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Journalism

OBIT.

Directed by Vanessa Gould

At a time when the free press is under threat, OBIT. takes a rare look inside one of the United States' foremost journalistic institutions, The New York Times. The steadfast writers of the paper's Obituaries section approach their work with journalistic rigor and narrative flair, each day depositing the details of a handful of extraordinary lives into the cultural memory. Going beyond the byline and into the minds of those chronicling the recently deceased, OBIT. is ultimately a celebration of life that conveys the central role journalism plays in capturing and reporting vital pieces of our history.

DVD (Region 1, Color, Closed Captioned) / 2017 / 95 minutes

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VISUAL COMMUNICATION: MEDIA ETHICS AND JOURNALISM

With Paul Martin Lester

One of the more recent aspects of mass communication is a focus on visual communication. Using interviews with four of the foundational scholars, this series offers those who study and teach visual communication, a more humanized, personalized approach to understanding theorists and their work. Each program features one-on-one interviews with founding scholars in the visual communication field focusing on their background (how they got into the field), their contribution, their critics and their future work. Each scholar addresses visual communication from a different perspective.

Features a one-on-one interview with Paul Martin Lester, a founding scholar in the visual communication field focusing on his background (how he got into the field), his contribution, his critics and his future work. Lester addresses and provides insight into visual communication from his own perspective.

DVD / 2017 / 25 minutes

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ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: TRUTH, DECEPTION, AND THE SPIRIT OF I.F. STONE

Director: Fred Peabody

Independent journalists like Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and Matt Taibbi are changing the face of journalism, providing investigative, adversarial alternatives to mainstream, corporate news outlets. Our cameras follow as they expose government and corporate deception - just as the ground-breaking independent journalist I.F. Stone did decades ago.

DVD / 2016 / 91 minutes

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DEMOCRACY ROAD

By Turid Rogne

After more than 20 years in exile in Norway, the Burmese journalists of DVB are returning to their homeland to establish their independent news station there. Editor-in-chief Aye Chan Naing and reporter Than Win Htut have dreamt about this for years, but their struggle for freedom and democracy is not over yet.

DEMOCRACY ROAD is a road movie documentary following the journalists of DVB in Myanmar in a critical phase of the establishment of the newborn democracy. With their existence as an independent news channel and Myanmar's future as a democracy at stake, senior reporter Than Win Htut and his colleagues hit the road with their groundbreaking show "Our Nation, Our Land." Their goal is to investigate the living conditions of ordinary people off the beaten path in Myanmar, but the machinery of the old dictatorship is still running. Simultaneously, editor-in-chief, Aye Chan Naing, has to negotiate with DVB's former enemies in the infamous Ministry of Information. The road towards democracy has only just begun...

Director Turid Rogne has followed the journalists of DVB for more than 10 years. With both boldness and sensitivity, she tells the story of life in a former dictatorship through the people who try to influence history.

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 60 minutes

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KINGS OF THE PAGES: THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMIC STRIPS

Directed by Robert Lemieux

At the turn of the 20th century, two of the most powerful men in America were newspaper magnates William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Noted mostly for their contentious rivalry and sensationalist news coverage, they were also responsible for cultivating some of the era's most recognizable celebrities-Nemo, Krazy, Happy Hooligan, George McManus, Ignatz, Mutt, Buster Brown, Hans and Fritz, and Offissa Pup, to name a few.

In their ongoing battle to attract newspaper readers, both Hearst and Pulitzer had discovered that comic strips were a strategic addition. Often raiding each other's staffs to acquire the best talent, both men recognized the potential. It wasn't until Hearst unveiled the first full color, 8-page comic supplement in 1896, that the potential was fully realized, prompting Hearst's now famous quote motto... "Eight Pages of Iridescent Polychromous Effulgence That Makes The Rainbow Look Like A Lead Pipe!"

Over the next fifty years, that polychromatic effulgence would usher in the Golden Age of the American comic strip. During that time span, more than 150 different strips made their way into America's living rooms. Every week the characters and their creators provided humorous entertainment and tickled many a funny bone. Reading the comics became a cultural phenomenon.

Only available in North America.

