The Inverted Pyramid

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First Things First

Why do we write news stories the way we do, beating the reader over the head and yelling, and then explaining what all the fuss is about?

There are a few good practical reasons for the “inverted pyramid” structure of hard (e.g., new) news stories. For one thing, the most interesting thing about news is the stuff that’s, well, new and now. So people naturally start with now, not three weeks of background.

Historically, “news” came in the form of long essays, with lots of opinions and background and back-filling and positioning to create a foundation that would justify (or debunk) whatever the latest developments might be. For example, “In the beginning...” is a lead that suggests a lot of backstory, so you’d best get a comfortable chair and a drink. “Let there be light,” on the other hand, is a great lead that really gets to the point.

Back in the days before print and widespread literacy, “news” was in fact told in parable form, long stories with riveting details that could stick easily in the listeners’ memories, because all these stories were oral—fables and chants and songs and minstrel acts. Memories were better then. Patience, too, I’m guessing.

When the printed word and literacy came along, after Johann Gutenberg changed the world in the mid-1400s, more and more people learned how to read and trusted their important memories to books and paper.

But even with this new technology, “news” could be a longish enterprise, with a lot of preamble and scene-setting and so forth.

But the long-form tale started to fray a bit at the edges when time was short, like when nations were at war. As it became increasingly important for people to know things fast—the Saxons are on the beach, for example—the stories got pared down to the more basic stuff. Sure, we care that it was Fenric, son of Bodric, son of Phobric, son of .... But mostly, the important part was that Fenric and his 2,000 bloodthirsty hordes were at the gate, and who cares about his lineage at the moment anyway?

It wasn’t just war. Economic interests made the news-tellers shorten up their stories as well. After the settlers from Europe arrives to colonize the “New World,” fast sailing boats would regularly shoot out from the East Coast of the colonies to meet slower European square-riggers to get their news and then scoot back to Boston and Jamestown and Manhattan with the news:
politics at court, sure, that might unseat Virginia’s colonial governor, but also about incoming products for sale that merchants could buy up and sell at a profit. So “news” became pretty simple: New shipments of linen. The tea shipment aboard the “Betty” was spoiled with rats. The slaves aboard the “Amistad” were said to have mutinied....

So although gossip has ever been gossip, paring it down to the basics had become increasingly important.

By the mid-1800s, there was yet another reason for storytellers to get to the point, and fast. Northern newspapermen (and yes, they were pretty much all male) attached to the Union troops during the Civil War (or the War of Northern Aggression, depending on where you were standing) used a new technology called the telegraph to shoot news flashes about the war back to New York and Philadelphia and Washington. The problem was that telegraph technology was unreliable—signals would be cut off, poles would fall down, reporters would be hit by cannonballs...the usual thing...and the big news from the front would be cut off before we could hear it:

“Thursday previous, in the aftermath of a torrential downpour so heavy and dense that even the valiant troops of the Connecticut Fourth, 12th Battalion, Ninth Infantry were forced, against their truly courageous natures and inclinations in the face of Confederate Rebels of the foulest ilk, despite the ever-present Inspiration of their most valiant General, ....”

. . . and then the telegraph failed.

So their editors told them to cut to the chase, and just send the facts, ma’am, just the facts: Who WON, fergawdsakes?!?

Thus, writing may have gotten a lot less interesting, but it was a lot more informative: The inverted pyramid placed the most important facts at the start of the story. Sentences were more focused, shorter and more active. WHO and WHAT were essential. WHEN and WHERE? The why’s and the how’s and the additional details...well, fill ’em in if and when you can, and we’ll run that stuff if there’s space.

Because that was another physical impediment on storytelling. Getting the basic facts through before the wires fell down was one thing. But then, how much room was there in the newspaper for the story? Up through today, one of the greatest limitations on news is physical spacce—how much will fit? Routinely, the people who put the final newspaper (or website or newscast) together simply paste the copy in, and then either cut from the bottom to make it fit, or just let the story meander on in cyberspace.

So it’s pretty important not to leave the most important stuff until last. Instead of building suspense, the writer who hopes to develop the theme and to create artistic tensions is more likely to find the whodunit climax cut away onto the floor, or lost at the unread/unseen/unregistered end.

So: The Inverted Pyramid was born. A pyramid, of course, starts at the bottom with the heaviest and most essential foundation, and builds in diminishing size and weight to a pinnacle, which disappears into nothing.

