Selected News English Reading

Course Instructor: TONG Yanfang (Ellen) E-mail: ellentongs@163.comWebsite: Ellen’s Workshop (ellensangreal.org)Wechat: Ellen’s Workshop (ellens_tales)

In old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press. That is an improvement certainly. But still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralizing. Somebody — was it Burke? — called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time no doubt. But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three. The Lords Temporal say nothing, the Lords Spiritual have nothing to say, and the House of Commons has nothing to say and says it. We are dominated by Journalism.

----Oscar Wilde

• Why is journalism called “the fourth estate”? What does it mean?

• Why is there such a contradiction between the two perceptions of the fourth estate?

(hegemony / censorship)

Why are we taking this course?

Plato’s Cave

Course Introduction

I: Course Objective & Topics to cover

II: Assessment & basic tasksIII: Accesses to course materialsIV: Sources of news

Go to Homework

I: Course ObjectivesThis course should give students:

A basic knowledge and understanding of English news: what makes “news” & how to read behind news. Ability to read, understand, and analyze news

English News & English News Reading

Course Objective – 1 English News

Topics to cover• basics of news: definition of “journalism”, news

headlines, leads, structure, news language, news bias, etc.

types of news: soft news & hard news, in-depth report, breaking news, feature story, opinion, etc.

• different categories of news: international, domestic; sports, obituaries, disasters, business, society,

science and technology, environment etc.

Course Objective – 2. English News Reading

What makes an ideal reader?

A reader who perfectly understands what s/he is readingA reader that believes everything he reads

A reader who reads mostly for information that can help handle lifeA reader who quickly learns something useful from what s/he reads

A reader who digs into what s/he reads for things s/he needsA reader who feels there’s something

that could only be felt by spending time reading…

Sample 1 Sample 2

• Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.

---- Sir Francis Bacon

What’s an ideal reader?

• understanding perfectly• getting inspired profoundly• making connections

effectively• reading critically/skeptically• …

II: AssessmentClass Performance 50% + Final 50%--class performance: 1. Pair Report: 10% 2. Quizzes &/ assignments: 20% 3. Class participation: 20% (12% +/--)4. Bonus Credit: +0~3% for each optional task Deduction: absenteeism: -2% each time late arrival & bad influence: 0~3%

Refer to details in the word file named “Course Introduction”

III: Accesses to Course Material (1)ellensangreal.or

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III: Accesses to Course Material (2)

IV: Sources of News

Major Newspapers in the US• The New York Times• The Los Angeles Post• The Washington Post• Christian Science Monitor• The Wall Street Journal• USA Today• …

Major Newspapers in the UK• The Times• The Guardian• The Daily Telegraph• Daily Mirror• The Sun• The Economist• …

Four Major News Agencies in the West• Agence France Presse (AFP) in

France• Reuters in UK• Associated Press (AP) in US• The United Press International

(UPI) in US ( 美国合众国际新闻社 )

What is news?• News is a fresh report of events, facts, or

opinions that people did not know before they read your story.

• News is anything timely that interests a number of persons, and the best news is that which has the greatest interest of the greatest number.

• News is any event, idea or opinion that is timely, that interests or affects a large number of people in a community and that is capable of being understood by them.

• If a dog bites a man, it is not news; if a man bites a dog, it’s (big) news.

• News is the reporting of anything timely which has importance, use or interest to a considerable number of persons in a publication audience.

a definition from Dictionary of Canadian English

• Something told as having just happened: information about something that has just happened or will soon happen.

• 新闻是已经或正在或将要发生的事实的最及时的报道。

A News Story Contains:• 5Ws

– Who is the story about?– What is the story about?– Where did the story happen?– When did this story happen?– Why did this story happen? (How did the story happen?)

Sample

Homework Pair report (1): Choose 1 to 4 of the

news agencies in the west, and give a 3-5 minute’s introduction.

Pair report (2): Give a brief introduction to the concept of “The Fourth Estate” in front of the class

For All: Read the course materials of Week 1 (on Wechat account / website; you may choose to print them out)

Recommend: preview the course material of week 2 when receiving them on the phone

RecommendationTV: The Newsroom (learn about what’s behind breaking news; Ethics of Media / Journalism; Competitions in the Media Industry)

News video: CNN Students’ News; …