Messages (JOUR4421 - Spring 2008)
22.05.2008: Information on exam submission at IMK
• The candidate / student number is published on student web approx. 2 weeks ahead of exam. You find your candidate number under "status> examination registrations".If you experience problems with your candidate number, please contact the IMK reception. • The deadline for submitting your term paper is May 22.. between 12.00 and 14.00. Exams submitted later than 14.00 will not be accepted. It is not possible to turn in corrected or missing material after the deadline. • Please submit your exam in 3 copies. Every page in a copy has to be stapled or otherwise arranged in the correct order. Please number all pages. Also include candidate number, course name and code, and date. • Remember to bring valid student ID when you submit your exam. • The exam can only be submitted personally. • An obligatory statement concerning cheating has to be signed and turned in together with your exam. This statement will be given out at the reception. The front page should include following the information: - Title of paper - For home exams: candidate number. You find your candidate number under "status> examination registrations" in student web. - Name of study program, level, course name and code, semester and year.Results and grades will be published in Student web.15.04.2008: First let me remind you of the lectures by Professor Kai Hafez from the UNiversity of Erfurt next Tuesday 22 April, 10.15 – 12.00 followed by lunch on "The Myth of Media Globalisation" and 17.00 –19.00 on "Arabic Media and Journalism". Both in the Fritt Ord house Uranienborgveien 2.
Second: Please be ready to discuss your term papers at the last session of this course on Tuesday April 29.25.02.2008: Interesting article from the latest issue of The Economist on British journalism:
British journalism Hacks at work Feb 21st 2008 From The Economist print editionJOURNALISTS have a pleasantly heroic self-image of down-at-heel crusaders dedicated to exposing falsehood, promoting justice and speaking truth to power. But that image is shared by few others: hacks routinely come near the bottom of surveys of public trust, sharing that honour with other perpetual hate-figures such as politicians or estate agents.Nick Davies's latest book will only stoke such contempt. A long-serving reporter on the Guardian, a British daily, Mr Davies turns his investigative skills on his own profession. The picture he paints of journalism (almost entirely British despite the “global” in his subtitle) is of a debased trade in which rumour and unchecked speculation often masquerade as fact, where staff cuts mean that vast swathes of national life simply go unreported and where overstressed and underfunded reporters are easy prey for influence-peddlers, liars and conmen. As a British poet called Humbert Wolfe once wrote,You cannot hope to bribe or twist, Thank God, the British journalist. But seeing what the man will do Unbribed, there's no occasion to! Mr Davies has the advantage of being familiar with his subject. That helps him avoid traps that less informed critics sometimes stumble into. He dismisses the idea that journalists are simply malicious gossip-mongers (although some are) and rejects wilder theories that there is a sinister, organised conspiracy to mislead the public (although the chapters on media manipulation by politicians and intelligence agencies are fascinating). And he largely exonerates most proprietors of attempting ideologically to influence their newspapers. Instead, he argues, it is the discipline of the market that ruins reporting. Treating journalism as simply another business has led to disastrous cost-cutting and slipping standards.Citing research done by Cardiff University, Mr Davies argues that the number of journalists in Britain is roughly the same today as it was 20 years ago. But the rise of supplements, websites and 24-hour services means that the same number of reporters must now fill three times as much space. The result he dubs “churnalism”: more demand for copy means more time spent in airless offices and less spent out and about gathering stories. That, he says, makes reporters vulnerable to the “hidden persuaders”—PR firms, press offices and advertisers—who now seem to have more power and influence than the journalists they ostensibly serve. The same research claims that 60% of stories in Britain's quality papers are either recycled press-agency copy or rehashes of PR releases. Mr Davies's argument that ruthless cost-cutting has damaged reporting is a powerful one, but it addresses only half the question. Markets excel at supplying what their customers want, but the book contains no discussion of readers' tastes. Much