American Forums: The Marketplace of Ideas

American Forums: The Marketplace of Ideas SpringBoard Level 6 – Unit 2

2.6 – News or Views: A Closer Look Entry Task: As a table group, see how many of the following terms you can define (use your Composition Book to write down your answers): Objectivity, Subjectivity, bias, propaganda, opinion, perspective, prejudice, point of view, slant, and spin

2.6 – Key Terms • Objectivity – impartiality; the absence of bias • Subjectivity – personal, individual thought • Propaganda – information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. • Opinion – a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty • Perspective – the state of one’s ideas, the facts known to one, etc. in having a meaningful interrelationship. • Prejudice – an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand without knowledge, thought, or reason • Point of View – an opinion, attitude, or judgment • Slant – to distort (information) by rendering it unfaithfully or incompletely, especially in order to reflect a particular viewpoint. • Spin – a particular viewpoint or bias, especially in the media; slant

2.6 – News or Views: A Closer Look • Purpose of 2.6: • To activate prior knowledge about objectivity and subjectivity in texts • To develop questions for identifying bias • To analyze a news story for evidence of bias

Describe the details you see. Do not make inferences.

Eddie Adams said, 'I just followed the three of them as they walked towards us, making an occasional picture. When they were close - maybe five feet away - the soldiers stopped and backed away. I saw a man walk into my camera viewfinder from the left. He took a pistol out of his holster and raised it. I had no idea he would shoot. It was common to hold a pistol to the head of prisoners during questioning. So I prepared to make that picture - the threat, the interrogation. But it didn't happen. The man just pulled a pistol out of his holster, raised it to the VC's head and shot him in the temple. I made a picture at the same time.' 1 2

Meeting of Minds • General NguyễnNgọc Loan • Republic of Vietnam's Chief of National Police in 1968. • NguyễnVănLém • Viet Cong prisoner • Eddie Adams • AP Photographer • American Public - 1968 With your group, write two questions that your character would want to ask of each of the other characters. The questions should be different for each character, and should be written from the character’s perspective.

Asking Questions … • Each group will present their questions to the other characters. • We will not be answering the questions, but considering the point of view of the questioners.

Eulogy – Time MagazineBy Eddie Adams Monday, Jul. 27, 1998 I won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for a photograph of one man shooting another. Two people died in that photograph: the recipient of the bullet and GENERAL NGUYEN NGOC LOAN. The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. What the photograph didn't say was, "What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American soldiers?" General Loan was what you would call a real warrior, admired by his troops. I'm not saying what he did was right, but you have to put yourself in his position. The photograph also doesn't say that the general devoted much of his time trying to get hospitals built in Vietnam for war casualties. This picture really messed up his life. He never blamed me. He told me if I hadn't taken the picture, someone else would have, but I've felt bad for him and his family for a long time. I had kept in contact with him; the last time we spoke was about six months ago, when he was very ill. I sent flowers when I heard that he had died and wrote, "I'm sorry. There are tears in my eyes."

What does this lesson teach us about objectivity versus subjectivity? How might pictures/photographs (even un-doctored ones) create bias through the media? What should the American public do/know/understand when presented with images such as these in the newspapers or media in general? Discussion

2.6 – Key Terms • Lit Term and Word Connections : • Bias is an inclination or mental leaning for or against something, which prevents impartial judgment. • Prima facie is a Latin term meaning ‘on the face of it’, or at first glance.

2.6 – News or Views: A Closer Look • Read pages 124-127: • Your group will be assigned one of six typed of BIAS. • Your group must read, discuss, paraphrase, and teach your type of BIAS to the rest of the class. • Your group must also develop several ‘guiding questions’ to ask yourselves as you’re looking at newspaper articles for BIAS – write these questions in the grid on page 127.

2.6 – News or Views: A Closer Look • Extra! Extra!: • Your group will create a poster to display in class, featuring your type of bias • Include: • The type title • Summary (bullet points) • THREE news articles in which you highlight parts for bias • 2-3 guiding questions that will help others identify this type of bias as they read Type of Bias Summary of bias type in your own words Names News article 2 News article 1 News article 3 2-3 guiding questions

2.6 – News or Views: A Closer Look • Grab some newspapers • Cut out THREE articles that demonstrate YOUR type of bias • Highlight the areas of bias • Paste them to your poster • Be prepared to share your final poster with the class

2.6 – News or Views: A Closer Look • QuickWrite: • Do you (or have you ever) belong(ed) to social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter? Why do you use these social mediums? What are the pros and cons of using/belonging? If you don’t ‘belong’, why do you choose not to use these things?

2.6 – ‘Facebook Photos Sting Minnesota High School Students’ • Page 128-130: • We will now read the article, including the title. • During reading please mark the text by labeling any evidence of bias. Use your guiding questions (pg 127). • When finished we will discuss your findings – be prepared to share sections/areas of bias you find while reading the article.

2.6 – ‘Federal Way schools restrict Gore Film’ • Page 131-133: • We will now read the article, including the title. • During reading please mark the text by labeling any evidence of bias. Use your guiding questions (pg 127). • When finished we will discuss your findings – be prepared to share sections/areas of bias you find while reading the article.

2.6 – ‘Facebook Photos Sting Minnesota High School Students’ • Discussions Questions: • How biased in the article’s coverage of the issue? • Does the bias undermine the credibility of the article? • Do YOU personally identify with the perspective the article seems to endorse? Explain. • How does this influence your evaluation of the article as ‘news’?

2.6 – ‘Federal Way schools restrict Gore film’ • Discussions Questions: • How biased in the article’s coverage of the issue? • Does the bias undermine the credibility of the article? • Do YOU personally identify with the perspective the article seems to endorse? Explain. • How does this influence your evaluation of the article as ‘news’?

American Forums: The Marketplace of Ideas