DVD / 2016 / 24 minutes

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BAPTISM OF FIRE, A

By Jerome Clement-Wilz

"As it gets harder to sell pictures, we take greater and greater risks," explains Corentin Fohlen. A war correspondent still in his twenties, Fohlen is part of a new generation of freelance journalists who fly to war zones from Libya to Afghanistan on their own dime in the hope of selling images to news media outlets.

But the carefree attitude of youth can change when confronted with the harsh reality of life in wartime. When a colleague is killed in Syria, Fohlen's thirst for adventure turns into a deeper reflection on the meaning of work and life. Director Clement-Wilz followed Fohlen through shells and bullets for four years in order to create this riveting portrait of the life of a contemporary war correspondent.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2015 / 52 minutes

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HOT TYPE: 150 YEARS OF THE NATION

Director: Barbara Kopple

Hot Type: 150 Years of The Nation is a vivid, inside look at America's oldest continuously published weekly magazine. Shot over three years in intimate, cinema verite style, the film captures the day-to-day pressures and challenges of publishing the progressive magazine as it follows reporters out into the field, the editors who shape their work, and the editor-in chief who tries to keep all of the plates spinning.

Writers are the heart and soul of the magazine, and the film follows them extensively. Sasha Abramsky travels to West Texas to report on the years-long drought that has gripped the region and the devastating economic impact on farmers and residents. John Nichols unpacks what's going on behind the effort to recall Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. Amy Wilentz visits the "temporary" tent camps of Haiti, three years after the earthquake, to shed light on the dire conditions and lackluster international response. And Dani McClain reports on the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina, and its dynamic leader Rev. William Barber, as they push back against an extreme right-wing takeover of the state legislature.

In all of the current-day reported stories, The Nation's incredible trove of archival articles - and roster of writers - acts as an historical touchstone and illuminates how the past continuously ripples through and shapes current events.

At a fascinating moment in American history - politically, socially and culturally - the media landscape is changing at breathtaking speed. The film charts the journey of The Nation - and the nation - evolving into the future, as it is guided by its remarkable past.

DVD / 2015 / 92 minutes

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HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Director: Jerry Rothwell

How to Change the World chronicles the adventures of an eclectic group of young pioneers - Canadian hippie journalists, photographers, musicians, scientists, and American draft dodgers - who set out to stop Richard Nixon's atomic bomb tests in Amchitka, Alaska, and end up creating the worldwide green movement.

Greenpeace was founded on tight knit, passionate friendships forged in Vancouver in the early 1970s. Together they pioneered a template for environmental activism which mixed daring iconic feats and worldwide media: placing small rubber inflatables between harpooners and whales, blocking ice-breaking sealing ships with their bodies, spraying the pelts of baby seals with dye to make them valueless in the fur market. The group had a prescient understanding of the power of media, knowing that the advent of global mass communications meant that the image had become a more effective tool for change than the strike or the demonstration.

DVD (Region 1, Color) / 2015 / 109 minutes

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WORLD ACCORDING TO RUSSIA TODAY, THE

By Misja Pekel

In 2014, Malaysian Airlines passenger flight 17 was shot down with a rocket intended for the private plane of Russian president Vladimir Putin... If, that is, a viewer is relying on the satellite TV network Russia Today as their source for news.

These claims were not the first time Russia Today drew attention for counter-factual reporting: during the 2008 war in Georgia, the network reported that South Ossetians were the victims of genocide at the hands of Georgians. In 2014, the channel was warned by the British TV agency for its biased and inaccurate reporting on the uprising on Maidan Square in Kiev. The list goes on and on.

Russia Today (now renamed just RT) was launched in 2005 to bring a Russian-centric perspective on current political events to a global audience. After a decade of generous Kremlin funding, 2015 found the 24-hour news channel the biggest media organization on YouTube with 2 billion viewers: more than CNN and the BBC combined.

The network claims only to offer an alternative perspective to the monolithic view presented by mainstream Western media. But what kind of "reporting" is Russia Today actually doing? What is it like to work for the channel? How much influence does the Kremlin really have there? Is it possible to differentiate between fact and opinion on a Russian channel when the Russian interests are at stake?