Invert that structure, and you start at the top with the MOST IMPORTANT stuff: WHO? Did WHAT? to WHOM? WHEN? and WHERE? So if the telegraph poles go down, you will have delivered your headlines, at least. It looks like this:

THE SUMMARY OF THE BIGBIG NEWS

A PARAGRAPH ADDING MORE KEY DETAILS
THE NEXT MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION

MAYBE A QUOTE OR SOME BACKGROUND
OTHER SUPPORTING DETAILS & STUFF
SOMEWHAT LESS IMPORTANT INFO
MORE, EXPANDING ON THE PREVIOUS
MORE DETAILS AND STUFF
MORE INFORMATION
AND MORE STUFF
AND MORE
AND
peter
out

This structure has its problems. For one thing, there’s no heart or soul or art or suspense, no character development or evocative descriptive detail. It assumes that people will shut you down after three sentences (if you’re lucky!).

All that is true—this is not great literature. But the inverted pyramid structure, starting with a summary lead to focus the reader’s attention and then feeding that interest one logical step at a time, is a powerful and valuable tool, not just in news writing, but in any kind of communication. Readers are busy, and especially when it comes to scanning the day’s news. If you can hook the reader in the first sentence, you can play him like a trout in the second and third grafs, and then keep reeling her into the rest of the story. This is a mechnism that not only can capture readers, but which can help you organize your own thoughts and your writing, whatever your topic and field. While your history classmates are struggling with the politics of the 14th Century, who will have framed your paper with, “For want of a horse, a kingdom died,” which in your mind is the central fact from which all other events unfolded.

If you can organize your own thoughts to focus on the most central points, your reader will thank you.

More stuff on inverted pyramid newswriting structure: From the mighty Chip Scanlan at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies... and this, too.... and from some blogs.... and you can find other stuff. But you get the idea.
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Stories 1-4

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Short News Stories

The lead, as you know, is the roadsign for the story: It summarizes the most important elements and tells the reader where the story (and the reader) are going. Technically, the “lead” (or “lede”) is just the first summary paragraph (or “graf”), but for our purposes, let’s make it the first few grafs, which get the story started.

The following provides you with four stories’ 5Ws and H, plus additional info. Your task is to take this information and organize it into the first, second and, if necessary, third paragraphs of a news story. Put all four stories in one document. At the top of each, start with the slug and your last name. Like this:

Nuke test
Pease

Then write your story with a short (one sentence, no more than 35 words) summary lead, followed by other info in logical order. Remember the inverted pyramid structure. REMEMBER THE FRED RULE! One (short) sentence per paragraph. Stop when you run out of info. If you wish you’d had other crucial info, note at the bottom in a memo to your editor (me).

Save your completed stories in a single Word.doc named

YOURLASTNAMEStories1.doc

and attach it to a Blackboard email to me by Thursday midnight. Questions, let me know.

—TedEd (Ted, your Editor)

~ ~ ~

1. Slug: Nuke test

WHO? A nuclear weapon with a yield equivalent to 150,000 tons of TNT
WHAT? detonated
WHERE? In the Nevada desert, 2,000 feet underground, beneath the surface of Pahute Mesa; 40 miles away, pacifists were holding a protest rally
WHEN?
WHY? to test the weapon
HOW? Not applicable
Other info: The test was conducted by the Department of Energy. DOE officials are the source; the protest was by more than 450 physicians, scientists and peace activists, protesting continued nuclear weapons testing by the United States.


2. Slug: Boy found

WHO? 7-year-old boy missing for three years
WHAT? found
WHERE? in Brick Township, NJ
WHEN?
WHY? not applicable
HOW? A neighbor recognized the kid’s picture when it was shown after the movie Adam: The Song Continues, about a kidnapping; she called the cops
Other info: New Jersey police arrested the boy’s mother, Ellen Lynn Conner, 27, on kidnapping charges from Alabama. She will be arraigned and extradited to Alabama later in the week; the boy is in foster care until his relatives are contacted.


3. Slug: NW Airlines jet

WHO? 40 passengers
WHAT? Evacuated from a Northwest Airlines jet (flight 428)
WHERE? at the LaCrosse, Wis., Municipal Airport
WHEN?
WHY? an airport employee in the landing tower spotted smoke coming from the wheels
HOW? not applicable
Other info: the flight from Minneapolis had just landed. There was no flame, and no injuries, as emergency chutes deployed and the passengers and five crew slid to the tarmac. Smoke apparently caused by hydraulic fluid leaking onto the hot brakes upon landing. Info from NW spokesman Bob Gibbons.

