Author Archives: Ralph Hanson

Thinking about 40+ years of Star Wars

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

The new Star Wars trailer dropped online today, and my social media have been blowing up with a wide range of friends and acquaintances squeeing loudly about it (and a few grumbling).  Some have been sobbing quietly in the corner. … Continue reading →

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Marie Colvin and the risks of covering war

Posted on April 6, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

Earlier this week I took my Global Media Literacy students to our wonderful local community World Theatre to see the Marie Colvin biopic, A Private War. The film tells the story of acclaimed war correspondent Marie Colvin (played Academy Award nominee Rosamund … Continue reading →

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Questions Worth Asking – Journalism Edition

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

How does local television news change when Sinclair Broadcast Group buys a station? As shared by Prof. Jay Rosen, a paper being published Gregory J. Martin and Joshua McCrain in American Political Science Review shows that “news coverage tilts more … Continue reading →

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Apollo 11 Documentary a Must for Space Fans

Posted on March 20, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

I live in a mid-sized town in central Nebraska, so seeing the latest documentary in a theater is not always practical. But this weekend I was going to be passing through Omaha on my way to visit my father in … Continue reading →

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Columnists for your reading pleasure – 2019 edition

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

Here are links to a number of columnists and columnist index pages from newspapers around the country for my JMC 406 commentary writing students, and anyone else who’s interested.  It has been published here multiple times in different forms. National … Continue reading →

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Looking at Hip Hop

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

Today in my media literacy class we’re going to be taking a look at hip hop, and these are just several examples we will be considering as we discuss the genre and cultural movement. More text to come… The 44th Anniversary … Continue reading →

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Girl Talk, Girl Walk, and the Art of the Long Tail Mash Up

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

One of the least pleasant parts of writing new editions of Mass Communication: Living in a Media World is making the decision of what material to cut in order to make room for important new material. Some of the cuts aren’t … Continue reading →

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Opportunity closes out 15-year mission to Mars

Posted on February 14, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab finally declared the mission of the Mars Rover Opportunity had come to an end today after having lost contact with it following a massive dust storm in June of 2018.  for several months. Opportunity left Earth … Continue reading →

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2019 State of the Union Blogging Contest

Posted on February 7, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

Every time I teach Commentary and Blogging at UNK, I have a blogging competition or two.  This year, my students had the opportunity to do an instant blog post somehow related to the president’s 2019 State of the Union address. … Continue reading →

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Guest Blog Post: Jeremy Littau on what’s gone wrong with the news industry

Posted on February 4, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

On January 24, 2019, my friend Jeremy Littau, a journalism professor at Lehigh University, started a tweet storm of 30 or so posts that outlined an argument of why news media layoffs keep happening. Within three days, the thread had … Continue reading →

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