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Posts Tagged ‘News’
Our Latest LAMPlit: Check Out The News!
Friday, December 18th, 2009
The LAMP has added another LAMPlit resource guide to its library! Check out the news! is written by Katherine Fry, Ph.D., Education Director and Professor of Media Studies at Brooklyn College. Dr. Fry has spent years studying news literacy, and recently has been traveling to conferences to speak on the subject to other communications professionals.
So, what is news literacy? It’s the ability to think critically about the news, and the way you find out about what is reported in the world around you. It helps you form your own opinions, and become a more active media consumer. Instead of believing whatever a news outlet tells you, you’ll be thinking for yourself about how, why and where you get the news that shapes your life and your everyday decisions. Download Check out the news! for free today, and you’ll never see news in quite the same way again.
Regret, Resignation and News Literacy
Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Sean Hannity
I’m guessing most of you heard on the news this morning that CNN anchor Lou Dobbs resigned as of last night, after much controversy over his remarks about the validity of President Obama’s birth certificate. Also last night, Sean Hannity apologized to viewers for splicing footage from two different political rallies to make one appear larger, and acknowledged that Jon Stewart was right. What is going on?
These incidents strike me as a possible indication that we are becoming more news literate. I do believe that as far as television news is concerned, the line between journalism and editorializing seems to have blurred. I’m happy that people are asking questions, and they are asking them loudly enough that networks have no choice but to respond. I applaud CNN for its choice to remove a pundit masquerading as a reporter, and though Sean Hannity may continue to carry that mantle, I applaud him for apologizing. I have no more or less respect for his work, but it takes a lot for people to admit they were wrong, and perhaps even more so when such an admission takes place in front of audience of millions. The news frequently gets things wrong, and it frequently oversteps the boundaries of strict journalism, but it is not often that the people involved make such public apologies. (Even retractions are typically found only in fine print.) It makes me proud that the notion of news reporting as fallible is catching on.
Meanwhile, we have not heard the last from either Lou Dobbs or Sean Hannity, and we will certainly continue to hear irresponsible reporting and poorly-argued editorials. News literacy continues to be of key importance in a media-saturated environment; simply removing someone doesn’t make us more literate. But it does provide a strong example to back up what we at The LAMP say often: When we demand smarter media, the media producers will respond. After all, the best argument for removing Lou Dobbs, at least from a CNN perspective, is the ratings drop.
–Emily Long
News from The LAMP! Our October Illuminations Newsletter
Friday, October 9th, 2009

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Vaccination for the media?
Friday, September 25th, 2009
As some of you may know, I am the co-chair of the Youth Services Committee for Brooklyn’s Community Board Six. I’ve served on the committee for several years, and in fact The LAMP was born from my work there. Last night we had our first meeting of the year, and were given a presentation by a representative from the New York City Health Department about the steps they are taking to combat the seemingly imminent H1N1 virus. The information she provided was excellent, and if you live in the city I do suggest you visit the flu information section of the DOH website.
When we arrived at the obligatory Q&A portion of the presentation, I raised my hand and asked if, among the various public awareness campaigns planned, they had anything in place to address misinformation from the media. The response was essentially that they have a PR department.
Really? That’s it?
When the H1N1 virus first broke last spring, the media descended on the story with zeal. Of course, it is part of the job of news media to keep us informed, but what happened last spring went far beyond adequate coverage, both in the volume of stories reported and the level of drama within them. As reported by the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism, 31% of the news stories sampled in the week of April 27-May 3 were about the H1N1 virus–as PEJ further points out, this was the same week in which Barack Obama reached the 100-day mark of his presidency, Arlen Spector switched party affiliations and Chrysler declared bankruptcy. By April 26, before nearly one-third of the media was devoted to the flu, traffic to cdc.gov spiked a whopping 442%. Extensive coverage is no doubt a product of a 24-hour news cycle with space to fill, but as previously stated, there was plenty of other news in the spring that perhaps deserved more coverage and analysis.
With so much media coverage, it can be even more difficult than usual to determine what to trust. It would behoove the DOH not only to send messages about how to avoid or vaccinate against the flu, but to establish themselves as the definitive first source of information for New York residents. I know that this is partly the point of their public awareness campaigns, and that the DOH is not a news outlet (maybe they should be?), but they should be prepared to deal with misinformation and help people cut through the noise to get them through to what they need to know.
–D.C. Vito
Gaslight: September in Media History
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
September 10, 1953:
Swanson sells TV dinners. Why is this a big deal for media? For one thing, TV dinners mostly came into being because of, well…TV. By this time, television had become a mainstay for Americans, who were constant viewers of new shows like “I Love Lucy” and “The Bob Hope Show.” It makes sense that people would want a way to come home from work, relax, catch their favorite TV shows and eat dinner at the same time–with no cooking or cleaning to get in the way. The timing was also perfect because Swanson found itself with 520,000 pounds of turkey, and lacked the warehouse space to store it. Packing it up, freezing it and shipping it out was the solution, and dinner has never been quite the same since. Now, eating in front of the TV is cited as one reason why it can be the most harmful passive activity.
September 23, 1944 and 1952:
On this date in 1944, Franklin Roosevelt delivered his “Fala speech” as a response to Republican attacks being made against him at the time. A rumor had been going around that Roosevelt’s beloved Scottish Terrier, Fala, had been left behind when FDR was visiting the Aleutian Islands, and that the distraught president had sent a destroyer to retrieve the dog at great cost to taxpayers. While campaigning for the 1944 election, Roosevelt invoked the story during a speech made at a campaign fundraising dinner, saying, “These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala…I think I have a right to resent, to object, to libelous statements about my dog.” This speech was later known as the “Fala speech,” and humanized Roosevelt while making Republican attackers appear desperate and strained.
Exactly eight years later in 1952, inspired by the Fala speech, Richard Nixon (who was then a US Senator and the Republican nominee for Vice President) delivered his famous “Checkers speech.” Nixon had been accused of misusing money from a fund which had been set up to reimburse the candidate for his campaign expenses, and answered the accusations with a radio and television address defending himself. He mentioned that there was one gift he would not give back, and that was the black and white cocker spaniel sent by an admirer in Texas, which his daughter named Checkers. After the address, Nixon received an outpouring of support from the public, and he remained on the ticket despite the scandal. The Checkers speech was one of the first times television was used by a politician to appeal directly to voters on an emotional level, endowing him with an image as a man of the people.
And who knows? Perhaps on the 65th anniversary of the Fala speech, we’ll get an update on Bo Obama.


This month, we interviewed Chesley Andrews, web designer for The LAMP. Last summer she took on the daunting task of overhauling our website, and launched her own studio,
On February 2nd, PBS Frontlinepremiered “










Lorenzo Tijerina is a father, former television news editor, independent videographer and photographer…and LAMP facilitator! Check out 



This month, we interviewed author 