4. Slug: Car crash
NOTE: I’m tired of identifying the WWWWWH for you, so do it yourself, and then write the story.

From your notes: car crash, intersection of Main Street and Biscayne Drive in north (YourTown—you choose) at 4:27 p.m. (yesterday). A sedan turned left at the traffic light into the path of a northbound cattletruck hauling 8 steers. Sedan was rear-ended and shoved onto the sidewalk. Truck jackknifed into opposite lanes; no other collisions, but traffic stopped for an hour. Sedan driver: McKinney, Janice T., d.o.b 7/18/68*, 7500 Northpark Ridge Drive, Apt. #6, (Yourtown); had two kids in the car: Celeste McKinney, d.o.b. 9/22/05; and Anthony McKinney, d.o.b. 2/09/03. Driver injured and taken to (Yourtown) Memorial Hospital; kids in seatbelts and uninjured. Truck driver Cowbuddy, Joe, d.o.b. 11/19/48, of Pocatello, Idaho, was uninjured. No charges so far; investigation pending. (All info from (Yourtown) Police Department spokesman.)

* d.o.b.= date of birth

WHO?
WHAT?
WHERE?
WHEN?
WHY?
HOW?

QUIZ: NewsHounds Wk3

NewsHounds Week3 Quiz

Your Name:

From Harrower, Ch. 2: Terminology

• What do you call the area/subject that a reporter covers?

• What’s the function of the headline?

• What is a cutline?

• Publisher William Randolph Hearst said this is whatever makes you say, “Gee whiz!”

• What is the first sentence or paragraph of a news story called?

• What’s a jumpline?

• What’s the reporter’s name at the top of a news story called?

• What is “attribution”?

• What is a newspaper’s “flag”?

More stuff:

• Harrower lists five things that every reporter should remember about readers. Which do you think is most important and why?

• 1 ordinary man + 1 ordinary life = 0 news, says Bastion and Case in “News Arithmetic.” Why? What would make and “ordinary person” newsworthy?

• Harrower lists seven elements that make news interesting. What are they? Which do you think is most important and why?

• Harrower quotes many journalists on their jobs. Is there one comment—good or bad—about being a journalist that particularly struck you? Why?

• Do the Test Yourself exercise No. 1 on p. 32 and type your answers below.

From Pease’s Newswriting “Primer”:

• Explain what is meant by the “inverted pyramid.” How does it work?

• What should appear in a news story’s lead?

• Explain the “Fred Rule.” Why does it work for newswriting?

• What’s wrong with writing a news story chronologically?

• Pease says writing is an aural art. What does he mean? Do you agree?


Some Associated Press Style stuff. Correct these so they conform to AP style:

• The boy is five. He ate twenty-seven chocolates. He lives at Four Main Street.

• The new Governor of Utah is Gary Herbert. He is friends with Senator Orrin Hatch.

• The President of USU will speak at five PM in the afternoon. It ends at 6:00 pm.

• The hat cost 5 dollars. It is Brown. He lived in Paris, France, for 7 years.

• The conference took place over the week-end in Boston, MA.

• 200 North Central Boulevard. Fourteen Adams Road. 4 Elm Ave.

• He joined the air force and shipped out to Iraq.

• The car cost more than $24,000 thousand dollars. The cuts were $12,000,000, or more than 6% of the budget, and hurt nine percent of the staff.

• The student is nineteen years old. She drove 6 hours to get here. She drives a six year old Toyota. She had 7 suitcases and twenty-three stuffed monkeys in the trunk.
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Column: Dear Students

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Advice for the New Semester

By Ted Pease
Professor of Interesting Stuff
Utah State University

Dear Students;

At the start of this academic year, The New York Times asked some professors who know what they’re doing for advice they would offer students.

I know, I know. Everyone is FULL of advice for you. But these people are worth a listen.

The whole collection of shorts (like 200 words each) can be found at this link to The New York Times.

Let me pause here and tell you that you will be a smarter person if you were to read the Times every day. No brag, just fact.

The first snippet is from Stanley Fish, who teaches at Florida International U and also is a regular columnist for the Times. Here’s the slice of his advice:

• Fish: “I would give entering freshmen two pieces of advice. First, find out who the good teachers are. . . . Second, I would advise students to take a composition course even if they have tested out of it. I have taught many students whose SAT scores exempted them from the writing requirement, but a disheartening number of them couldn’t write and an equal number had never been asked to. They managed to get through high school without learning how to write a clean English sentence, and if you can’t do that you can’t do anything.” (Click here for full text.)

Next, Gerald Graff, an English professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago and former president of the Modern Language Association (MLA), says you need to know how to summarize—boil the argument down to its basics:

• Graff: “Freshmen are often overwhelmed by the intellectual challenge of college — so many subjects to be covered, so many facts, methods and philosophical isms to sort out, so many big words to assimilate. . . . What the most successful college students do, in my experience, is cut through the clutter of jargons, methods and ideological differences to locate the common practices of argument and analysis hidden behind it all.” (Click here for full text.)

