First-Year Writing Seminar: Critical Journalism

(4 Credits)

What is objectivity? What is perspective? Such questions have major implications for reading and writing any text. When asked of journalism, they are key elements of media literacy, because the practice of journalism shapes where we get our news from, and thus how we learn about the world. This course interrogates the fundamental tenets of journalistic objectivity, professional distance, and aims to recast them for the modern era. Throughout the semester, students will read work that both uphold and challenge existing notions of what makes an observer, and what makes a subject, and will become adept at power analysis that reveals hidden prejudices and biases that come to shape a story. Such skills will prepare students not only to better understand journalism, but also aid them in engaging with any text or ideas at Gallatin, and beyond. In addition to short weekly writing exercises, students will produce three longer essays interrogating – journalistically – ideas of person, place, and event. They will also produce a final analytical paper. Readings will include such journalism classics by Adrian Nicole Leblanc, Katherine Boo, Janet Malcolm, and John Hersey as well as contemporary works by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, Saidiya Hartman, Lorelei Lee, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.