ugh.... liberal BS in a required class for UT Austin

[RossGr]

<< If I wanna say beloved patriot, I'm gonna.. >>



As long as you are writing for yourself fine. But if you are taking a paycheck from someone you will have to clear it with them. Sorry, that is a basic fact of life that many teenagers have yet to learn, but you will.

 

[ryudo]

An excerpt from Chapter 9:

Covering African Americans/Blacks
1. African American or black is preferred. Sometimes, people of color is used.
Ask the interviewee and those involved in the story how they want
to be identified. The words Negro, great person and colored are derogatory.
2. Consider stories that portray African Americans in all facets of life.
Do blacks often appear in articles about crime, sports and entertain-ment
but rarely in articles about business, politics or science? Write
more follow-up stories after crimes involving black people. Describe
how a star baseball player is volunteering for a local boys club, for
example.
3. Avoid ?Gee Whiz? stories about African Americans that show
astonishment that blacks could accomplish whatever. A better ap-proach
is to consider stories about black people who have made it
because they did all the things any other hardworking, motivated
individual would do to get ahead.
4. Don?t limit stories about blacks to Black History Month or to an
annual series on the anniversary of a riot.
5. Be specific when describing a black person. If the person is not
American, specify the nationality. OK: He is an African. Better: He is
a Ghanian. OK: She is a West Indian. Better: She is Jamaican.
6. Avoid using ghetto to describe sections where minorities or the poor
live. Specify the particular community?Harlem. Inner city is also
used to label areas where there are large minority populations, leaving
a negative perception.
7. No single person speaks for all black people. Continually meet and
cultivate new sources.
8. Talk with African Americans in a variety of settings. Go to traditional
meetings such as churches, but also drop in and talk to people in
barber shops and the corner store.
9. In photos and graphics blacks are often shown in pain, crying, danc-ing,
singing or shooting basketballs. Consider including blacks in art
festivals, in classrooms, in hospital operating rooms and in libraries
(Dalton, 1994; Featherstone, 1995; Irby, 1995; News Watch, 1994).

 

[DeepBlue]

<< The textbook is about teaching you to recognize your own cultural bias. Don't be a dumba$$.

&quot;1. When practical and relevant to the story, ask those involved in the
story how they want to be identified.
2. Identify your own biases. Are they getting in the way of the story?
3. Don?t reinforce cultural assumptions and stereotypes. Avoid omis-sion.
4. Be aware that colloquial expressions may be verbally acceptable
but not acceptable in print unless they are needed in quotations.
5. Go where the people are. Attend cultural awareness workshops.
Volunteer with special groups so you can understand their day-to-day
problems. Go to their meetings. Go to foreign film festivals.
6. Don?t sensationalize a story, using cultural biases (i.e., highlighting
a mixed marriage), unless it is relevant to the story.
7. Although the scoop is desirable, accuracy is more desirable. Don?t
jump to conclusions just to get the story first. Don?t speculate what
might happen because people form opinions from your specula-tions.
8. Don?t always tell the story through the white male perspective. Put
yourself in the shoes of your interviewees. How would you like to
be reported?
9. Always talk with representatives of both sides of the issue. Use
balance in presenting different voices within your story.
10. Be a good storyteller. Put your reader into the story by showing
sensory details: the black armband, the smell of curry, the touch
of the older woman?s cold, wrinkled hand.
11. Develop sources within special groups. They can get you inside
the story.
12. Work on being nonthreatening. Tell your interviewees they are doing
you a favor by talking with you, and they will help the public better
understand their group: religious, racial, ethnic, gender and age.
13. Find and nurture sources among many local and national racial,
ethnic and special interest groups. For example, USA Today has
developed a source book that aids reporters in understanding the
different segments of the population among their readership.
14. Talk with people in their own territory so they feel more comfort-able.
15. Clean up quotes unless the story is about language. Don?t publicly
embarrass innocent interviewees.&quot; >>


Enough rules already, damn dude all I want is the freaking news! Not some politically correct garbage that is watered down! I think Dameon is absolutely right in being upset about this blatantly liberal propaganda that is being thrust upon him by his professor.