In Misja Pekel's disturbing documentary THE WORLD ACCORDING TO RUSSIA TODAY, former and current news anchors, editors and correspondents for the network-including William Dunbar, Sara Firth, Marc de Jersey, Afshin Rattansi and Liz Wahl-join journalists and media professionals Alexander Nekrassov, Peter Pomerantsev, Richard Sambrook, Daniel Sandford, Derk Sauer and more in a detailed dissection of the channel's modus operandi and the challenges and dangers of reporting and consuming news in a globalized world.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2015 / 40 minutes

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INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING IN THE DIGITAL ERA

In the new world of tweets, blogs, and citizen journalism, what is the outlook for true investigative reporting? This program highlights the ways investigative journalism is changing, particularly in the context of digital and online media. Social media and globalization have changed the ways reporters connect with their readers. What are the advantages and disadvantages of nearly instantaneous access to news as it unfolds? A panel of heavy hitters from the world of journalism weighs in on these and other issues, such as emerging financial models for (costly) investigative reporting as traditional news budgets shrink. Young reporters entering the field will be particularly encouraged by many of the exciting technologies and resources available for developing stories that are more in-depth, media-rich, and engaging. Investigative journalism is a fast-evolving field, and this program helps entry-level reporters as well as veterans to bear witness more effectively in the Internet era.

DVD / 2014 / 17 minutes

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JOURNALISM SECRETS TO SOCIAL MEDIA STORYTELLING & NEWS REPORTING

Social media tools are being used across all media sources including traditional news outlets and online-based resources. This program focuses on the variety of ways social media is essential to storytelling and news distribution. Each chapter highlights an element of social media used by top journalists who rely on these communication channels to both research stories and broaden their audience. Its designed to help students and educators understand the growing role of social media in the gathering and dissemination of news and the many ways to make the most of this technology.

Social media has changed how we gather and report news in general. Its a crucial tool in reporting today since we receive many tips and reach many sources to confirm information even before the story ever makes mainstream media. This is more often the case especially when breaking news happens. Its important for students to use social media to gain and disseminate information and to research each topic thoroughly, read as much as they can and be familiar with every side of the issue.

We will teach students how to humanize the issues so they are not just talking about statistics or numbers. How to use Storify, Tumblr, Buzzfeed, Opensecrets.org and different websites like Mashables - that have interesting information and ways for students to get out and tell stories using audio, video and pictures. How to ensure the information they obtain is vetted and accurate and ensure the story is valuable or newsworthy. How to get as many aspects of a story as they can and how to make it different from similar stories out there to help inform their audience.

We will show students how to use their journalism skills and apply them to this new medium and above and beyond, how to capture the absolute essence in a paragraph - confirm it, attribute it and source it.

Subjects covered include: Using Social Media in Politics, Putting the Public back in Public Affairs, Social Media as a Database, The Day in the Life of an Online Reporter and Behind the Scenes of Storify. Includes a list of links and websites to help students investigate stories and find out more about newsgathering and dissemination practices.

DVD / 2014 / 31 minutes

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FRAGILE TRUST, A - PLAGIARISM, POWER, AND JAYSON BLAIR AT THE NEW YORK TIMES

Directed by Samantha Grant

Tells the shocking story of New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, the most infamous plagiarist of our time.

A FRAGILE TRUST tells the shocking story of Jayson Blair, the most infamous serial plagiarist of our time, and how he unleashed the massive scandal that rocked the New York Times and the entire world of journalism. In 2003 Blair was caught plagiarizing and supplementing his own reporting with fabricated details in dozens of stories published in the Times. The daily operations of the Times newsroom became a public spectacle as every major news outlet picked up the story and ran with it. The fact that Blair is African-American was emphasized again and again as accounts of the 'Blair Affair' served up sordid details in a soap-opera style tale of deception, drug abuse, racism, mental illness, hierarchy, white guilt, and power struggles inside the hallowed halls of the New York Times.

Through the course of the film, we follow Blair as he slowly unravels in the face of mounting pressures and distractions. Starting with his 'reporting' of the plagiarized article that ultimately lead to his undoing, we trace the rise and fall of this fascinating young reporter as he clings to his career at the Times even as he is losing his mind.

Featuring exclusive interviews with everyone involved, including former Executive Editor Howell Raines and Blair himself, A FRAGILE TRUST is the first film to tell the whole sordid story of the scandal while exploring deeper themes of power, ethics, and responsibility in the mainstream media.