Harold Bloom, a Yale English prof and author, advises re-reading to retain the best substance of the best:

• Bloom: “More than ever in this time of economic troubles and societal change, entering upon an undergraduate education should be a voyage away from visual overstimulation into deep, sustained reading of what is most worth absorbing and understanding: the books that survive all ideological fashions. . . . Many of these authors are difficult and demand rereading, but that doubles their value.” (Click here for full text.)

Baruch College history professor and author Carol Berkin says students need to connect with their professors to get the full pull. Don’t alienate your teachers, she says.

• Berkin: “Ask questions if you don’t understand the professor’s point. Do not, however, ask any of the following: ‘Will this be on the test?‘ ’Does grammar count?’ ‘Do we have to read the whole chapter?’ ’Can I turn in my paper late?’” (Click here for full text.)

Author and emeritus history professor at Northwestern Garry Wills has five tips for students. All require you to be proactive, which means that you need to know your goals.

• Wills: “1. Play to your strengths. . . . [C]hoose courses and write papers on topics where you already have (or think you will have) some interest, some knowledge, some enthusiasm.
2. Learn to write well. Most incoming college students, even the bright ones, do not do it and it hampers them in courses and in later life.
3. Read, read, read. Students ask me how to become a writer, and I ask them who is their favorite author. If they have none, they have no love of words.
4. Seek out the most intellectually adventurous of your fellow students.
5. Do not fear political activism. I was once at an event where a student asked Jimmy Carter how he, formerly the guardian of American law, felt years earlier when his freshman daughter was arrested at a protest against apartheid. He answered: ‘I cannot tell you how proud I was. If you young people cannot express your conscience now, when will you? Later you will have duties, jobs, families that make that harder. You will never be freer than now.’” (Click here for full text.)

Martha Nussbaum, a philosophy/law/divinity professor at the University of Chicago, says students need to stop and smell the roses while they can.

• Nussbaum: “It’s easy to think that college classes are mainly about preparing you for a job. But remember: this may be the one time in your life when you have a chance to think about the whole of your life, not just your job. Courses in the humanities, in particular, often seem impractical, but they are vital, because they stretch your imagination and challenge your mind to become more responsive, more critical, bigger. You need resources to prevent your mind from becoming narrower and more routinized in later life. This is your chance to get them.” (Click here for full text.)

James MacGregor Burns is a retired government professor at Williams College. He says students need to look beyond their immediate horizons. The world, after all, is bigger than tomorrow’s Econ paper.

• Burns: “Try to read a good newspaper every day — at bedtime or at breakfast or when you take a break in the afternoon. If you are interested in art, literature or music, widen your horizons by poring over the science section. In the mood for spicy scandals? Read the business pages. Want to impress your poli sci prof? Read columnists. . . . The newspaper will be your path to the world at large. . . . A great newspaper will help you in the classroom — and it will be your conduit to the real world outside the classroom. Become addicted.” (Click here for full text.)

Nancy Hopkins is a biology professor at MIT. She wants you to fall in love and to boldly go where no one has before.

• Hopkins: “Fall in love! Not with that attractive person sitting three rows in front of you in calculus class, but with an intellectual vision of the future you probably can’t even imagine at the moment. . . . For the next four years you will get to poke around the corridors of your college, listen to any lecture you choose, work in a lab. The field of science you fall in love with may be so new it doesn’t even have a name yet.” (Click here for full text.)

Physics professor Steven Weinberg of the University of Texas-Austin has been teaching since 1958. Life is tricky, he says, so expect to change course.

• Weinberg: “[A]t Cornell, the mathematics department offered a course on Hilbert space. Who knew that there were different kinds of space? . . . I took German, in which the main thing I learned was that I have no head for foreign languages. My courses in philosophy left me puzzled about how ideas of Plato and Descartes that seemed to me absurd could have been so influential. I did not become wise.
“But I did graduate, and took away with me memories of several inspiring professors, of walks with friends under beautiful old elms, and of hours spent reading in the music room of the student union. I discovered that I loved chamber music and history and Shakespeare. I married my college sweetheart. And I did learn about Hilbert space.” (Click here for full text.)

And finally, through some inadvertent oversight, I’m sure, the Times forgot to include my column of advice to students: Care enough to kill apathy.

• Pease: “Somewhere in there, whoever we are, lives a curiosity, a love of something—whether it’s Chaucer, or how chemistry shapes life, or what it takes to push a rocket from here to Pluto, or how this fall’s presidential race might affect the world—along with some kind of desire to ignite the same excitement in others. For people with those kinds of passions, it is intensely demoralizing to be faced with apathy, but a tremendous rush to be able to displace it, to wake up students who bring to the university experience what author Peter Sacks calls a ‘disengaged rudeness,’ and replace it with a re-engagement of a 20-year-old’s attention, a new kindling of the same passions.” (Click here for full text.)
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Media Myths Quiz—The Answers

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How Do We Know What We (Think We) Know?