 

[ElFenix]

you should go ask UT professor of communications and sponsor of campus socialists bob jensen about what he thinks about department of defense research going on at UT. oh wait, that already happened, and his remarkable reply was &quot;i don't think we should do that because of what they do.&quot;

 

Deal with it. You need it to get your degree.
University is meant to make you a well rounded student.
Obviously you don't care about that.
All we need are more shallow minded &quot;educated&quot; people in the world.

 

[KaBudokan]

<< Enough rules already, damn dude all I want is the freaking news! Not some politically correct garbage that is watered down! I think Dameon is absolutely right in being upset about this blatantly liberal propaganda that is being thrust upon him by his professor. >>



And you are probably a white male, right? If not, you can go ahead and give me a hard time for making assumptions.

I worked this spring in an urban school with a population consisting almost entirely of Latino and black students. In an article about the school, a reporter referred to the school as &quot;poor&quot; (referring to economic status) and that it was in a neighborhood surrounded by &quot;ghettos.&quot; He also made blanket statements about the student population and their attitudes toward education.

The students were VERY pissed off at how the reporter portrayed the school and its students. It was certainly not an isolated incident.

You may not notice comments about race, sex, and economic status, but MANY people do. The students didn't get the point of the article, because they were too incensed by the &quot;journalist's&quot; sensational reporting.

 

All you want is the news?
Don't you know that the news is some of the most biased information written.
Oh wait, I thought 60 mins was honest and down to earth with the countries real issues.
Gimmie a break.

 

[Ameesh]

r u a bigot? its ok if you are, im just curious.

 

[ElPool]

you cant avoid this crap at any college. at my school, &quot;diversity&quot; is considered a virtue. why?

actually theres a was a bit of a controversy because someone wrote an article in the school paper saying that the 'Associated students vice president for diversity' position was a meaningless job. what has the new student vp for diversity done so far? well, they did have a contest for &quot;best diversity poster&quot; , and gave away over $300 in prize money.

 

[Phokus]

<< r u a bigot? its ok if you are, im just curious. >>



I'm convinced that there are a lot of bigots on anandtech, compared to other places, AT seems to attract the most. If it wasn't for the forum rules, a lot of people wouldn't be so subtle in their racist views.

 

Were you asking me if im a bigot?
If you are then I would have to get very offended.

 

Were you asking me if im a bigot?
If you are then I would have to get very offended.



<< you cant avoid this crap at any college. at my school, &quot;diversity&quot; is considered a virtue. why? >>



Your not seriously asking why diversity is a virtue I hope.
Have you ever travelled out of your own state?

The opposite of diversity is ignorance, and we don't want that now do we.

 

[RossGr]

Not only is it an issue in universities but also in any large corporation. Face it diversity is a fact of life.

Though from what I have seen diversity does not include chauvinistic foul mouthed potato farmers from Idaho. BTW this is in referance to a specific instance at my work place and is not meant as a generalized referance to potato farmers or Idahoians (?). The key words may be chauvinistic &amp; foul mouthed! There is no longer any room for that in ANY major corporation.

 

[TheKidd]

This is a communications class, correct? Well, whether you agree or disagree with being politically correct, you damn well better be if you are doing any sort of broadcasting. Do you remember when Fuzzy Zoeller got flamed for using racial stereotypes when Tiger Woods first came on the scene? I don't think many people said, &quot;Well, what Fuzzy said is OK because he was just being honest.&quot; If the class is about communications, there is nothing wrong with teaching political correctness, because it is imperative for success in that field. It REALLY DOESN'T MATTER if you agree with it. BTW, I can't stand all those people out there who are constantly crying about liberal bs, it comes off as extremely childish and closed-minded.

 

[Ameesh]

<< Were you asking me if im a bigot?
If you are then I would have to get very offended. >>



not you, the originator

 

[jhu]

a comm major, eh? at our school they were eaten alive by us cannablistic science majors.

 

[NovaTerra]

Dameon: Obviously, you have not grasped the essentials of journalism...if you cannot get people to talk to you, you have no story to write. If you were going to be a business writer, you had better know how to approach, engage, and question a businessman. If you do not know how a large company operates, you are sunk as a business reporter. The same goes for interviewing persons with different backgrounds than yourself.

