Author Archives: Ralph Hanson

Kathleen Parker for my commentary students – 2013

Updated 3/6/18 My commentary and blogging students are reading Kathleen Parker for class this week.  She’s one of my favorite columnists because she is always challenging conventional labels.  No Dreaded Talking Points from Parker! Class (and everyone else) here are … Continue reading

Posted in Chapter 6, JMC 406 | Tagged , | 1 Comment

How Univision is Making NBC Look Bad – What The Latest Ratings Tell Us

While I was growing up, when talking about television, we always talked about the Big Three broadcast networks: NBC, CBS, and ABC.  Sure there were the PBS stations out there, but they were small and non-commercial.  So no one really … Continue reading

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Media News Roundup

Hawaii passes Steven Tyler Act Would ban “unwanted photos or videos of others in private moments.”  Nice idea, but do celebs really get the right to say “pay attention to me now, but not now”? How Sen. Rand Paul used … Continue reading

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Mass Communication and Fear Readings

Next week I’m going to be guest lecturing in a class about the nature of fear.  So hear are several readings that deal with the notion of how we deal with fear and the media: George Gerbner on why we … Continue reading

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Pop Culture Charley – Handicapping the Oscars

Charley Reed has done enough guest blog posts here that I’m no longer going to consider him a guest poster.  Instead, I’m going to put his great commentaries on pop media culture under the heading Charley’s Pop Culture.  Here are … Continue reading

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What to do on a snow day in media literacy class

To all the faculty out there who are teaching an intro to mass comm / media literacy class, here’s an idea for a quicky online snow day assignment built off the great Pew Project Excellence in Journalism State of the … Continue reading

Posted in Chapter 7, Teaching Hint | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Columnists for my commentary class – 2013

Here are links to a number of columnists and columnist index pages from newspapers around the country for my commentary writing students, and anyone else who’s interested. National Columnists Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist.  His column written in response … Continue reading

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Guest Post – Do the Oscars Really Matter?

Today’s guest post is from Charley Reed, who does public relations work of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.  He’s also the guy I turn to when I need critical analysis of pop culture issues such as censorship and the show South … Continue reading

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Is Carnival cruising for a PR bruising?

Updated By now, virtually everyone in America knows about the mess that is the Carnival cruise ship Triumph.  The ship suffered an engine fire earlier this week that resulted in the ship being without electricity and drifting in the Gulf … Continue reading

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Comcast completing purchase of NBCUniversal from GE years ahead of schedule

The transition of NBCUniversal from being owned primarily by General Electric to Comcast had been expected to be an extended process, with the cable and phone giant gradually acquiring the entertainment company’s stock.  But that changed this week with the … Continue reading

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