The Media Myths (or Trivia) Quiz has been developed and updated over years as research and other studies have revealed scary, amusing, confounding and confusing facts about what we the people think we know about the world around us.

As you now know, much of our perception of the world—about people who are “different” from us, about race and gender and culture and beliefs—come to us from our contact with the mass media. The late great media scholar George Gerbner often said that siunce the advent of television, family and friends, church and school, teachers and mentors . . . all are less influential on how kids come to “know” the world than TV. Gerbner’s research focused on television, but extrapolate his view of how TV “cultivates” attitudes and beliefs to the larger mass media landscape, and you start to see people today—especially kids—as besieged by constant messages from advertisers, politicians, Hollywood and brainless TV shows.

By now, you have completed your own Media Trivia Quiz. Now here are the answers and some commentary for your continued amusement and horror....

I. MEDIA TRIVIA: Media & Society

1. In 2007, American adults and teens consumed an estimated ______ hours of media.
a. 1,500 hrs b. 2,500 hrs c. 3,500 hrs d. 4,500 hrs e. 5,500 hrs
• 3,518 hours—nearly five months—spending $936.75/person

2. American 1-year-olds watch an average of how much TV per week?
a. 0 hrs b. 2 hrs c. 4 hrs d. 6 hrs e. 8 hrs

3. BUT! The American Association of Pediatrics recommends children under 2 watch how much TV/week?
a. 0 hrs b. 2 hrs c. 4 hrs d. 6 hrs e. 8 hrs

4. T/F Kids who watch 4 hours or more of TV daily are more likely to be bullies than kids who watch less.

5. Who spends more time watching TV—women with young children or single men? (circle)
• Women with kids watch an average of 90 minutes a day
• Single men watch an average of 4½ hours daily . . . so much for the soap opera cliché

6. T/F The average U.S. household has more TVs than people.
• 2.75 TVs vs. 2.6 people; also, more TVs than indoor toilets!!!

7. What percentage of U.S. households has an Internet connection?
a. 51% b. 61% c. 71% d. 81%
• Up from 50% in 2001, but that still leaves about 31 million U.S. households offline.

8. Americans buy almost _____ movie tickets per day.
a. 1 million b. 2 million c. 4 million d. 6 million e. 7 million

9. How many DVDs are rented from Netflix per day? (in 2008-09)
a. 1½ million b. 2½ million c. 3½ million d. 4½ million

10. Before Clairol introduced its 1950s ad campaign for home hair color with the slogan “Does she or doesn’t she?” what percentage of American women colored their hair?
a. less than 5% b. 10% c. 15% d. 25% e. 50%

• Three years later, what percentage of American women colored their hair?
a. less than 5% b. 10% c. 15% d. 25% e. 50%
• How do we explain this? The power of advertising made dye jobs more acceptable; previously, only “low-class” women used cosmetics.

11. Which U.S. city is the nation’s “vainest,” based on amounts spent on plastic surgery and cosmetics? # per 100,000 population
a. LA (4.1) b. Salt Lake (6) c. San Diego (5.2) d. Louisville (4.4) e. New York (4.1)
• Amazing, no? More people per capita in Salt Lake City purchase elective plastic surgery and makeup than any other major U.S. city. Why do you suppose that would be?

12. Ooo-lala! Which country is the world’s leading producer of pornography? (in 2006-07)
a. U.S. b. France c. Sweden d. Japan e. Italy f. India

13. T/F Teens surveyed in 12 countries believe the violence, crime and sex portrayed in U.S. media accurately depicts life in America.
• We will talk about how mass media images—TV, movies, Internet, etc.—“cultivate reality” in the minds of media users who have no first-hand experience with the topics.

• But here’s a true story: When I was in high school, I spent a year studying in France. Among my French friends was an “older” woman, a college student, maybe 22, on whom I had an enormous crush. She had an offer of a full-ride scholarship to study at the Universitty of Chicago—an incredible opportunity, and very prestigious. She turned it down. Why? I still remember the conversation: She was absolutely convinced that Chicago was crawling with evil hoodlums who regularly gunned down innocent people on the streets with Tommy guns. Media effects?

14. It takes how many trees to publish Cosmopolitan magazine each year?
a. 28,000 b. 128,000 c. 228,000 d. 328,000 e. 428,000

15. _____ % of Cache Valley residents responding to a Herald Journal survey said they believed that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was an internal U.S. government conspiracy.
a. 1% b. 9% c. 22% d. 52% e. 82% thought it was a U.S. gov’t plot f. 92%
• This is the conspiracy theory on which Oliver Stone’s movie JFK was based.