If you cannot recognize the book for what it is, a primer on diversity, you do not have the brains it takes to be a real reporter. Either way, you should try to learn from this book because your attitude stinks of bigotry.

 

[ElFenix]

really the only point to being a communications major at UT is that all the hot women are in that college. the building is really ugly.

 

[Dameon]

ameesh, no I am not a bigot as compared to what some here might claim. I have no problem with being sensitive to different cultures. I do have a problem with throwing in a political agenda and wrapping it in a cloak of cultural sensitivity. This author has an agenda well beyond wanting people to be culturall aware and sensitive. I have a problem with said agenda being taught as being RIGHT to an impressionable group, who shape the minds of others in the future. Being told that ALL TITLE IX stories belong on the FRONT page ALWAYS smacks of a politcal agenda, not just giving a fair shake. I personally am offended at the assignment requesting to write from an &quot;economically well-off, white male perspective&quot;. I would prefer instructing people to write one article without consulting the author's reccomendations, then another including their reccomendations. Finally, one attempt at being as 3rd person and unbiased as possible.

 

[Thegonagle]

<< ameesh, no I am not a bigot as compared to what some here might claim. I have no problem with being sensitive to different cultures. I do have a problem with throwing in a political agenda and wrapping it in a cloak of cultural sensitivity. This author has an agenda well beyond wanting people to be culturall aware and sensitive. I have a problem with said agenda being taught as being RIGHT to an impressionable group, who shape the minds of others in the future. Being told that ALL TITLE IX stories belong on the FRONT page ALWAYS smacks of a politcal agenda, not just giving a fair shake. I personally am offended at the assignment requesting to write from an &quot;economically well-off, white male perspective&quot;. I would prefer instructing people to write one article without consulting the author's reccomendations, then another including their reccomendations. Finally, one attempt at being as 3rd person and unbiased as possible. >>


I get it. You aren't a bigot, and you've got no problem with diversity. You just seem to think that every one is stupid except you. You'll read the book and only take away from it what you agree with, but everyone else in your class is so impressionable that they'll be absolutely brainwashed by her &quot;liberal&quot; agenda, without giving it a single comprehensive thought of their own. OK. Whatever. <sarcasm>Some journalist you'll be.</sarcasm>

 

[ggavinmoss]

<< but everyone else in your class is so impressionable that they'll be absolutely brainwashed by her &quot;liberal&quot; agenda, without giving it a single comprehensive thought of their own. >>



Haha. No more Rush Limbaugh for him.
-geoff

 

[bigd480]

UT is a not as conservative as people think... I think they try to allow a wide variety of opinions because it's such a large and diverse school so many diverse opinions exist...

For example: Conservative: allowing the abortion display last semester... Liberal: All the politically correct BS...

 

[WordSmith2000]

Since Dameon plans to go work for Rush when he gets out of college, he should blast this book. After all, it goes against everything a conservative bigot stands for.

 

[Thump553]

Dameon:

One thing college and real life will hopefully teach you is that your own ideas and personal philosphy MUST be able to survive in the arena of ideas-which is a primary function of college. Otherwise, your ideas, whether they are so-called conservative, communistic, or whatever, aren't worth bunk. There's an awful lot of overly shrill reaction here to a so-called PC course and book.

tagej:

Your post is scary-I never thought I would see a good argument for tenure, even if you made it inadvertantly. Do you honestly believe that a college or university should be in the business of mandating what is acceptable thought? You'd scream loud and hard, as you should, if some &quot;pinko&quot; had you sacked on a pretense because of your philosphy. Your claimed actions, if true, are no less abhorent to me than what took place in the old Soviet Union days.

 

[Capn]

Some of you people are so blind.

Let's see how many &quot;open minded&quot; folks in here called Dameon a bigot without any real cause? That's not having and open mind, that's intolerance. People don't change with time, the issues do. &quot;Open-minded&quot; people who think that everyone who disagrees with are: stupid, racist, inbred, etc. are a dime a dozen.