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Media Myths DeMystified
Dear Smarties:
I know you are eager to see the actual answers to the Media Myths Quiz you took as a warm-up for this class. I haven’t had time to get to Teddy TV to talk about the quiz in, er, “person,” but I wanted to get you the answers and a little commentary so you can relieve your consternation and suspect over, say, whether Americans have more TVs or toilets in their homes... (!).
Click here to find the answers to the Myths Quiz on AskDrTed. Any comments or surprise or whatever, please post in the comments box on this page.
Dr. Ted
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Saturday, January 30, 2010
News Quiz!
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How Well Informed Are We?
The Pew Research Center is a valuable resource for anyone interested in what’s going on in America, and what we Americans think. The researchers do constant surveys on all kinds of stuff in the news—like the health care debate or where President Obama stands in the polls, etc.—and sometimes it’s a little frustrating and frightening to find out what “we” think/know.
Sometimes it’s a little confusing to find out what “we” really think about issues, because if you watch the news, you think (for example) that most of us don’t want health care reforms (to use a current example). But a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, another important nonpartisan research outfit, finds that a lot of us do support health care reforms when we find out what actually is proposed, instead of what opponents and the media say about it. After all, who would not want poor people to be able to get doctor care and meds when they’re sick or hurt? Are we an enlightened society or aren’t we?
The Kaiser poll, done in January, “finds that Americans are divided over congressional health reform proposals, but also that large shares of people, including skeptics, become more supportive after being told about many of the major provisions in the bills.” Imagine that! When you tell people what the thing is really about, they think about it differently than the way the media tell them to!
Anyway, you are (mostly) journalism students, so you should be more interested in news than the average citizen. You are, at least, engaged humans who care about what’s going on in the world. So I’d like you to go to the Pew Research Center and take its current news quiz. Click here for the quiz. Please do the quiz before you read the results and commentary on this Pew website.
And then please post your results and any comments in the dialog box below. I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.
El Peez
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How Well Informed Are We?
The Pew Research Center is a valuable resource for anyone interested in what’s going on in America, and what we Americans think. The researchers do constant surveys on all kinds of stuff in the news—like the health care debate or where President Obama stands in the polls, etc.—and sometimes it’s a little frustrating and frightening to find out what “we” think/know.
Sometimes it’s a little confusing to find out what “we” really think about issues, because if you watch the news, you think (for example) that most of us don’t want health care reforms (to use a current example). But a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, another important nonpartisan research outfit, finds that a lot of us do support health care reforms when we find out what actually is proposed, instead of what opponents and the media say about it. After all, who would not want poor people to be able to get doctor care and meds when they’re sick or hurt? Are we an enlightened society or aren’t we?The Kaiser poll, done in January, “finds that Americans are divided over congressional health reform proposals, but also that large shares of people, including skeptics, become more supportive after being told about many of the major provisions in the bills.” Imagine that! When you tell people what the thing is really about, they think about it differently than the way the media tell them to!
Anyway, you are (mostly) journalism students, so you should be more interested in news than the average citizen. You are, at least, engaged humans who care about what’s going on in the world. So I’d like you to go to the Pew Research Center and take its current news quiz. Click here for the quiz. Please do the quiz before you read the results and commentary on this Pew website.
And then please post your results and any comments in the dialog box below. I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.
El Peez
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Thursday, January 14, 2010
About Us!
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All About Us Smarties
Dear Smarties:
To introduce you to each other, and to get you connected on the blogsite, please click on the “comments” link below this post, and tell us a little about yourself. If you have your own blog, you can include that link if you want.
I’ll start. My name is Ted Pease. I am ancient (55 years old!), and have taught at Utah State for 17+ years. Impossible! When I came to Utah, I expected the stay about three years and then go somewhere else. There’s a life-lesson there, I think.
I was department head in JCOM for 11 years, and then stepped back into the faculty and let someone else do it in 2005. But then that guy left for another university, so I’m department head again. It’s not as cool and exotic and powerful as it sounds. You know that stuff that hits the fan? I’m the fan. Before starting my teaching career, I was a newspaper and magazine reporter in various places, including Little Rock, Ark., where I knew Bill Clinton (not the same way Gennifer Flowers did!) when he was governor.
What else? I bought a Hyrum Reservoir ski boat a couple of years ago and dragged it over to our place in northern California, where it now has a second life as a salmon-fishing boat. It’s a much happier boat.
I’m married to Dr. Brenda Cooper, who’s also in the JCOM Department and director of the Women & Gender Studies Program. We have kids, but they’re grown and gone. We prefer our dogs. Click here. And here. And here for Stoopid Pet Tricks.
As you can see, I also like to take photos.
The craziest thing I ever did: So many to choose from.... When I was 19, I rode a bicycle from Seattle to Atlanta. I haven't liked riding bikes much ever since.
That’s enough. If you REALLY want to know more, here’s some more at this link.
And a more formal one here: Pease Bio.
And more than ANYONE could POSSIBLY want to know here.
So add your deep, dark secrets in the comments box below. If you want to post a photo and can’t include it, send me a jpg and I’ll add it.
El Peez
Professor of Interesting Stuff
“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad...”
—Aldous Huxley, author
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All About Us Smarties
Dear Smarties:
To introduce you to each other, and to get you connected on the blogsite, please click on the “comments” link below this post, and tell us a little about yourself. If you have your own blog, you can include that link if you want.
I’ll start. My name is Ted Pease. I am ancient (55 years old!), and have taught at Utah State for 17+ years. Impossible! When I came to Utah, I expected the stay about three years and then go somewhere else. There’s a life-lesson there, I think.
I was department head in JCOM for 11 years, and then stepped back into the faculty and let someone else do it in 2005. But then that guy left for another university, so I’m department head again. It’s not as cool and exotic and powerful as it sounds. You know that stuff that hits the fan? I’m the fan. Before starting my teaching career, I was a newspaper and magazine reporter in various places, including Little Rock, Ark., where I knew Bill Clinton (not the same way Gennifer Flowers did!) when he was governor.
What else? I bought a Hyrum Reservoir ski boat a couple of years ago and dragged it over to our place in northern California, where it now has a second life as a salmon-fishing boat. It’s a much happier boat.I’m married to Dr. Brenda Cooper, who’s also in the JCOM Department and director of the Women & Gender Studies Program. We have kids, but they’re grown and gone. We prefer our dogs. Click here. And here. And here for Stoopid Pet Tricks.
As you can see, I also like to take photos.
The craziest thing I ever did: So many to choose from.... When I was 19, I rode a bicycle from Seattle to Atlanta. I haven't liked riding bikes much ever since.
That’s enough. If you REALLY want to know more, here’s some more at this link.
And a more formal one here: Pease Bio.
And more than ANYONE could POSSIBLY want to know here.
So add your deep, dark secrets in the comments box below. If you want to post a photo and can’t include it, send me a jpg and I’ll add it.
El Peez
Professor of Interesting Stuff
“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad...”
—Aldous Huxley, author
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