II. MEDIA TRIVIA: Politics

16. The top-three Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa’s 2008 caucuses spent $____ per voter just on TV ads.
a. $178/voter b. $141/voter c. $100/voter d. $87/voter e. $47/voter

17. TOTAL TV political ad spending in Iowa’s 2008 caucuses (Jan. 3):
a. $63 million b. $50 million c. $13 million d. $9 million e. $7.5 million

18. Four years earlier, TOTAL TV political ad spending in Iowa’s 2004 caucuses:
a. $63 million b. $50 million c. $13 million d. $9.1 million e. $7.5 million
• What does this tell us? That political leaders in America now market themselves like soap to American consumers, who seem to be easily swayed by such messages. In recent presidential elections, more than half of voters said they got most of their information about candidates and issues from the candidate own TV ads. The power of the mass media at work.

19. Mix ’n Match: Which presidential campaign spent how much on TV ads ALONE in Iowa?
$1.4 million (Huckabee)
$4 million (Edwards)
$7.1 million (Romney)
$7.5 million (Clinton)
$9.5 million (Obama)
• What does this tell us?

20. In July 2008 alone, how much did presidential candidates McCain and Obama spend on media advertising?
a. $73 million b. $54 million c. $24 million d. $9 million e. $7.5 million
• Obama $33m; McCain $21.4m

21. Percentage of people ages 19 to 29 who cited The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live as regular sources of their election news.
a. 21% b. 31% c. 41% d. 51% e. 61%
• What does this tell us? One-fifth of voters YOUR AGE depend on late-night comedians for information about the election of the next leader of the free world....!?

22. During the 2008 primary season, which presidential candidate received the most negative coverage?
a. Obama b. Giuliani c. Edwards d. Hillary Clinton e. Romney
• If the press is so friggin’ "liberal,” why would that be?

23. During the 2008 primary season, which presidential candidate received the most positive coverage?
a. Barack Obama b. Giuliani c. Edwards d. Clinton e. Romney

24. Percentage of Americans who believed before the election that Obama was not only unpatriotic, but also a secret practicing Muslim.
a. 2% b. 5% c. 10% d. 12% e. 15%
• This (false) rumor was reported/discussed in the press, and constituted nearly 1% of the total “news hole” in March08, rising to 3.8% of news accounts in June-July08. Is this people believing what they want to believe? Or is there some media role in one+ of every 10 Americans thinking this?

25. U.S. rank among 100 world nations in terms of women holding national political office:
a. 32nd b. 52nd c. 72nd d. 82nd e. 92nd
• 17% of Congress are women; 54% of the U.S. population are women.... hmm.

26. Of 172 nations that held elections in 2006, U.S. rank in voter turnout:
a. 13th b. 39th c. 79th d. 119th e. 139th
• Only slightly more than 50% of registered U.S. voters actually bothered to vote.

27. Whose press coverage in the 2000 presidential election was more negative?
Democratic nominee Al Gore or Republican nominee George W. Bush
• So much for the “liberal press.”

29. Was President Barack Obama born in the United States?
• 30% of __Republicans____ are not sure.
• 93% of __Dems____ and 83% of ___Indies____ do believe he was born in the U.S.
• 28% of __Repubs___ do not believe he was born in U.S.
• So where does that come from? We’ve SEEN his birth certificate...

III. MEDIA TRIVIA: News

30. Which of these news magazines are in the top 10 best-selling mags in the U.S.?
a. Time b. Newsweek c. U.S. News & World Report d. The Nation e. none
• Hmmmm. No news mags among the top 10—how sad is that?

31. The average American newspaper subscriber spends ____ reading the daily paper.
a. None (don’t read at all) b. 20 minutes c. 45 minutes d. 60 minutes
• This is a little deceptive, because the majority of Americans no longer read any newspapers, down from up to 70% penetration in some communities a generation ago. But those who do get a newspaper spend less than 20 minutes on it, and it’s even worse for people your age (see #32 below).

32. How many Americans 18 to 24 years old do not read, watch or listen to any news on a daily basis?
a. 10% b. 15% c. 25% d. 30% e. 40%
• C’mon, you guys. You're about to inherit the nation and the planet. Don’t you think you should have CLUE???!

33. The average American 18 to 24 years old spends less than ____ a day reading newspapers.
a. 5 minutes b. 10 minutes c. 25 minutes d. 30 minutes e. 40 minutes
• Actually, 9 minutes. Just 9 minutes!!

34. Approximately ___ % of all Americans watches TV network news every night.
a. 10% b. less than 30% c. 50% d. 75% e. 89%

35. How many Americans under 30 say they get their news primarily from late-night comedians?
a. 13% b. 23% c. 33% d. 43% e. 51%
• And 2/3 of all Americans say they get their news primarily from TV.