modern journalism may be rubbish, but it continues to sell in large quantities. And there is an unmistakable whiff of a golden age that never truly existed.It is customary, at the end of books as critical as this one, to offer one or two thoughts on how to improve things. But Mr Davies suggests that the problem is terminal and offers few ideas. He finishes with a quotation from Joseph Pulitzer that “a cynical, mercenary, demagogic, corrupt press will produce in time a people as base as itself.” But it is another, pithier quote from Matt Drudge, the American owner of a news-collection website, that sticks in the mind: “Screw journalism. The whole thing's a fraud, anyway.”19.02.2008: Tuesday 26 February Prof. Day Thussu from University of Westminster will lecture at the Fritt Ord House, Uranienborgveien 2. Consequently the class will meet there. The first lecture is from 10.15 - 12.00. The second from 13.00 - 15.00. Lunch will be served. For more information see below:
The first lecture is on: The ‘Bollywoodization’ of TV News? The lecture focuses on recent changes in broadcasting news media in India, which have grown from a state-controlled monopoly to a thriving professional electronic journalism: with more than 40 television news channels, unrivalled by any other country. However, growing marketization of television has contributed to ‘Bollywoodization’ of news - defined as a trend towards infotainment, with serious implications for the public sphere in the world’s largest democracy.The second lecture is on "War as Infotainment" In a commercially-driven broadcasting environment, operating in a fiercely competitive and increasingly fragmented news market, contemporary television journalism is tending toward infotainment. Given the characteristics of TV news, coverage of wars is particularly susceptible to infotainment. This lecture will examine television images of recent wars as ‘humanitarian interventions’, drawing on a range of examples. Bio note on Professor Thussu.Daya Thussu is Professor of International Communication at the University of Westminster in London. Among his recent publications are: News as Entertainment: The Rise of Global Infotainment (2007); Media on the Move: Global Flow and Contra-flow (2007); International Communication - Continuity and Change (2006) and Internationalizing Media Studies (forthcoming, 2008). He is the Founder and Managing Editor of the Sage journal Global Media and Communication.08.02.2008: Professor Gillian Doyle from University of Glasgow is at IMK next week given a course in Media Economics. It would be of interest to all of you. See: http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/imk/MEVIT3300/v08/undervisningsplan.xml
08.02.2008: A very interesting article about blogs are to be found at: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21013
05.02.2008: NB. There is lecture on the Feb 12., but seminar on Feb 11, at 14.15. And no seminar on Feb. 18. BUt lecture on Feb. 19.
29.01.2008: I would like to call your attention to this website that has quite a lot of interesting information: http://onlinejournalismblog.com/tag/online-journalism-atlas/
24.01.2008: There seem to be some problems regarding the status of the curriculum. The books and texts assigned for this course constitute the curriculum. They cannot be exchanged with other texts. You may however in your term papers refer to other texts at will.
I need the proposals for the topics of your term papers by at latest February 26. Please discuss the topics in the seminars.21.01.2008: February 26 the class will meet in the Fritt Ord House, Uranienborgveien 2. from 10.15 - 12.00 there will be a lecture by Prof. Daya Thussu from University of Westminster in London on "Media in India and Global Media Mapping". From 13.15 - 15.00 the same day he will lecture at the same place on "War as Infotainment". In conjunction with both lectures there will be a discussion. Lunch will be served between the two lectures.
15.01.2008: Slightly changed programme:
On Tuesday April 22 Professor Kai Hafez from The University of Erfurt will come and talk about his book The Myth of Media Globalisation. On Wednesday April 23 17.00 - 19.00 he will also give a lecture on Arabic Journalism in a Globalised World. There will be discussion in conjunction with both lectures. Both lectures will take place at Fritt Ord in Uranienborgveien 2. Consequently the structure of the course will be as follows: Jan 15 and 22: International Media and Journalism; Jan 29; Feb 5: Journalism and Democracy – A Global Perspective; Feb 19: The Sociology of Journalism; Feb 26 and March 4: Forms of Journalism; April 15, 22, and 29: Journalism in different parts of the world and the question of globalisation.