Hamlet and the Tabloids 08

Tomorrow, you will be directing a performance of Act I of Oleanna.

You will be working on parts of the act in small sections.

Here are the sections of text you will be working on:

1. Shamsel and rabidxpanda: beginning of play to very bottom of pg. 9 AND “if education is so bad” on pg. 35 to bottom of pg. 38.

2. bird811 and epistrophy: “Aha…sit down” on pg. 15 to “final agreements for the new house” on pg. 20 AND “if education is so bad” on pg. 35 to bottom of pg. 38.

3. ironice_vac_salesman and Daedalus: “you’re buying a new house” on pg. 20 to second “I want to know about my grade” on pg. 24 AND “if education is so bad” on pg. 35 to bottom of pg. 38.

4. wikichica and Tayyunit: “Of course you do” on pg. 24 to “I’M SPEAKING” on 30 AND “if education is so bad” on pg. 35 to bottom of pg. 38.

5. Skootkadoot and yellow37: “I’m sorry.” on pg. 30 to “I don’t think I’m telling them that” on pg. 35 AND “if education is so bad” on pg. 35 to bottom of pg. 38.

Instructions:

1. Please look over your assigned sections of the Act.

2. Decide what Carol and John each want to accomplish in your assigned section (i.e., to get a ham sandwich, to kill the king, to express frustration over failed love love relationships, to win the big game, etc.)

3. On your copy of the script, write down four possible actions, vocal inflections, strategies, etc. the characters could use to accomplish their goals.

4.  On your script, keep track of the status symbols each character uses in each moment. For a status refresher, take a look here.

5. I will be checking your notes in the book. Do not write notes in a separate document; keep them in your book. This will count as a quiz grade. Each individual person should work on his or her own and bring his or her own copy of the book. No exceptions. No excuses.

- Please ignore the characters I assigned you last class. Here are your new characters and scenes to read for class:

Bird 811: Claudius 4.1 and 4.3

Shamsel: Horatio 4.5 and 4.6

Tayyunit: Gertrude 4.1 and 4.5

Epistrophy 58: Ophelia 4.5 and 4.7
Wikichica: Ophelia 4.5 and 4.7

Ironic_Vaccum_Salesman: Laertes 4.5 and 4.7

RabidxPanda: Laertes 4.4 and 4.5

Yellow37: Claudius 4.2 and 4.7

Read over the scene(s) you have been assigned above, focusing on the character you have been assigned above. On your wiki, please write down answers to the following questions as they pertain to your scene(s):

1.  What new information did you learn about your character that would help an actor or actress get to know him/her better?

2. In each scene you looked at, what is his or her motivation and objective? In other words what does your assigned character really want (sometimes this will be difficult or impossible to determine)?

3. How does your character feel about the events taking place in your scene? How does your character feel about Hamlet?

4. How does your character affect the events of your assigned scene(s) ? How is he or she affected by the events of your assigned scene(s)?

5. What do other characters say about your character and how do they react to him or her? How does your character feel about other characters?

6.  How is your character important to your assigned scene(s)? In other words, do you learn something new about the plot through him or her? Do you gain any insights about  Hamlet by comparing/contrasting him to your character?

7. WHat questions are raised by your character’s words and/or behavior in your assigned scene(s)?

8. What questions that you’ve previously had are answered by your character’s words and/or behavior in your assigned scene(s)?

- The next Hamlet log will be due on Wednesday, May 28. This log will include all of Act IV and the first scene of Act V.

- You MUST set up a time to meet with me and discuss your articles so far, or you will receive a C on any articles you wrote for the last edition of the newspaper.

- Next deadline day will be Friday, May 30.

- The Last Deadline Day (on the rest of Act V) will be the final.

- Deadline day is on Monday, May 19!

- Remember: Everyone must do two articles: one regular lede and one followup (or second-day) lede.

- Model your newspaper after The Daily News or The New York Post.

- Here’s an article, written for journalists, about how journalists should address rape in newspapers. Please try to keep Carol’s feelings in mind when you write. If you’re interested, here is the rest of the series of articles on this subject.