36. T/F Regular viewers of comedy shows (e.g., The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Letterman/Leno, etc.) are just as well-informed about news events as consumers of more elite news (e.g., PBS’s Lehrer News Hour, newspapers, etc.).
• These viewers also tend to consume a lot of news sources, and so are more news-savvy than the average American—so they get the jokes....mostly.

37. One-in-eight American families lives in poverty. One-in-nine American households goes from day to day without being sure they’ll have enough to eat. How much time do nightly network newscasts spend covering poverty in the United States, on average?
a. 2½ seconds b. 4 seconds c. 2½ minutes d. 4 minutes
• . . . up to 4 seconds briefly in period immediately after Hurricane Katrina. So is Anna Nicole Smith or Britney or American Idol more important than starving people in the Land of Plenty??

38. America viewers who rely on (which TV network?) for their news are most likely to believe that the U.S. found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and that Saddam Hussein was directly involved in 9/11.
a. ABC b. CBS c. CNN d. Fox e. NBC f. MSNBC

39. T/F A recent research study found that conservatives believe comic Steven Colbert shares their conservative values, and uses his program to make fun of liberals.
• Do they have no sense of humor? Are they paying attention at all???

40. T/F Most news reporters consider themselves to be political liberals.
• I know what you think, but only 34% of journalists say they are “liberal”; most consider themselves independent moderates. More than half consider themselves “very” religious, too.

41. In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations that the U.S. had firm evidence of weapons of Iraqi mass destruction (WMD). In the two weeks before Powell’s speech, CBS, NBC, ABC & PBS ran 392 stories about Iraq, Saddam, WMD and war. How many of these stories questioned the evidence that Iraq had WMD?
a. 1 b. 3 stories c. 5 d. 10 e. 20 f. 50
• In May 2004, the NYTimes & Washington Post apologized on their editorial pages for their failure to raise questions about White House administration’s case for WMD and the Iraq war. “We screwed up,” both newspapers acknowledged. But how? Why?

42. During 2007, how much of U.S. news coverage was devoted to reporting on the Iraq war?
a. 3% b. 13% c. 23% d. 33%
• Actually, 26%.

43. In 2008, through the end of June, how much U.S. news coverage focused on Pakistan?
a. 1% b. 2% c. 3% d. 4% e. 5% f. 8%
• Although it is both a nuclear power and a crucial front in the war on terror, events inside Pakistan don’t generate much interest from the U.S. media.
• One dramatic spike in coverage of Pakistan when Benazir Bhutto, the Harvard-educated, pro-Western former prime minister, returned to run for president and was assassinated.
• Threatened by impeachment, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf retired in August ’08, generating media attention for a week.

44. Buxom celeb Anna Nicole Smith died of drug overdose in June 2007; how much of total news coverage focused on her during the two days after her death?
On cable news:
a. 10% b. 25% c. 30% d. 40% e. 50% f. none of the above
In all news sources:
a. 10% b. 25% c. 30% d. 40% e. 50% f. none of the above
In newspapers:
a. 10% b. 25% c. 30% d. 40% e. 50% f. none of the above
• Compare Pakistan coverage with Anna Nicole’s death (or Michael Jackson’s). Are the news media dumbing us to death?

45. In the first 28 hours after Michael Jackson’s death, U.S. news outlets devoted _____ of their coverage to the story.
a. 10% b. 20% c. 40% d. 60% e. 80%

46. Which U.S. newspaper did billionaire Rupert Murdoch recently purchase?
a. Wall Street Journal b. LATimes c. New York Daily News d. USA Today
• Can you name other major news outlets owned by Murdoch?
Murdoch, an Australian, became an American citizen some years ago so that he could purchase huge media holdings—from satellites to movie studios to newspapers and cable news networks (Fox). He single-handedly owns more media outlets worldwide—including much of China’s and India’s satellite system—than any other person, giving him extraordinary tools to shape public opinion and media appetites. Does that make anyone nervous?.

47. How many newspapers have failed since January 2009?
a. 25 b. 50 c. 75 d. 100 e. 125
• 105, actually. So as media moguls like Murdoch control more and more media, there are fewer and fewer outlets and “voices” in the marketplace of ideas. Hmmm.

