Washington, Values & the Press Journalism 585 Regent University, Northern Virginia campus Spring, 2000 Terry Mattingly Associate Professor and Journalist in Residence I. OVERTURE What is the purpose of this seminar? It is easier to begin by saying what is not the purpose of this seminar. This seminar cannot give you the definitive word on the role that the news media play in our nation's capital. This seminar cannot even give you an all-inclusive grid of handy academic names to describe the different theories about the role that the news media play in Washington, D.C. I'll go further than that. This one-semester seminar cannot even begin to cover the differing views that conservative Christians have about the role that the news media play in this city. So what is the purpose of this seminar? When you go to a college or pro football game, there are almost always people in or around booths near the entry gates who are shouting, "Programs! Programs! You can't tell the players without a program!" What they mean, of course, is that it's hard to watch the game when you don't know the players' names and what players play what role on what team. Unfortunately for us, the crazy-quilt coalition of folks who run the game in the arena called Washington, D.C., don't even have the courtesy to sell programs to newcomers arriving inside the Beltway. So the purpose of this seminar is to see if, by reading and observation, we can figure out who the players are and what teams they play for and, here is the hard part, whether they are playing a game that has any discernable rules. And here's the really fun part. The players in the news media don't just get to describe the game for the people in the stands and at home. They get to play in the game, too. At least, some people say that's fair, while others disagree. We need a program. Where will we find one? II. COURSE DESCRIPTION In academic terms, this online class will be simple as I can make it. This is a graduate-level reading seminar. We will read a common core of four books and write short reports about them, while taking part in discussions of their contents. In this case, the seminar discussions will take place in the form of discussion "threads" shared via electronic mail. We also will have at least two, and hopefully three, chances to meet face- to-face in social settings and at an important set of hearings on Capitol Hill. In addition to the book reports, each student in the class will read at least one other book and write a final research report on a subject linked to it, a subject of mutual interest to the student, the professor and the class. We will make extensive use of periodicals on the World Wide Web, such as http://www.washingtonpost.com and http://www.washingtontimes.com III. OBJECTIVES (a) Our primary goal is to watch one time-defined slice of the Washington, D.C., game. Our timing is wonderful. We are in the early stages of the playoffs - called election primaries - that lead up to the Superbowl, a national election that will select a new president, perhaps change the shape of the House of Representatives and almost certainly determine who will make appointments that will shape the Supreme Court for a decade or more. Our books will give us a shared vocabulary for our discussions over popcorn and our keyboards, as we watch the game. (b) We cannot master the game. People in this city make six-figure salaries on cable television arguing over who has mastered the game. Everyone admits that the game keeps changing. What we can do, as students of journalism, is pay close attention to the role that media professionals play in the game, while trying extra hard to listen in (via the media) to their debates about that role. This will require a tremendous amount of reading. Welcome to the journalism capital of the world. Get a bigger computer monitor and a bottle of Advil (that's what I find works best for eye-strain headaches). (c) We will learn that most people in this town agree that there are three essential teams, while they may argue about the names. These teams make up what most Beltway residents call the "DC Triangle" or the "Iron Triangle." If you grasp three concepts this semester, then this online seminar will have been a success. Those concepts are: (1) The DC Triangle consists of the government, the press and a strange third team that consists of special-interest lobbyists and their academic experts, who usually work in "think tanks." (2) In this town, people are constantly changing teams, as they move around the edges of this triangle. (3) The world of religious and cultural conservatives (the term "religious right" is much too simplistic) can't seem to get a handle on the role that the press plays in the DC Triangle. (d) By learning who some of the key players are and what they think about "values" issues in this town, we will be better prepared to join in the game - as professionals or as academic observers. IV. TEXTBOOKS: Spring of 2000. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America (paperback edition), by James Davison Hunter. BasicBooks. 1991. Hardball: How Politics Is Played, by One Who Knows the Game (Revised and updated edition), by Chris Matthews. A Touchstone Book, from Simon & Schuster. 1999. 1 Out of Order, by Thomas E. Patterson. Vintage Books. 1994. How Washington Really Works (Fourth edition), by Charles Peters. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. 1993. Washington, D.C., is one of the world's great cities for news junkies. Ideas come before research and ideas begin with reading. If you need help subscribing to a newspaper, please let me know. Also, I recommend that you create your own free online newspaper, by going to the Crayon site (http://www.crayon.net) and following the directions. ALTERNATE TEXTBOOKS: Spring of 1999 Note how new most of the following books are! There are dozens and dozens of books that are highly relevant to this class published every year. We could do just as long a list of relevant books from almost any year since Watergate, especially from the year before and the year after presidential elections. So feel free to nominate others for this list, when it comes time to research topics. Blinded By Might: Can the Religious Right Save America?, by Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson. Zondervan Books. 