In a recent Media Studies class, I mentioned that I had just read an article in the latest issue of The Atlantic Monthly announcing that one of the characters on the popular animated television show, The Simpsons, was soon due to come out of the closet. The author presented a list of characters and the odds set by betting parlors in Europe. A lively discussion ensued punctuated by the students’ spitting out the names of all of the Simpsons characters. Never having seen an entire show myself, I was at a loss to contribute my wager. The students knew every character almost personally, yet they did not know who is running the country and most did not vote in the presidential election in November, 2004.
I find that many students exhibit a serious lack of core, or world, knowledge. While there are surely students who amaze me with their knowledge of the world and of books, sadly, these students do not represent the majority. In response to my concerns, I developed two Blackboard assignments designed to incorporate relevant chapters from the students’ textbook, Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication by Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos (4th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2004).
The first part of the assignment is designed to learn about students’ relationships to books. It asks the students to imagine a world without books by examining the American Library Association’s banned books website. As a class, we view Francois Truffaut’s film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, about a society where all books are burned, and where book-lovers live in secret committing entire books to memory. The second part of the assignment is entitled “The Need to Know.” It seeks to elicit the opinion of students on the amount of knowledge, if any, they need to succeed in the world.
The banned books list contains some startling inclusions and this often leads students to read one of these books to see just what the fuss is all about. Watching the Truffaut film also leads to an expanded discussion on censorship, the First Amendment to the Constitution, and the importance of protecting the printed word.
This assignment always draws out interesting and compelling responses from students. The students who were not read to as children, who do not like to read, and never do so, are in the majority by far. And then there are those brilliant stars, shining out of the darkness. A sample posting from Fall I, 2004, by a student in the online course is attached at the end of this activity. This student was a teacher’s dream, and we have never met. Thankfully, there are others like him.
My goal is to get students to think about the importance of reading in the digital age. I think that we teachers are often at fault because we assign books that do not speak to today’s students. We assign our own personal favorite books semester after semester despite the fact that these books may be lost in the dusty corners of literary history.
Very often, too, we do not research the best textbooks on the market and we settle for mediocre material. It is difficult to get students interested in the written word when they are accustomed to receiving their perceived truth on a TV or LCD screen. If we truly love to read, as I do, we should encourage our students to see the knowledge and pleasure to be found in books even if we face an uphill battle.
Perhaps some students who do not read on a regular basis, or at all, will want to do so after reading other students’ comments about how reading has touched their lives. Others still may have always wanted to read a book but were not sure just how to get started. They may also get some inspiration and impetus from other students. Students may find a book that was assigned for a particular course or perhaps they will want to revisit a favorite book from another time and place in their lives.
Activity Overview
Step One
Students read an article about Afghan women who are learning to read, currently available at http://www.racematters.org/toreadistosee.htm
Step Two
Students were required to respond to the prompt below on the Discussion Board. There are no fixed guidelines as to the number of responses that students are asked to post on the Discussion Board. The only requirement is that the responses be of some length and depth, not just one-liners, and students should respond to each other and to the instructor as often as they see fit. Once the discussion starts, and the students see the postings, they respond in kind. It is important for the instructor to keep up with the postings. This ensures the same from the students. Students were expected to respond to all parts of the prompt, including the bulleted chunks.
Students were required to post their responses on the Blackboard Discussion Board. Their responses included links to relevant websites. Evaluation was done on the length, depth, and pithiness of the postings, attention to the points addressed in the prompt, and clear evidence of research. Any hint of copying or parroting was obvious and frowned upon.
Blackboard Discussion Board Prompt
Most of you were born or have been raised in the electronic and digital eras of mass communication. Most things, this course included, are presented to us in a visual format with some kind of viewing screen before us. To paraphrase the Italian leader, Silvio Berlusconi, himself a media mogul, “If it’s not on television, it doesn’t exist.” What’s happening to books these days?
Please consider the difference that books have made in your life and the lives of those around you. Please ask your family members, partners, and friends if a book or books have influenced their lives. What kind of books are they – novels, reference books, religious books, children’s books, comic books, textbooks? How did you get these books? Were they already in your home, did you go to the library, get them as gifts, borrow or buy them? Did your parents read to you as a child? What were your earliest experiences in bookstores or libraries? What role do books play in your life today, if indeed at all? Do you keep important books? Do you lend them to others? Why or why not?
After thinking about this yourself, and asking your friends and family members, do you recognize any patterns related to age, gender, neighborhood, or the way you were raised to think about books?
Consider your book experiences in relation to the time in your life in which you started reading and the other media and activities vying for your attention. Did you generally have positive or negative experiences connected to books and reading? Do you have certain coming-of-age experiences related to books? Why?
After considering all of these experiences, what do you think is the role of books in an age of electronic and digital media? List five books that you would recommend to others and the reasons for your recommendations.
Finally, go to these websites: the Gutenberg Project (http://www.gutenberg.net), and the American Library Association Banned Books (http://www.ala.org/banned), and post your findings: What are your reactions to the contents of the banned books list? On either or both sites, did you find a favorite book of yours? If so, what was it? Which list/s did you find it on?
While books, and bookstores, have gone through troubling times during the digital era, poetry, once considered to be near the top of the “cultural skyscraper” (discussed in the textbook) has enjoyed resurgence. Why is this so? What cultural phenomenon do you attribute this to? Do you read poetry/have a favorite poem? Please go to the following websites and see if you can find a poem that speaks to you and post your findings.
Why do you like the poem? Please post a link to the poem, or copy and paste the text of the poem into your response so your classmates can share your experience.
