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ENGL-471-01 Intermediate Journalism
Spring 2006 Only
Professor Corrigan
Crossing Over: Public Intellectuals in Newsprint
“So what?” and “Why should anyone care?” are the two fundamental (and most irritating) questions that anyone writing for a diverse audience must address: by necessity public intellectuals must explicitly confront those questions within their writing and throughout their careers. As a matter of professional survival, public intellectuals also must develop a writing style that negotiates between high and low cultures, addressing themselves to audiences composed of educated non-specialists as well as the erudite.
“Crossing Over” explores the twentieth-century intellectual history of American cultural criticism and the practice of writing criticism in an accessible yet intellectually rigorous manner. Students will study critical writing and investigate its influence; they will also practice the art of critical writing in weekly assignments. The course will begin by exploring early twentieth-century culture critics such as H.L. Mencken and the wits of the Round Table. It will then continue through the mid-century with the rise of the New York Intellectuals (e.g. Edmund Wilson, Irving Howe and Mary McCarthy) and the emergence of post-1960s public intellectuals out of the New Left and Conservative political movements (e.g. Todd Gitlin, Barbara Ehrenreich, and William Kristol). The course will conclude with a study of the growth of the African-American public intellectual (e.g. Cornell West, Toni Morrison).
Fall 2005 Only
Professor Lane
This seminar introduces the phenomenon of journalistic fraud as well as various ideas about its origins and consequences. The premise, to be elaborated through a series of case studies, is that fiction has recurrently masqueraded as fact throughout the history of the American press, and such fraud has taken a variety of forms, ranging from the systemic to the spectacular. Journalistic fraud will be taken seriously as an ethical breach--and one that threatens the legitimacy of a crucial democratic institution--but students will be challenged to test the assumptions that underlie this approach. In particular, the class will
examine skeptically the bright lines that assertedly separate unethical journalism from acceptable practices. The goal is a realistic, nuanced sense of what the press can and cannot expect to achieve in its professed quest for objective truth. (Note: This is not a course in “media bias.” Deconstructionism and postmodern literary theory are also not on the agenda.) Readings (partial list): Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Mitchell, H. L. Mencken and George Orwell. Articles by Janet Cooke, Stephen Glass, Jack Kelley, Jayson Blair. Internal reports from Washington Post Ombudsman about Janet Cooke, New Republic editorial about Stephen Glass (also, “Shattered Glass” film), New York Times investigation of Jayson Blair, USA Today internal report on Jack Kelley. Taught by Charles Lane, former editor, The New Republic, current staff writer (Supreme Court correspondent) The Washington Post.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
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