- Please finish the article you started writing today about Carol or John. Even if you started writing the article as a group, you must finish it as an individual. Post your comments on your wikispace page. Be sure to label your work HOMEWORK 14 (so I can find it).

- Please finish reading Oleanna for the next class, and then answer the following questions on your wiki page: Why do Carol and John have such difficulty communicating?

- Using the information in TECHNIQUES OF LANGUAGE and TECHNIQUES OF IRRELEVANCE and Techniques of Self-Deception, find the exact moments in the text when  John and/or Carol are/is proving a point very poorly or very well (from anywhere in the book). Please quote from the text in your wiki, and be sure to provide page numbers.
-Please read this excerpt about second-day leads from Reporting for the Media by Fred Fedler, a journalism textbook.

“Followups,” which are also called “second-day” and “developing” stories, report subsequent developments in stories that were reported earlier. Major stories rarely begin and end in a single day, and news organizations prepare a fresh article or package each time a new development arises. So stories about a trial, a legislative session, political campaign or flight to the moon may appear in the media every day for weeks. Reporters for The Daily Oklahoman said several months after a bomb destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City that their paper still was running daily followup stories. They expected the story to remain in the news for years because of trials and appeals.

Although the followup story is tied to a past event, its lead always emphasizes the latest developments. Followups may summarize previous developments, but that information is presented as concisely as possible and placed later in the story.

Followup stories about disasters are especially common. On Monday, news organizations may report that an explosion trapped 47 miners in a West Virginia coal field. They will report later developments on Tuesday, perhaps that rescuers have found 21 bodies. On Wednesday, the news media may report that seven miner have been found alive. Followup stories published on Friday may describe the funerals held for the known dead. Rescue workers may find all the remaining bodies on Saturday, and work in the mine may resume the following Tuesday. Weeks later, another followup story may report that state and federal investigators have determined the cause of the explosion. Months later, the final followup may report that lawsuits filed against the mine’s owners have been dropped in return for payments of $260,000 to each victim’s family.

The following leads from The New York Times trace new developments over five months after President Bill Clinton nominated Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr. to be the U.S. surgeon general.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7–President Clinton’s nominee for Surgeon General was dealt another blow today as anti-abortion forces stepped up their assault on his record, saying he had participated in a study to help women induce their own abortions.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15–With a majority of the Senate still undecided on the fate of his nomination to be Surgeon General, Dr. Henry Foster Jr. went to Capital Hill today to begin lobbying for support.

RUSSELL, Kan., April 15–The Senate majority leader, Bob Dole, said today that he would oppose President Clinton’s choice for Surgeon General and might block the nomination from coming to a vote.

WASHINGTON, May 26–Benefiting from the swing vote of a freshman Republican, President CLinton’s beleaguered choice for Surgeon General, Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr., cleared his first political hurdle today when the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee sent his nomination to the full Senate.

WASHINGTON, June 22–The nomination of Dr. Henry Foster Jr. to be Surgeon General died in the SEnate today when Democrats failed for a second and final time to end a Republican filibuster.

Because each new development in a newsworthy situation prompts a followup story and each followup story recapitulates earlier stories, some viewers and readers grow weary of the repetition and believe the news media do it only to sensationalize stories. People who were unhappy with the amount of coverage given to the O.J. Simpson murder trial often expressed such views. And yet news organizations cover such events intensely because large numbers of readers and viewers are interested. Americans were so enthralled with the Simpson trial that the audiences for the nightly network news were down as much as 10 percent because people were watching live coverage of the trial on cable channels CNN and Court TV.