DVD / 2013 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 75 minutes

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PLEASURES OF BEING OUT OF STEP, THE

Director: David L. Lewis

Nat Hentoff is one of the enduring voices of the last 65 years, a writer who championed jazz as an art form and who also led the rise of 'alternative' journalism in America. This unique documentary wraps the themes of liberty, identity and free expression around a historical narrative that stretches from the Great Depression to the Patriot Act.

At the core of the film are three extraordinary, intimate conversations with Hentoff. Commentary and perspective are offered through additional interviews with such luminaries as Amiri Baraka, Stanley Crouch, Floyd Abrams, Aryeh Neier and Dan Morgenstern. Interwoven through it all is the sublime music of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Bob Dylan, along with never-before-seen photographs and archival footage of these artists and other cultural figures at the height of their powers.

DVD / 2013 / 87 minutes

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REPORTING ON THE TIMES: THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE HOLOCAUST

Directed by Emily Harrold

Reporting on the Times is a short documentary film inspired ?by Laurel Leff's award-winning book Buried by the Times. The film explores how The New York Times handled reports of the Holocaust during World War II. It also investigates why The Times, a Jewish owned newspaper, buried more than one thousand articles in its back pages. Was it simply an oversight? Or did the publishers and editors fear an American anti-Semitic backlash?

Through interviews and testimony of a Holocaust survivor, historians, and New York Times journalists, Reporting on the Times encourages audiences to reevaluate America's reputation as "The Great Liberator." The film also asks viewers to consider the power of the press in creating change.

DVD / 2013 / 18 minutes

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SMILING THROUGH THE APOCALYPSE

Director: Tom Hayes

Esquire magazine was a galvanizing force in American culture from the early 1960s through the early '70s. Forging its pop-cultural capital on the basis of provocative cover art, intellectual audacity and riveting articles by the preeminent and cutting edge writers of the time, the magazine captured the zeitgeist of America in the crucible of the '60s.

The chief architect of this print revolution was Harold Hayes, a brilliant and tenacious editor who granted Esquire's contributors unprecedented journalistic freedom. Hayes' fearless instincts provided a haven for writers like Gore Vidal, Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Nora Ephron, William F. Buckley and Norman Mailer, and nurtured the iconoclastic talents of art director George Lois. By making it possible for writers and artists to bring novelistic techniques into reportage Hayes fostered what became known as "New Journalism".

The indelible cultural contributions captured in this enthralling documentary by his son, Tom Hayes, provide a vivid context for nothing less than the rebirth of American aesthetics. Featuring interviews with Robert Benton, Candice Bergen, Peter Bogdanovich, Brock Brower, Graydon Carter, Lee Eisenberg, Harlan Ellison, Nora Ephron, Robert Frank, Hugh Hefner, Tom Meehan, Frank Rich, Bob Rifkind, Gay Talese, Gore Vidal, Ed Wilson, Tom Wolfe and many others.

DVD / 2013 / 99 minutes

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THROUGH THE LENS (PETER SIMON)

PETER SIMON'S: THROUGH THE LENS

Celebrating 50 Years of Personalized Photojournalism

Peter Simon: Through the Lens not only tells the story of photojournalist Peter Simon's long career, but also the story of America through his camera lens. Simon personally narrates the DVD adding important commentary to some of his best work including photos of the turbulent 1960's anti-war movement, his shots of cultures around the world and some of the iconic figures in music that he's captured. His rock photos include the Beatles at Shea Stadium, Led Zeppelin, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and Jim Morrison. Through The Lens also shows Peter Simon's love for his home in Martha's Vineyard, shooting its natural beauty.

Peter Simon's work has appeared in many newspapers and magazines throughout the years including Time, Newsweek, People, Village Voice, Atlantic Monthly, Cape Cod Life, Boston Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone. He has additionally published 14 books including I and Eye, Reggae Scrapbook, On the Vinyard, and Playing in the Band through such publishers as Doubleday, St. Martins Press, Little Brown and more

2 DVDs / 2013 / 240 minutes

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BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!

What is the impact on freedom of speech and the press when a big corporation attempts to suppress criticism and manipulate the media?

Documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten found out when he debuted his previous film, BANANAS!, which portrays the struggle of 12 Nicaraguan plantation workers who brought a lawsuit challenging fruit giant Dole Food's use of a banned pesticide. Shortly after BANANAS! was selected to premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Gertten received an unsettling note that the festival had withdrawn the film from competition. Soonafter, a scathing article about the film appeared in the L.A Business Journal. Within weeks, the filmmaker was embroiled in a major legal and public relations battle with Dole to save their premiere, their film, their reputations, and their freedom of speech.

Corporate efforts to censor criticism gain startling immediacy as Gertten decides to film the whole confrontation with Dole. Eventually, he takes the offensive, filing a countersuit and organizing a media campaign of his own to challenge Dole's tactics. The resulting film, BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!, is a dramatic cautionary tale about corporate power and press manipulation, a reminder of the importance of independent film in today's more timid media world, and a case study of how individuals can fight back to protect freedom of speech and encourage a truly free press. The film would be useful in a variety of classes, including journalism, film, law, business, ethics and environmental policy.

DVD (Region 1, Closed Captioned) / 2012 / (Grades 10-Adult) / 144 minutes

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MUMIA: LONG DISTANCE REVOLUTIONARY

Director: Stephen Vittoria

Before he was convicted of murdering a policeman in 1981 and sentenced to die, Mumia Abu-Jamal was a gifted journalist and brilliant writer. Now after more than 30 years in prison and despite attempts to silence him, Mumia is not only still alive but continuing to report, educate, provoke and inspire.

Stephen Vittoria's new feature documentary is an inspiring portrait of a man whom many consider America's most famous political prisoner - a man whose existence tests our beliefs about freedom of expression. Through prison interviews, archival footage, and dramatic readings, and aided by a potent chorus of voices including Cornel West, Alice Walker, Dick Gregory, Angela Davis, Amy Goodman and others, this riveting film explores Mumia's life before, during and after Death Row - revealing, in the words of Angela Davis, "the most eloquent and most powerful opponent of the death penalty in the world...the 21st Century Frederick Douglass."

DVD-R / 2012 / 120 minutes

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SHADOWS OF LIBERTY

Directed by Jean-Philippe Tremblay

Uses shocking examples of cover-ups and censorship by the US media to show how a few mega corporations exercise control over the content of our news.

SHADOWS OF LIBERTY examines how the US media are controlled by a handful of corporations exercising extraordinary political, social, and economic power. Having always allowed broadcasting to be controlled by commercial interests, the loosening of media ownership regulations, that began under Reagan and continued under Clinton, has led to the current situation where five mega corporations control the vast majority of the media in the United States. These companies not only don't prioritize investigative journalism, but can and do clamp down on it when their interests are threatened.

The film begins with three journalists whose careers were destroyed because of the stories they broke: Roberta Baskin, whose scoop about Nike sweatshops didn't sit well with CBS when Nike became a co-sponsor of the Olympics; Kristina Borjesson, another CBS reporter, whose job lasted precisely one week after the network spiked her investigation into the TWA Flight 800 disaster in 1996; and Gary Webb, whose story linking US support for Nicaraguan Contras and the epidemic in crack cocaine was trashed by The New York Times and the Washington Post. (His story was true, but Webb lost his job and eventually killed himself.)

With the help of interviewees including Daniel Ellsburg, Dan Rather, Julian Assange, Chris Hedges, Dick Gregory, Robert McChesney, John Nichols and Amy Goodman, the film explores in depth the monopolies and vested interests that filter the dissemination of information thus damaging the democratic process. One notorious example, featured in the film, of the anti-democratic nexus between the military-industrial complex and the news media was the latter's unquestioning acceptance of the former's trumped up justification for the Iraq War.

With profits taking priority over the truth and the powerful being taken at their word rather than taken to task, the film asks whether the Internet can withstand corporate pressure and remain free, or will it too fall into the hands of monopolistic corporations.

Ultimately has our commercial world caused us to lose one of the most precious commodities of all--unbiased information?

DVD / 2012 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 93 minutes

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OUR NEWSPAPER

Directed by Eline Flipse

After journalist Andrey Schkolni leaves his job at The Leninist, the state-supported - and state-censored - regional paper in Uljanovsk, Russia, he and his wife, Marina, decide to start their own newspaper. The couple takes on local apathy, isolationism, criticism, and ridicule; they are determined to serve the local population, located over 550 miles from Moscow in a largely rural, often snowbound area. Week after week, everything from writing and researching the articles to designing the layout takes place in their small home. They even work to distribute the paper - which they name Our Newspaper - with their tiny family car.

