed by Carli Krueger.

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Nov. 28 — Emergency landings

November 29, 2012 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

Mayday! Jour494 is circling for a landing. And the pilot is losing consciousness. And the wing is on fire. No, wait, both wings are on fire! Which is to say that some people are still trying to find a story to write for their final assignment. The only good news is that there are no motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane.

I can’t look. Tell me what happens. All I know is: WE ARE CRASHING.

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recaps for Nov. 5 and 7 — Weingarten week!

November 11, 2012 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

Sorry for the delay in recapping. You can tell that the semester has reached the frenzy point here at the School of Journalism. My crew in the Pollner seminar (aka this class) is spread so thin that you can hear the knives clanking in their mayonnaise jars; just being around them makes me vicariously exhausted. I remember this part of college quite well: all the term papers coming due at once, the looming finals, the registration (and graduation) deadlines for next semester, and the inescapable realization that the student newspaper still has to come out. A good number of my students went to Helena on Tuesday to cover election night for their advanced reporting classes, but managed to return, bleary-eyed, in time for our Wednesday Skype session with the multi-Pulitzered Gene Weingarten. (Depicted above, as he is every Sunday in the Washington Post Magazine, by illustrator Eric Shansby.)

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 31 — Shaggs’ own thing

November 5, 2012 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

Photo illustration: smellslikepop.com

Last Wednesday’s class was more of a had-to-be-there thing.

As we move into reading and talking about long (or sometimes just long-ish) narratives, our class sessions are becoming more and more like a book group. (Without wine and Trader Joe’s-style nosh, alas.) We wonder “how’d she get that?” and try to think of answers. We ask “what’s it about” followed by “what’s it really about?” on everything now. We read aloud sentences we really liked. We talk about what works, what doesn’t. I’m holding forth a little more on HOW to do it — how to get people to talk to you. How to hang out. How to arrive in a new and strange place and ask questions. I’m finding that I can’t take notes for a recap AND lead the discussion.

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 29 — What is this REALLY about?

October 30, 2012 by Hank Stuever 1 Comment

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 been trying to stress clarity and finesse in stories. You can know the basics of newswriting (fives W’s, one H, arranged in inverted pyramid, and hello, where is the nutgraf?) and still spend the rest of your career struggling to make it all clearer, more coherent, uncluttered, smoother. Many times I find myself asking what the story I’m reading is about — especially with feature stories, whether by students or in the nation’s best magazines.

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 24 — television without pity

October 25, 2012 by Hank Stuever 1 Comment

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 (frustrations, too) on scene stories. Sounds mostly good; some are still casting about for the right scene to go cover. Not quite time to panic yet — still about 10 days to figure it out, report it out, and file by Nov. 7. Somehow we still managed to talk for half an hour about who/what/where/when/why/how and pitch some more ideas. Come by and see me if you’re having problems.

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 17 — How they did that scene story

October 19, 2012 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

Washington Post photo: Evy Mages

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 follows the scene at Washington, D.C.’s first-ever “tweed ride” of people who share the common wish that the 21st century could be more dandy and old-fashioned.

(For links to all of these stories, go to the bottom of Monday’s recap.)

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 15 — the divine scene story

October 16, 2012 by Hank Stuever Leave a Comment

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 is, in a way, a scene story: What happened, but also, what did the courtroom feel like as it happened? What did people say during court recess, in the hallways? What did people wear? How did they react to evidence, testimony, verdicts? And, of course, what is the news?

Popular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Oct. 10 — Juggalos and other frights

October 11, 2012 by Hank Stuever 2 Comments

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 to, the heat/humidity, the safety issue. How deeply would you throw yourself into it? At least one student said she’d just have to decline the assignment. That’s something to really think about when you’re on the cusp of deciding whether or not to be a reporter/photographer or to look for a desk job. If it could all be done from the comfort of our computer screens, it wouldn’t be journalism. (Too much of it is already done from a chair.)