Sometimes a followup story does not report new events but adds information unavailable earlier. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s arrest of a notorious computer thief who had stolen thousands of data files, including more than 20,000 credit card numbers, received fronpage coverage in The New York Times. The next day, The Times followed up the initial story with another that described how the computer thief’s work exposed the vulnerabilities of the Internet.
Followup stories are becoming more common as news organizations devote more resources to making sure important stories are followed to their conclusions. Some organizations have established regular columns or segments for followups. In the past, critics complained that journalists, like firefighters, raced from one major story to the next, devoting most of their attention to momentary crises. Critics added that when one crisis began to subside, reporters moved on to the next, so older stories disappeared form the news before they had been fully resolved. To address this problem, news organizations now regularly return to important topics and tell readers what has happened since the topics dropped out of the headlines. Followups may relate that an area devastated by a hurricane had been rebuilt or that victims of an accident are still suffering from its consequences…

Checklist for Followups:

1. Write a followup each time there is newsworthy development in a continuing story.

2. Stress the new developments in the lead and body of the story.

3. Summarize the important background and earlier developments. ”

For Honors:

Using the Second-Day Leads/Followup Stories Exercise, please write a complete news story for each day’s new developments (one for “yesterday” on the sheet and one for “today” on the sheet). Post both stories on your wiki page.

McGreevey

- Read the second act of Oleanna.

- Enjoy the break from homework.

1. Continue working on your Hamlet Logs!

2. Finish reading the first act of Oleanna

3.  On your wiki, under the title “Homework 12,” please do both of the following:

•    Write a three-paragraph description of a day in the life as “Carol” based on what you read in the first act of Oleanna.
•    Write a three-paragraph description of a day int he life as “John” based on what you read in the first act of Oleanna.

5. Honors: On your wiki, under “Homework 12, Honors,” write an answer to the following questions: Is John a good teacher? Why or why not? Please quote from specific moments in the text to back up your opinion. Compare the relationship between John and Carol to the relationship between Hamlet and his father’s ghost. Use specific examples from both plays to back up your opinion.

- Deadline Day is Thursday, May 1. Get your articles ready!

-  If you want to get a head start, please go ahead and get started on your next Hamlet log. It will be due on May 7 by 5 p.m.

- Also due next week by 5 p.m. is the next part of Propaganda. For this next part, please learn to recognize TECHNIQUES OF LANGUAGE and TECHNIQUES OF IRRELEVANCE. Using any political speech EVER, please come up with one example of each language technique. Copy and paste your example (or retype it) on your wikispace.

- Before you spend too much time writing, be sure to check out the Article Rubric for May 1 Tabloid. Let the editor or me know BEFORE CLASS if you have any questions.

Please come up with some story ideas for tomorrow’s story planning meeting.

Then, please write on your wiki page which of the methods of self deception are being used in the following 10 examples:

1. Whenever Mrs. Tackberry complained that their family was large enough, Mr. Tackberry could convince her to undertake another pregnancy by contending that since they already had six children, one more would hardly make a difference.

2. “I don’t know what’s gotten into people. They can’t stay put; they’re always on the move. Never satisfied with what they’ve got, always wanting something new and different. I’ve lived here in this same house for 50 years, and it still looks good to me.”

3. I guess that if men were ever going to abolish poverty they would have done so already. It can’t be done, and we’d better save our energy.”

4. “Either you refuse this drink and remain decent, or you accept it and go to the devil.”

5. “Poverty, poverty, poverty! Everybody’s talking about poverty. But nobody dares mention the cause. It’s just laziness, and that’s all.”

6. Philosophers are people who go out at night and look at the moon then wonder why it’s there.”

7. “If we convoy ships for England, we must got o war with Germany, because if we take one step against the Axis Powers, logically we will have to take the next, and there’s no stopping place.”

8. When the candidate was asked whether he favored decreasing subsidies to farmers he said that the problem was a difficult one, that he saw many arguments for an against such a proposal, that therefore he would not decide until — when elected — he was actually faced with the problem.

9. When presented with evidence that his grandfather was a corrupt politician elected to office by illegal votes, the candidate replied, “Politics was a rough and tumble affair in those days.”

10. “I know I didn’t win the race, but what do those people expect of a person? The track was too wet!”

- Continue working on your Hamlet logs!

- Please bring a hat (not a fancy or fragile one) to school. We will need them for class.

- Please look over the “Techniques of Self-Deception” from Assignment 2. See if you can find an example of any four of them from Act I in Hamlet. Post what you find on the wiki.

- HONORS: Find one feature story in a tabloid of your choice this weekend. Print it out and bring it to school.

- Hamlet Log 2 will be due on Wednesday,  April 23 by 5 p.m.