Slowly Andrey's doggedly reported local news and Marina's horoscopes and home remedies begin to catch on. When Our Newspaper's circulation and size climbs to 7,000 weekly readers and eight pages, it begins to pose real competition to the four-page Leninist. Finally, the isolated population can read their own news: instead of "articles" about far-off cities, golden harvests, and unrealizable state projects, Our Newspaper reports on an impoverished village without running water for three months and profiles a courageous local doctor who makes house calls her bicycle despite freezing temperatures.

Andrey and Marina's light-hearted local news gathering quickly gathers gravity, however ... until it eventually puts its creators in danger. The issues facing the once prosperous but now economically depressed region are very serious. Despite his best efforts to protect himself and his wife, Andrey's reporting begins to implicate corrupt local corporations and political officials and raise thorny questions of journalistic and business ethics.

Juxtaposing small, personal stories against the background of contemporary Russian history, OUR NEWSPAPER creates a portrait of personal integrity and bravery under increasingly desperate circumstances. The award-winning Dutch director Eline Flipse (Broken Silence, Albanian Stories) paints subtle portraits of her film's powerful personalities with warmth, humor and complexity that will stay with you long after the film ends; it is an unforgettable illustration of modern Russia and the vital role of journalism in an emerging democracy.

DVD (Color) / 2011 / 58 minutes

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SPORTS REPORTING FOR TELEVISION & RADIO

Take students into the Broadcast Booth, Production Trailer & on the field, for a realistic, close-up look at the work done by reporters, play-by-play announcers, sports anchors & sports broadcast producers

This program is designed for students who want careers in sports announcing, sports journalism or for those who want to work as a Media Relations specialist for a college or professional team.

Students go into broadcast booths and newsrooms for an inside look at what it takes to begin a career as a play-by-play announcer, color commentator, or sports journalist. Students will learn from broadcast veterans who are announcers for major league, professional teams as they share their valuable insights and experience.

Working for a Pro Team: Imagine a sportscast without athlete and coach interviews. Access to the athletes and coaches is a central part of any sports broadcast. Who provides the broadcasters and journalists all the statistics and access to the athletes? It is part of the work done by the Media Relations specialists for professional teams. Learn how to get one of these coveted jobs from Abby Tomlin, a Media Relations Specialist with the Texas Rangers. Abby talks about her duties on game day and the skills needed to work for a pro team.

Baseball Play-By-Play: Go behind the microphone and into the broadcast booth for the Oakland A's radio network. Veteran announcer Ken Korach gives students a glimpse at what it's like to stay on top of the action for the radio audience. Ken provides important tips for any student who wants a career as a play-by-play announcer and discusses the importance of versatility, a good vocabulary and strong work ethic.

Spanish Baseball Play-By-Play En Espanol: Veteran play-by-play announcer Amaury Pi Gonzalez has seen first hand the dramatic growth in Spanish language sports broadcasting. The overwhelming majority of pro teams in major sports leagues have a Spanish language broadcast. The Spanish language newscast is the highest rated in some television and radio media markets. Amaury discusses the importance of developing or strengthening Spanish and other language skills. With one-third of MLB players from Latin America and a growing NBA presence of European players, it is more important than ever for sports journalists to have at least an understanding of multiple cultures and languages.

One Man Band Reporter: Follow sports journalist Eric Hodge as he reports on a story for the evening sportscast. Eric is a "one-man band"; he reports, shoots, edits and writes his reports every day. The one-man band is a staple of small market electronic media and is increasingly being seen in larger television markets. Learn the "ins & outs" from Eric as he makes his way towards the evening deadline & delivers his finished package.

How to Get Hired-Tips from the News Director: Watch as Trisha Coder, a News Director from an entry-level television station evaluates video resume clips from several hundred applicants. Trisha provides valuable tips on what will make your video stand out from the rest. This section is essential for students who are producing the "all important" resume video.

DVD / 2010 / (Grades 9-Adult) / 30 minutes

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WAR YOU DON'T SEE, THE

Directed by John Pilger

John Pilger's powerful and timely investigation into the media's role in war.

