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Sale Price: $21.83
$24.95
Code: 1630
CDRom
© 2009
This product is useful for:
Individual Use / Personal Information,
Classroom Teaching Resource,
Teacher Prep / In-Service,
Media Literacy Professional Library
Grade Level
High school 9-12,
College / Undergraduate
Curriculum Area
English/Language Arts,
Social Studies,
Ethics/Character Education,
Basic Lifeskills,
Use across the curriculum
Topic
Media Advocacy / Activism / Reform,
News, Politics & Democracy
- Excellent framework for understanding the economic influences on the news-making process.
- Provides a unique news evalution tool to build critical thinking skills.
- Flexible structure makes it adaptable for many school and out of school contexts.
"As journalism goes, so goes democracy," veteran journalist Bill Moyers has written. By any measure, authoritative, independent journalism produced by professionals in newspapers, broadcasts and on the Internet is going fast.
At the same time, new Web-centered providers of news and commentary are rising. But most don't follow -- and many aren't even aware of -- journalism standards and ethics. We have entered what NPR's Brooke Gladstone calls the era of "buyer beware" journalism where anything goes.
Detecting Bull documents this historic shift and points out that self-government without trustworthy news is blind, sure to stumble. The book urges a civic revival and sets the foundation by helping college and advanced high school students develop their own BS (bald sophistry) meters to separate news that's reliable from the rest.
Don't be fooled by the flip title. This is a rigorously documented comprehensive effort to dissect bias and illustrate the many subtle ways it infiltrates contemporary news. That depth might be a weakness for the easily-bored high school student, but a strength to their teachers and to college students across majors.
Packaged as a CDRom “book” Detecting Bull is, in effect, a computer-based “course” in what may be called “news literacy.” Integrating video clips, visuals, sound clips and many hyperlinks, the eight chapters address:
- the struggle between truth and its imposter, “truthiness;”
- the nature of truth and its relationship to power
- perceptual obstacles faced both by audiences and journalists seeking truth;
- institutional obstacles to truth-telling in corporate and non-profit media;
- rejection of "objectivity" in favor of empiricism, a more accurate and demanding standard;
- How to detect bias in textual and video news reports;
- How to find patterns of bias in news media;
- How to evaluate the quality of news in any medium.
"If you're interested in making journalism better and teaching news analysis in ways that value critical thinking and civic engagement over cynicism or simplistic attack, Detecting Bull is a great place to start."
Faith Rogow, founding president, NAMLE