Cultural Journalism

Written by Administrator Friday, 14 January 2011 09:12 -

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Course description:

The course aimed at acquiring knowledge that enables communication through art and through journalistic text production which complies with the cultural journalism. The approach is quite complex and cultural journalism should be taken into consideration from both perspective, the journalistic and cultural one.

Our approach is to challenge the need for personalized interactions with the cultural product, with its author. The primary purpose of this course is to inculcate habits of thinking that are vital to informed and intelligent cultural reporting and criticism. This means that students will be taught theories of cultural writing, which they can then apply to their practice. Rather, the point is that your thought process - as you write a piece, as you prepare to write it, or even before that, as you go through your daily life in a world full of potential subject matter-- is an integral part of your work as a writer. We all carry on some kind of conversation with ourselves, and with the people we know, about the culture we live in. As writers, however, our task is to self-consciously translate that private conversation into a public one that connects with readers. In this course we will address two questions that bear on this translation. One is historical: what has been said in the cultural conversation before you came to it? To find your place in the conversation, just as you would have to do if you joined a roomful of people talking, you will need to grapple with cultural issues and debates that go back half a century-- debates about the nature of art and criticism, high culture versus mass culture, art and politics. What is the relation of the individual to the larger world? How does our intimate experience fit into a cultural narrative? The second question is personal: what experiences, ideas, emotions, and prejudices do you bring to the conversation? While conventional news writers are simply expected to put their own attitudes aside, cultural journalists must be conscious of their standpoint and its impact on their observation and judgment. Your credibility and the power of your literary voice depend a good deal on your ability to develop this capacity for self-reflection. Nowadays journalists are using culture in the sense of entertainment, education or tabloidization. The proper situation of cultural journalism must be seen between the target and cultural journalist. An obvious phenomenon is treating culture, referring here to cultural publication, as loisir . The journalists active in the cultural field must take upon themselves the responsibility for what constitutes political socialization, i.e. the process whereby individuals and groups assimilate political culture. It is a commonplace that the accomplishment of the formative mission of cultural journalism conveys also political knowledge, the correct deciphering of events, tracing out and transmitting attitudes capable of influencing political opinions. The chances for exercising the cultural and educational function of the daily and weekly press lie in three directions: (1) continuing evolution of society, which would reduce the economic and cultural handicaps; (2) support of culture by the newspapers and trusts owners; and (3) continuing publication of reviews, debates and cultural information by journalists. Far from being an

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Cultural Journalism
Written by Administrator Friday, 14 January 2011 09:12 -

unessential act, the debate on culture is in fact about transmitting a tradition, creating an identity, offering ontological references. It is unfortunate that neither the interwar tradition nor the profound commitment of readers have been able to secure a well-deserved distribution of the quality press.

The publications of cultural journalism often become sources of pride and identity for the communities they describe. Interaction between students and their sources creates understanding that bridges generations and, in a larger sense, different cultures. Whether produced by students or by adults, by amateurs or professionals, cultural journalism tries to capture in sufficient detail meaningful characteristics of a past that might otherwise be lost.

Mandatory bibliography:
1. Durst, M. (1980). A look back: The history of the cultural journalism movement . Journal of experimental education, 3(1), 40-42. 2. Wigginton, E., & Bennett, M. (Eds.). (1986). FOXFIRE 9. New York: Anchor. 3. Wigginton, E. (1985). Sometimes a shining moment . New York: Anchor. 4. Wood, P. (1975). You and aunt Arie: A guide to cultural journalism based on Foxfire and its descendant. Washington, DC: Institutional Development and Economic Affairs Service. 5. Bing, Leon. (1991) Do or Die . New York: Harper Perennial. 6. Greene, Bob. (1991) A Midwestern Boy on His Own . New York: Atheneum. 7. Jacobs, Jane. (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities . New York: Random House. 8. Kotlowitz, Alex, (1991) There Are No Children Here . New York: Anchor Press, Doubleday. 9. Terkel, Studs. (1974), Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day . New York: Pantheon. 10. Trachtenberg, Alan, (1989) Reading American Photographs: Images as HistoryMatthew Brady to Walker Evans. Hill and Wangt. 11. Zinsser, William, (1976). On Writing Well . New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1976

Recommended Readings:
1. Garrison, Bruce (2004). Professional Feature Writing (fourth edition), Mahwah, NewJersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc Inc. 2. Granato, Leo (2002) Newspaper Feature Writing : University of New South Wales Press

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(UNSW Press). 3. Kramer, Mark.(1995) Literary Journalism. Ed. Norman Sims and Mark Kramer. New York: Ballantine. 4. Minot, Stephen. (2003) Literary Nonfiction: The Fourth Genre. Upper Saddle River: Prentice. 5. Nguyen, B. Minh, and Porter Shreve. (2005) Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: I & Eye . New York: Pearson. 6. Wolfe, Tom (1975) The new journalism, London: Picador. 7. Wigginton, Eliot. (1986) Sometimes a Shining Moment: The Foxfire Experience . Garden City, New York: Anchor Press, Doubleday.

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