Freshman Discovery Seminars offered for Fall 2008

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Reading the News: News Literacy as Critical Thinking
Professor D. Charles Whitney
HASS 092-74W
Call# 19293
Tuesdays, 4:10-5:30pm, INTS 4111 (Creative Writing Department Conference Room)


Basics of news literacy and current events in newspapers, on television and on the internet. How does one critically evaluate the news? What makes for a good news story, and what makes for a biased one? What sources are trustworthy, and how do I know that?


Reading List:

B. Kovach and H. Rosensteil, Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect, rev'd ed., 2007.

Required reading of a daily newspaper


Brief Biographical Statement:

Prof. Charles Whitney is a former journalist who teaches journalism classes in the Department of Creative Writing and who has taught journalism in some of the nation's best university programs -- at the University of Texas, Illinois, Ohio State and Stanford. He is an editor of the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Journalism, due from Sage Publications in 2009.