John Pilger's new film is a powerful and timely investigation into the media's role in war. The War You Don't See traces the history of `embedded' and independent reporting from the carnage of World War I to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan. As weapons and propaganda are ever more sophisticated, the very nature of war has developed into an `electronic battlefield'. But who is the real enemy today?

DVD / 2010 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 96 minutes

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AGUSTIN'S NEWSPAPER

By Ignacio Aguero

AGUSTIN'S NEWSPAPER follows journalism students from the University of Chile as they launch an investigation into the work of the newspaper, and its reporting of and role in their country's political history, in particular around the election of Salvador Allende in 1970, the violent coup against him in 1973, and the subsequent seventeen years of the military regime.

AGUSTIN'S NEWSPAPER features archival footage, interviews with former editors, journalists and other staff members at El Mercurio, Pinochet's political advisor and press secretary, relatives of political dissidents who were "disappeared," as well as John Dinges, former Washington Post correspondent in Santiago.

Together, the students and the film dig into the particulars of several key events and their coverage in El Mercurio. They also looks into relations between the owners and managers of the newspaper and Chilean political parties, the church, military, secret police, and the CIA.

In the end, through its attention to the details of one country's journalistic history, AGUSTIN'S NEWSPAPER raises profound questions not only about the role and responsibilities of Chile's most important newspaper, but of all those who control or manage the dissemination of information and the reporting of news in every country.

DVD (Color) / 2008 / 80 minutes

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MEDIA RESEARCHERS: CULTURAL STUDIES & THE SCHOLARSHIP OF JOURNALISM

By Cindy Lont and Susan Kehoe
With James W. Carey

James W. Carey, cultural historian, communication scholar, theorist, writer and teacher of journalists, discusses Cultural Studies and the scholarship of journalism.

DVD / 2008 / (Grades 9-Adult) / 19 minutes

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DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE

By Calvin Skaggs

If, as the saying goes, information is power, then journalists can be seen as watchdogs of our government leaders and custodians of the public good, providing truthful information to help citizens build or preserve democratic societies. DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE is a comprehensive look at journalists worldwide, working in different media and various languages, as they attempt to speak truth to power.

Filmed in the United States and countries throughout Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe and the Middle East, DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE profiles international journalists as they cover local and international events, and in the process enables them to discuss their sense of vocation, the need to defend journalistic principles against commercial pressures, how they deal with censorship or government constraints, as well as dangerous and even life-threatening conditions.

Among the many journalists featured are those at Radio SKY in Sierra Leone as they cover an election in a country where more people listen to radio than read newspapers; Moscow journalists (including Anna Politkovskaya, assassinated in October 2006) who discuss government control of the media and covering the Chechen War; the publisher, editors and journalists at the Israeli newspaper Haaretz who explain why they feel it is important, especially for a readership too often concerned only with its own agony, to document the violence directed against Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank; and several U.S. journalists who discuss how the press failed in its reporting of the Bush Administration's misuse of intelligence on the lead-up to the Iraq War.

In an era when mainstream journalism, especially in the U.S., is being steadily eroded by political manipulation, commercial constraints, and circulation and ratings pressures, DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE is an important reminder of the crucial political value of an independent news media in any democratic society.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2006 / 114 minutes

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INDEPENDENT INTERVENTION: BREAKING SILENCE

Focuses on the human cost of the Iraq War to contrast corporate-controlled media coverage with independent media.

Independent Intervention is an award-winning documentary about United States media coverage of the conflict in Iraq. Focusing on the human costs of war, it contrasts corporate-controlled media coverage of the invasion of Iraq with independent media reports of the brutal realities on the ground.

Through discussions with media experts including Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, Dahr Jamail, Danny Schechter, David Barsamian, Kalle Lasn, Norman Solomon, and James Zogby, the film investigates important issues and systems that govern today's information flow, and shows how these systems of control reveal themselves during times of political turmoil and war.

Independent Intervention also includes commentary by Howard Zinn, Arundhati Roy, Bill Moyers, Michael Moore, and Jeremy Scahill.

DVD (Color) / 2006 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 75 minutes

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PLAYING THE NEWS

By Jeff Plunkett & Jigar Mehta

In November 2004, media from around the world covered the U.S.-led attack on the Iraqi "terrorist stronghold" of Fallujah. So did the video game, Kuma War, whose realistic simulation of the event was designed as an "intense, boots-on-the-ground experience" for video gamers. Young people don't watch TV news or read newspapers, explains Kuma Reality Games CEO Keith Halper, but they play hour after hour of video games, so why not convey war reports to them through their recreational activities?