- The next “deadline day” will be Friday, April 25. As always, the newspaper will be due, in my hand, by the end of class.

- Honors folks will write stories using alternative leads (as per the honors assignment in Homework 7).

-  Please decide what role you would like to play for the next issue of the newspaper!

- Remember: The news needs to come from the long speeches and soliloquies (20 lines or more) from Acts 1 and 2.

A. Begin reading Act II and writing your Act II Hamlet log. This log will be due on Wednesday, April 23.

B. On your wiki page, please write down what you thought worked and did not work on our first deadline day. Write up a list of 10 tips you will give to your replacement for the next issue of the Elsinore Tribune.

C. For Honors folks:

1. If you want to be in honors, let me know by writing I WANT TO BE IN HONORS on your wikipage (in bold, caps, and red).

2. First assignment. Do these two exercises by writing the answers on your wiki page: Summary Ledes Exercises

3. Second assignment. On this attachment –> Alternative Leads, please read and then do any five of the “Evaluating Alternative Leads” exercises and the first two “Writing Alternative Leads” exercises that appear at the end. Write your answers on your wiki page.

- If you haven’t yet uploaded your Hamlet log to the wiki, please do it soonest.

- Work on the articles you were assigned in class today. You will be graded primarily on your lede. This does not mean that you should skip the rest of the article, however.

- Here is a quick summary of things that need to appear in a lede.

- Here is an overview of what needs to appear in the rest of newspaper article.

- The newspaper, completed, printed out and in my hand, copy edited, and spell-checked, is due at the end of our next class.

- If you didn’t submit it yet, please upload your Hamlet log to the wiki (this assignment is now overdue).

- If you didn’t get a chance to do it in class, please upload to the wiki a “tabloid” headline and lede and a “broadsheet” headline and lede version of the same story.

- Please read this (very opinionated) article about some of the other differences between tabloid and broadsheet.

- Come to class prepared to decide what the first issue of the newspaper will contain.

- Please complete a “log” for the first act of Hamlet (due by April 7 at 5 PM). If, for whatever reason, you can’t access the wiki, HamletandTabloids, or or don’t quite understand what you are supposed to do, please let me know.

- Please bring in two copies of an “avatar” (on paper!) to represent you on our class PROPAGANDA board. It can be NO LARGER than 1 inch by 1 inch.

- Think of five possible newspaper stories one might write about the events that take place in Act 1. Write headlines and ledes for those stories. (Hint: Don’t forget WWWWWH and Why should the reader care? and Put the News first!)

- Decide what role you would like to have for the first issue of the newspaper. Everyone has to write three newspaper stories unless s/he also has an administrative role (editor, copyeditor, photoeditor, layout design). Administrators only have to write two stories in addition to their administrative role.

- Send Ms. Morris a wiki username!

- Or, go to this page, create an account and request access.

- Have a fun break!

- If, for whatever reason, you did not bring in your odd-subject periodical to class on Wednesday, please bring it to the next class.

- Please decide what sort of audience should be reading our Hamlet tabloid/newspaper. Come up with three possibilities. We will share them and then make a decision during class.

-  Please bring in a summary of today’s class. We were trying to answer the question “What is news?” Your answer should have your NAME on it and should be printed out on a piece of paper that you bring to class.

- Decide on a user name for the wiki the class will be using. Remember: your user name should not sound anything like your real name and should not mention any sensitive information about your location, phone number, or IM name.

- Please bring your copy of Hamlet to class.

- Please look over these Techniques of Self-Deception.

- Learn them, for you will need them, my dears; you will need them…

Hello, and welcome to “Hamlet and the Tabloids!” This class is going to change your life, so get ready for it. Your first assignment is to:

1. Go to a news stand (online or offline) and find a newspaper or magazine that concentrates on a subject that you would never imagine thinking about. The ENTIRE periodical should be dedicated to just  one subject. Please do not choose an entertainment periodical.

2. Bring your periodical to school.

3. Go through the tabloid you picked up during the mini class field trip. Pick an article in the tabloid and find the lede for that article. Bring the article to school.