1999. Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story, by Michael Isikoff. Crown Publishers. 1999. Reason In The Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law and Education, by Phillip E. Johnson. InterVarsity Press. 1995. Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine, by Howard Kurtz. The Free Press. 1998. Don't Shoot the Messenger: How Our Growing Hatred of the Media Threatens Free Speech for All of Us, by Bruce W. Sanford. The Free Press. 1999. All Too Human: A Political Education, by George Stephanopoulos. Little, Brown and Company. 1999. Feeding the Beast: The White House Versus The Press, by Kenneth T. Walsh. Random House. 1996. Under God: Religion and American Politics, by Garry Wills. Simon & Schuster. 1990. V. REQUIREMENTS (a) How do you take class attendance in an online course? In my mind, this class meets at least twice a week - on Tuesdays and Fridays. I hope, by the end of the semester - to have an online chat session going on my new homepage at http://www.crosswalk.com. This will be in the news and culture pages and should have this address: http://www.getreligion.com. At the very least, I expect members of this class to participate in online discussions - by posting their own commentaries on articles circulated, book chapters, etc. - at least twice a week. (b) You must read the books and prove to me, in writing, that you have read the books. Must you read all of the periodical and newspaper articles that I send around? No. But know that I am paying attention. I also have this fervent hope that my students will actually spot material for this class that I miss! (c) There is no way that I can, in part because of arthritis, type all of my lectures into the computer and enter them on this site. Please consider this syllabus to be the main lecture in this course, as well as the columns that I write for the Scripps Howard News Service in Washington, D.C. You can trace my work at http://www.tmatt.net. Remember that this is a reading seminar. The readings are the lectures. I selected the books for a reason. (d) Now, this is my first online course. But I have, for five years, served as one of the leaders of an online forum for Christian writers. I do this online discussion stuff all the time. I know that you can't sit down and write 666 words every day. But you can read and take part. You can spot items in the news and circulate them. (e) You also can watch the Beltway region calendars and the television listings, especially C-SPAN and PBS for coverage of events that will be of interest to this class. Then, with a warning note, we can set our VCRs and "attend" common events. I have also been told that there will be some crucial hearings this semester on cultural and moral issues that are sure to come up in this class. One of the key speakers, in a late March set of hearings, will almost certainly join us at Union Station for a dinner meeting. We have all kinds of options for how to bring this class to life. And you are required to take part, since class participation will contribute 25 percent to your final grade. (f) As mentioned earlier, there will be four required book reports. They will consist of the following. You will briefly summarize, in no more than 700 words, the relevance of the book to this class. Then you will find and type into this online report five direct quotations and page numbers from the book that you believe represent the author's clearest statements of the book's central thesis. These reports will contribute 50 percent of your final grade. (g) There will be no final exam. Your final report will be your last class assignment. This report will contribute 25 percent of your grade. How long should this report be? In most graduate settings, a good final report is never less than 12 pages -double-spaced - and never more than 20. That is the rule of thumb that we will use, using standard Microsoft Word97 formatting standards for an academic paper. V. COURSE OUTLINE: (a) The course outline will unfold in the regular announcements on Blackboard. (b) But you have to have someplace to start. So here is the order in which we will read the core texts: "How Washington Really Works," "Hardball," "Out of Order" and "Culture Wars." These books are really easy reading, especially the first two. We will only spend two weeks on each of the first two, looking for a common vocabulary, and then three weeks on the third, as the primaries heat up. Then, we will consider "Culture Wars" as my contribution to the class as a major book for discussion. (c) Then each of you will take over, announcing your final research topics and leading us in discussions of the extra book that you will read. Prepare to start work, writing your own game program. Under The Mercy, Prof. Terry Mattingly Office hours: Mondays, 2-4 p.m. at CCCU Wednesdays, 2-4 p.m. at Irish Times Fridays, 2-4 p.m. at Regent-Northern Virginia Home office: 1686 Barrister Court, Crofton, MD 21114 410-451-3214, 410-533-6028 (cell), 410-451-2812 (fax) http://www.tmatt.net or tmatt@tmatt.net Regent office: 1412-A Duke Street, Alexandria, Va. 22314 703-837-1912 (front desk), 703-837-1957 (voice mail), 703-837-1914 (fax) tmatt@regent.edu Capitol Hill office at the CCCU: 329 8th Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002 202-546-8713, ext. 207, 202-546-8914 (fax) tmatt@cccu.org O Heavenly King, O Comforter, Spirit of Truth, who art in all places and fillest all things; Treasury of good things and Giver of Life: Come and dwell in us and cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls, O gracious Lord.