Posts Tagged ‘University of Montana School of Journalism’
Thank you
My semester as the T. Anthony Pollner professor at the University of Montana’s School of Journalism has been one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. (Yes, ever.) Thank you students, faculty, Kaimin staff and especially Carol Van Valkenburg. And, miles away but often in our thoughts, Alice Thorpe, Ben Pollner and friends…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): More readings for further study …
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…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Dec. 13 — The final critiques
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. It’s a graphic…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Dec. 5 — life is long
Wednesday was our last official class, which I set aside for just general gabbing and pre-goodbyes. Any questions? Any advice I can give? Anything? I was prepared to just tell them what a real joy it’s been to be here in Montana and work with them, and, once that was done, let class out early…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Dec. 3 — reviewing the reviewers
Continuing my end-of-semester metaphor — this is what it’s like: Today, however, we turned our attention to the criticism/reviews that students filed this semester. The TV recappers — Heather Jurva, Levi Hunt, Caitlyn Walsh — had to file five, 500-word recaps of consecutive episodes, and did so quite ably. Levi nitpicked “The Walking Dead,” even…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Nov. 28 — Emergency landings
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…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Nov. 26 — name of dog, brand of beer
On Monday, we finished up critiquing the Nov. 7 scene stories. For my general diagnoses of these stories as a whole, please see the Nov. 19 recap. Meanwhile, here are excerpts from the three stories that I liked best, and why. (I haven’t fixed anything — the copy you’ll read here is exactly as it…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Nov. 19 — scene story critiques
On Monday we went around our beautiful circular wooden classroom table and began critiquing the scene stories that were filed Nov. 7. Some of the stories have been published in the Kaimin once the writers filed to me first: Dustin Askim’s story on the campus Belegarth scene grew a little in word-count and became a…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recap for Nov. 14 — Won’t you be my neighbor?
We spent a fair amount of time Wednesday discussing Tom Junod’s 8,100-word profile of Mister Rogers. It ran 14 (!!) years ago in Esquire and it’s still one of those pieces that makes me tear up. It’s beautifully constructed. Its paragraphs are dense but many of its sentences are deliberately simple, mirroring Fred Rogers’s way…
Read MorePopular Culture Journalism (JOUR494): Class recaps for Nov. 5 and 7 — Weingarten week!
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.…
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