PLAYING THE NEWS profiles the first video game company to consider itself a legitimate news organization, taking us from the company's Manhattan offices, equipped with satellite technology, to the frontlines of the war in Iraq. The documentary features interviews with Kuma executives and designers, a media studies professor, a New Technology writer for The Economist, a war correspondent, and several video gamers, who download new episodes monthly and who can play separately or link up online with others to play as a squad.

Can such video games play a serious journalistic role or do they misconstrue the real nature of war for voyeuristic thrills? Do they represent the future of journalism or the dangerous blurring of news and entertainment? Can we look forward to an Abu Ghraib video game?

PLAYING THE NEWS is a provocative examination of whether video games are a revolutionary new way to engage young people in current events or an unethical marketing gimmick that merely seeks to exploit war.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2005 / 20 minutes

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TOP HAT AND TALES: HAROLD ROSS AND THE MAKING OF THE NEW YORKER

Director: Adam Van Doren

Narrated by Stanley Tucci, Top Hat and Tales chronicles the first 25 years of The New Yorker magazine, from its creation by Harold Ross in 1925 to his death in 1951. Interviews with current Editor-in-Chief David Remnick, former Cartoon Editor Lee Lorenz, and Senior Editor Roger Angell will inform about how The New Yorker's signature style and content were shaped by its early contributors, including E.B White, James Thurber, J.D Salinger, and more. Film clips from the '20s and '30s, home movies, and images from the anthology of The New Yorker covers and cartoons illustrate this historical case study of one of journalism's most revered publication. Writers, artists and academics including John Updike, Charles Schulz, Stuart Hemple and Roy Blount Jr offer interviews and insight into The New Yorker's role in American cultural history.

DVD / 2001 / 47 minutes

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TRIBE OF HIS OWN, A: THE JOURNALISM OF P. SAINATH

Indian journalist reminds us of the meaning of responsible journalism.

At a time when government propaganda and corporate spin are increasingly presented as fact, and a handful of corporations control the news, A TRIBE OF HIS OWN: THE JOURNALISM OF P. SAINATH reminds us what news media can be.

In India, nearly 400 million people live in poverty. Believing that responsible journalism can help to change things for the better, Palagummi Sainath wrote a series of 70 newspaper articles for The Times of India chronicling the living conditions in the ten poorest districts of the country. For two years Sainath lived in the communities he wrote about; he traveled across India, often on foot, in hill areas, drought-prone areas, and tribal areas to put the issue of poverty back on the national agenda.

After nearly a decade of work and dozens of awards, Sainath remains as passionately committed as ever. According to Sainath the shift from hard-hitting, truth-seeking journalism to innocuous, promotional stenography goes hand in hand with the increase of globalization. This, he believes, has also contributed to the 1990s becoming "the time of the most gross social inequality since the Second World War."

A TRIBE OF HIS OWN follows Sainath to the Indian villages he writes about and explores his contention that "journalism is for people, not shareholders."

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2001 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 50 minutes

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NO MAN'S LAND: WOMEN FRONTLINE JOURNALISTS

Directed by Shelley Saywell
Narrated by Kate Nelligan

NO MAN'S LAND profiles members of a truly rare breed - women war correspondents.

The film focuses on Janine di Giovanni, an American reporter who covers Sarajevo for London's Sunday Times, and Lyse Doucet who covers the "forgotten war" in Afghanistan for the BBC. As they and a number of other correspondents, including Clare Hollingworth who became a legend covering World War II for the Daily Telegraph, Martha Teichner, and Ann Medina speak of their experiences and personal sacrifices, many common traits are revealed. All are extremely independent, and not one has had a child - Hollingworth's husband even went so far as to divorce her on grounds of desertion.

As the camera accompanies di Giovanni to visit with 13 year old Zlata Filipovic, whose war diaries have since taken her to the brink of international celebrity, and Doucet in Kabul, where she seems to hear nothing but bad news of friends and acquaintances who have died since her last visit, NO MAN'S LAND is a gripping portrait of women who have staked places in a traditionally male profession.

DVD (Color) / 1994 / 50 minutes

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