Posts by Geoff Lealand
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I suppose I'm thinking of the Christchurch course, where I think Norris, Zanker and Pauling do provide their students with a flow of challenging ideas.
I agree. Indeed, I think it is the best journalism course in the country. I don't teach journalism (I teach about journalism), so I can say that.
Have a great weekend, all. I am off again on Saturday to see the Chiefs play more magnificent rugby. If anyone is passing through Hamilton East, we have a glut of feijoas at the moment! Call by for a bag.
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You come back with 300 words about the perceived symbiotic relationship between cats and trees in post structural economic theory with regard to Global warming.
...and that might make more interesting reading than "the local fire brigade arrived"
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Once again, apologies about the double entry, This laptop is due to be taken apart, to remove crud in the touchpad. I suspect it is part of a pretzel!
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the very last thing we would want young people in communications jobs to do is emulate such a style.
Yes, but surely we don't also want them to be trained up into merely consenting to and replicating the myths perpetuated by folk like du Fresne (eg "the marketplace of ideas"--which is a claim ripe for unpicking and unpacking).
By 'theory', I don't necessarily mean Continental cultural theory--it also includes the important ideas about democracy and public access raised in last night's Media 7. Indeed, regular inclusion of commentaries such as Media 7, Mediawatch, Charlie Brooker, The Daily Show, Brass Eye, FlowTV etc should an integral part of journalism training but I know this doesn't happen.
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the very last thing we would want young people in communications jobs to do is emulate such a style.
Yes, but surely we don't also want them to be trained up into merely consenting to and replicating the myths perpetuated by folk like du Fresne (eg "the marketplace of ideas"--which is a claim ripe for unpicking and unpacking).
By 'theory', I don't necessarily mean Continental cultural theory--it also includes the important ideas about democracy and public access raised in last night's Media 7. Indeed, regular inclusion of commentaries such as Media 7, Mediawatch, Charlie Brooker, The Daily Show, Brass Eye, FlowTV etc should an integral part of journalism training but I know this doesn't happen.
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Thanks all, for such an interesting conversation. Sean Phelan's piece is written for an academic readership and thus has been read out of context by duFresne, basically for cheap sport. As an academic, I can appreciate Sean's ideas but I also think he could have expressed them in a slightly less constipated manner.
In all areas of teaching about the media (NCEA Media Studies; tertiary Media Studies; journalism training), there has always been a tension between a utilitarian, skills-based training, and what might loosely be called a 'critical analysis/understanding' approach. We encounter it in our cross-disciplinary Bachelor of Communication Studies. Management Communication stresses case study, replicating-standard-practice; in Media Studies we stress critical engagement and alternative methods of production. I have no problem with this, as it introduces students to a world of conflicting constructions, competing ways of structuring knowledge and systems of power--and interesting ambiguities.
Personally, I think some journalism courses could do with a bit more theory (aka interrogation of established practice; an open-mindness to contrary thought; better knowledge about audiences). The NZ Broadcasting School at CPIT does this well but other courses, less well. This is not mere conjecture as I have been involved with 5 or 6 different studies of NZ journalists, over the years. I also teach about television news (and favour Galtung & Ruge's ideas about 'news values') -
I insist we call him Michael Lhaws from now on.
Good one! Should we also refer to Lindsay Pherigo, if he is still hiding out there?
I have been alerted to a bit of a stoush going on over at Karl du Fresne's blog with Karl displaying a right old bilious dose of anti-intellectualism.
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Geoff has a child, most likely a male child, aged four to ten. That is all I'm going to say.
Eh? Well, I used to have one but he is now 22 and looking for a job which might suit first class Hons in Philosophy from VUW.
That is me, aged 4, in a time before the internet--and possibly even colour photography.
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Auckland-to-Hamilton four-lane highway...
Good one, Evan. So we can get to join the congestion queue at Mercer ten minutes earlier? It is used to take me 'round 1 hr 20 to drive to Auckland; now 2 hours is the norm. It is all to do with traffic build-up once you are are over the Bombay Hills.
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that Con Conrad song Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)
There is a very recent version by Jolie Holland, on "The Living and the Dead" (2008). She laughs a lot.
Jeez--how long has this been going on?