In class, we will view Francois Truffaut’s remarkable film, Fahrenheit 451. (NB: Online students must rent the video.) Be prepared to discuss your reactions to the film, and consider how it fits into our discussion on the importance of protecting the printed word.
Step 3: The Need to Know
Please review the following websites. They will assist you in formulating your ideas so you can thoughtfully and comprehensively answer the questions below.
- http://www.fair.org
- http://www.freedomforum.org
- http://www.assignmenteditor.com
- http://www.projectcensored.org
- http://www.nielsenmedia.com
- http://www.poynter.org
- http://www.rtndf.org
- http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu
- http://www.indexonline.org
Post your response to the prompt below:
Just how much do you need to know? News reporting spans a variety of media: radio, TV, cable, newspapers, magazines, the Internet. Respond to the following questions on the Discussion Board.
- What is news? What set of criteria determine newsworthiness?
- Where do you get your news, if indeed you do?
- Are we producing too much information?
- Do you get your news from sources that speak only to your political way of thinking?
- How do you know that the sources of your news are reliable? Even though journalists transform events into stories, most generally believe that they are neutral observers who present facts without passing judgment on them. Is this still true? Was it ever? Has it changed?
- Please name five journalists in any media whose reportage you value for honesty, clarity, and objectivity.
- Who was Veronica Guerin? Can you name five other journalists who have met a similar fate over the past two decades and describe the circumstances?
- Can you name the top ten countries where freedom of the press is non-existent and ten leaders who are at the top of the human rights violations list?
Materials and Resources
Sample Response from Books and You Assignment
From a student in the online course:
My first memory of books would have to be The Five Chinese Brothers, by Claire Huchet Bishop. I remember being fascinated by the story of how the brothers managed to escape being executed by cleverly impersonating each other and using their special ablities to evade death. I think I liked it so much because it made me use my imagination as I also thought of having special abilities to escape certain situations. And I envied them having identical siblings with a common secret that were able to look out for one another because I grew up as an only child.
Other influential books range from the Bible, my guide to navigating through life, to the Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Malcolm X and Alex Haley for it’s powerful telling of one man’s journey to self-enlightenment in America. It stands as a strong testimony to the resolve of the human. The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin for a brilliant example of how using personal testimony can affect popular opinion. In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez, a heartbreaking story of fighting oppression made all the more sorrowful because it really happened. As well as the The Farming of Bones, by Edwige Danticat. Both of these books are tragic reminders of how little I know of my history.
I was raised by my mother, my dad having passed away when I was at an early age, and she never read to me mostly because English was not her first language. Most of the books I had growing up were borrowed from school or given as gifts from relatives. As I grew older, I would often borrow books from the school library. Ironically, my first job was working as a page at my neighborhood public library branch that I still visit to this day. The amount of resources available at public libraries is amazing but I think in general the public either take it for granted or is oblivious to its existence.
Unfortunately, I think TV has had a much greater influence on me growing up than books. It was much easier to veg out in front of the television then be engrossed in a good book. For me to read, there had to be no other option available (traveling, mandatory reading, natural disaster). TV was my baby sitter and best friend. Then along came the Internet making it that much harder to take the time out to read a book. But I always find when I do take the time, I quickly remember the pleasure of getting lost in a good story and wonder why I don’t read more often. Too often I think of reading books as a task that has to be completed for school or as one of the many thoughts in the back of my head of things I will get to one day or even as keepsakes – mementos of special gifts from family that has passed away or reminders of special times in my life. A good example being the Bible that was given to me by my grandmother before she passed away.
When I asked my family about which books have influenced their lives, the most common response I received was the Bible. It wasn’t surprising, given that my family is very religious and the Bible is often a metaphor for insurance to the hereafter, especially the older we all get. It is also a common bond that unites us whether we have moved away from the neighborhood or still live close to home. It is a reminder of how important and influential a book can be.
With the advent of electronic media, it’s hard to say how books will play a role. While there are plenty of resources for viewing and purchasing books online, society’s attention span is only getting shorter. It’s all too common to be easily distracted by the latest video game, music video, or pop-up ad. But having all these options can be overwhelming, and few things can compare to the food for thought a good book can give. Recommended Books (5 books that I recommend for the reasons mentioned earlier)
- The Bible
- Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
- The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
- In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez
- The Farming of Bones, by Edwige Danticat
Hip-hop has lead to the resurgence of poetry. Take away the hip-hop beats from any record and you’re left with modern day rhymes. Television shows like Def Poetry Jam on HBO have given poetry a new life in a hip-hop context by creating a new platform for spoken word. Hip hop, like rock music and jazz before, is the most influential cultural medium of modern times and continues to affect the way today’s generation thinks, speaks, feels and looks. My favorite “poem” is If I Ruled the World by Nas, the hip-hop artist. I also like anything by Jessica Care Moore because of her thought provoking messages and her rhythmic delivery.
Website Findings
http://www.poets.org/index.cfm I liked the simple user-friendly design of Poets.org. I get the feeling you can use this site if you’re not very familiar with poetry or if you’re a poet yourself. I especially like the option of being able to listen to a poem, too.
http://www.bartleby.com/verse I think that Bartleby.com’s website is a great resource for poetry lovers. My impression is that it has an encyclopedic database of information, although it is disappointing to see the limited diversity and the emphasis on a western perspective.
http://www.gutenberg.net I think this is a great resource but only if you’re looking for older material. I’ve never heard of it, but will recommend the site to my friends. I’m actually surprised it was legal to reprint published material. I also like the options for creating books and even getting music scores. I liked the site so much I subscribed to it. Thanks, Prof.