Author Archives: Ralph Hanson

TBT – Siskel & Ebert talk about the movies

This is a reposting (with slight editing) of a post from four years ago.  Hard for me to come to terms with the fact that this presentation is from 20 years ago! My JMC 406 commentary class is going to … Continue reading

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Movie Links for my Media Literacy Students

We’ve been talking about the movies this week in my media literacy class, and I’ve shown a range of video clips, but there are even more clips that I haven’t had time to show.  So here are links to a … Continue reading

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Columnists for your reading pleasure

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 previously been published here in somewhat different form. National … Continue reading

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Apple’s big announcement – oh yeah, and the Apple Watch

Everyone in the tech press is spending enormous numbers of electrons on the new Apple watch announced today.  Except it was really announced several months ago.  It will talk to your iPhone, it will track your activity, it will help … Continue reading

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Music for a Busy Day

Way too much to cover in class today to play all the music history videos I had scheduled, so here they are for your viewing and listening enjoyment.  Go from Elvis to Lennon & McCartney to Lennon and Maisy. This … Continue reading

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Having fun with remixes

One of my favorite days of the semester in my media literacy class is when we start talking about remix culture.  Two of the central things we do is look at Girl Talk’s album All Day and the film Girl … Continue reading

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Editorializing on the Cover of the NY Post

Say what you like about the New York Post, they have done some magnificent photo illustrations over the years on their cover as editorial commentary.  I don’t often agree with the Post, but they do great covers. Obama and “Islamic … Continue reading

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Some great blogs from my students

This last week my blogging and commentary student Austin Koeller wrote a state editorial I was pretty happy with.  He argued that U.S. Senator Deb Fischer was betraying her conservative supporters in north central Nebraska by supporting construction of the … Continue reading

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A Rough Week For Journalism Part 2: Remembering Bob Simon

Last week was a really rough week for the journalism world.  We lost two prominent journalists to unexpected deaths, we’ve had a respected news anchor suspended for six months for misrepresenting his participation in stories, and we’ve learned that our most … Continue reading

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A Rough Week For Journalism: Remembering the NYT’s David Carr

UPDATED 2/17/15 This has been a really rough week for the journalism world.  We’ve lost two prominent journalists to unexpected deaths, we’ve had a respected news anchor suspended for six months for misrepresenting his participation in stories, and we’ve learned … Continue reading

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