Number of students in my class who read the newspaper every day: 15
Number of students in my class who watch the evening news: 5
Number of students in my class who neither read newspapers nor watch the evening news: 40
Number of students in my class who failed to attend the day of the poll: 25
Friday, March 03, 2006
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15 comments:
I rarely read the newspaper (NYT on Sundays and sometimes Saturdays, and usually I feel guilty about the waste of paper).
I don't have a TV (well.. I do, but no cable and no reception, so it's effectively the same).
I have a computer, so I read the news online. Lots and lots of news online, and I find I know about "things" days earlier than most people I talk to.
Skipping class, though -- that's a travesty! :)
I neither read the newspaper (unles NYT online counts) nor watch the evening news, but I do listen to the news on the radio (NPR, natch). Does that count?
I included online news sources as "newspapers."
You have at least 80 students. If the students who read newspaper do not watch the evening news, then you have 85 students. In summary, your number of students is betwen 80 and 85. I like to do math! :)
It's obvious that, being only a couple years out of grad school, I am quickly becoming a geezer.
When I saw the results of your poll, I was shocked that newspapers did better than the evening news - it didn't even occur to me that your students would just read it online.
(Beware: undergraduate reminiscence coming up...) I myself used to have a serious C-SPAN addiction although I'm not sure that would be considered "news."
On Sept 12th, when I brought in a copy of the newspaper, I had students ask how does one go about getting a copy, and they honestly had no idea where or how to buy one.
Ask them questions like "Who is Colin Powell?" "What is the state department?" or even "Who was the president's father?" if you really want to be disturbed.
I included online news sources as "newspapers."
Okay, then that really *is* disturbing.
The biggest issue for online news is, in my opinion, which online sources are considered "news" versus which are "opinion."
I confess that I got stuck at 30% of the class ditching.
I have several students that I know read newspapers because they sit in the back row doing so during class. Should I be relieved or annoyed?
I am lots older. I was an undergrad during the Cuban Missile Crisis. One day, I came back to the sorority and found girls in tears (the poli sci majors of course) calling parents to say Good Bye!? I was surprised--why are you crying? Well there is going to be a war--they said. I was astonished and disbelieving--with who? When? Well the Russians, etc. They told me about something happening in Cuba, who knew where it even was. That was the first I had heard of it. I didn't call home myself, long distance was pricey. If there was a war happening, I thought Dad would let me know--meantime, what me worry? I think undergrads are just that way. Years passed, I grew up and now I read the paper and watch TV news and pay attention. Some of today's undergrads will, too. I have some faith in their innate intelligence. Maybe living in New England, I've caught Transcendentalism. (BTW, the students who do read tell me they don't really believe much of what is in the papers etc. and to tell you, I don't much, either.) Do you?
In the overheated media competition, the news media is less reliable than ever. Historians will look at this period as a resurgence of yellow journalism. I would be more interested to know how many of your students have read Twain, Tolstoy or Kipling. Forget Thornstein Veblen or Yukio Mishima. That would be too much to ask.
When I was a student many years ago I rarely read the newspaper because I preferred to use all available time to read the works required in the courses I took. In general, these works seemed to me to be great and important. Reading time was precious and I didn't want to waste it on trivia, such as the superficial material found in newspapers. Recently, when I asked students in my university courses if they read the newspaper regularly, they gave me the kind of response I outline above. I think most students understand that their university years are best devoted to reading greater or more important forms of writing.
As a journalism student, I am sadly not surprised and yet still appalled. Now one knows yet another reason why you call yourself Angry Professor.
In response to one of the anonymous comments left above, about how reading assigned texts is more important than reading the "trivial" news:
Don't you think that by informing oneself about the daily international news will help people put things more into perspective? It's all well and good if you can quote Twain or even John (as in 3:16), but if you cannot relate it to modern times, modern news, what good is it?
Personally, I remember my first journalism course and the professor asked us the same questions... who reads a newspaper, who watches the news, etc... I had tears of frustration in my eyes as hardly a one raised their hands.
But then, I'm a writer. I romanticize everything.
;)
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