48. Over the past two years, how many major U.S. metropolitan daily newspapers have closed or adopted hybrid online/print versions or online-only models?
a. 10 b. 20 c. 30+ d. 40 e. 50
• 12 metro dailies closed, including: Tucson Citizen, Rocky Mountain News, Baltimore Examiner, Kentucky Post, Cincinnati Post, Albuquerque Tribune, South Idaho Press
• Eight other print dailies are now online only, or have cut the number of weekly print editions and replaced them with online versions: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Capital Times (Madison, WI), Detroit News/Detroit Free Press, Christian Science Monitor, Ann Arbor News

49. Veteran CBS newsman and anchor Walter Cronkite died this past summer. During his career, he was considered “the most trusted man in America.” Since his death, a Time “Click” poll reports that Americans voted for whom as the new most trusted newsman in the U.S.?
a. Brian Williams, NBC (29%)
b. Katie Couric, CBS (7%)
c. Jim Lehrer, PBS (0%)
d. Charlie Gibson, ABC (19%)
e. Jon Stewart, The Daily Show (44%)
f. Steven Colbert, The Colbert Report (0%)
• So a comedian is America’s most trusted person? hmmmm. Utah’s Votes: Couric, 0%; Gibson, 15%; Williams, 25%; Stewart, 59% (46 votes)

50. Which story generated the biggest worldwide Internet coverage since Jan. 1, 2000?
a. Obama’s Election (2008) (#1)
b. Michael Jackson’s death(2009) (#2)
c. 9/11 terrorist attacks (2001) (#8)
d. Iraq invasion (2003) (#3)
e. Hurricane Katrina (2005) (#6)
f. Beijing Olympics (2008) (#4)

51. Which story has generated the most U.S. news coverage since Jan. 1, 2000?
a. Obama’s Election (2008) (#1)
b. Michael Jackson’s death (2009) (#9)
c. 9/11 terrorist attacks (2001) (#5)
d. Iraq invasion (2003) (#4)
e. Hurricane Katrina (2005) (#2)
f. Beijing Olympics (2008) (#6)
• What does this tell us about differences between what the U.S. public finds important/interesting, and what the world’s population thinks is important?

• Overall, what strikes you about the issues raised in this section?

IV. MEDIA TRIVIA: Race, Ethnicity & Gender

52. T/F Fox News pundit Glenn Beck recently told viewers that President Obama is a racist who hates white people.

53. People of color make up about 38% of the U.S. population. With the exception of sports and coverage of Barack Obama, what percentage of the news appearing in newspapers is about U.S. people of color? (in 2009)
a. 5% b. 10% c. 20% d. 30% e. 35%

54. Between 1995-1998, TV network evening news ran 48,000 stories; how many were about Hispanics?
a. less than 1% b. 2% c. 5% d. 10% e. 15%
• Hispanics=14% of population at that time.

55. In 2003, Hispanics were the focus of _________ stories airing on ABC, NBC, CBS & CNN newscasts.
a. less than 1% b. 2% c. 5% d. 10% e. 15%

56. What percentage of nightly network-news stories was reported by whites in 2000?
a. 49% b. 59% c. 69% d. 79% e. 89% f. 99%

57. What are the chances that a U.S. film with male Arab or Muslim characters made before September 11, 2001 (9/11), depicts them as greedy, violent or dishonest?
a. 1 in 20 b. 5 in 20 c. 8 in 20 d. 15 in 20 e. 19 in 20

58. ______ % of children say criminals on TV shows are usually played by a African-Americans.
a. 19% b. 29% c. 39% d. 49% e. 59%

59. ______ % of children say bosses on TV shows are usually played by a white actors.
a. 21% b. 41% c. 51% d. 71% e. 91%

60. Percentage of entertainment and news media decision-makers who are white men.
a. 20-25% b. 45-50% c. 70-75% d. 90-95%

61. Who is most likely to be pictured in TV news stories about youth crime?
a. African-Americans (61%) b. Latinos (31%) c. Asian-Americans
d. Native Americans e. Caucasians f. Mexicans

62. Number of black men who have appeared on the cover of Men’s Vogue since it launched in 2005.
a. 0 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 e. 5 f. 10
• Tiger Woods, Barack Obama, Denzel Washington, Will Smith

63. Number of black women who have appeared on Vogue’s cover since it was founded in 1892.
a. 0 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 e. 5 f. 10

64. Percentage of ads in magazines targeted to new brides featuring African-American women (2000-04).
a. 0% b. 2% c. 3% d. 4% e. 5% f. 10%

65. Number of covers of magazines targeted to new brides featuring African-American women (2000-2004).
a. 0 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 e. 5 f. 10

66. About 52% of Americans are women. Excluding Hillary Clinton coverage, how much of the news in U.S. newspapers is about women?
a. 10% b. 20% c. 40% d. 50%

67. Men reported what percentage of nightly network news stories in 2000?
a. 46% b. 56% c. 66% d. 76% e. 86% f. 96%

68. How many U.S. newsmagazine covers (Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report) in 1996 featured women who were not princesses, murderers, or models?
a. 0% b. 5% c. 10% d. 15% e. 22%

69. Between 1987 and 1997, Time magazine published 574 issues. How many Time covers featured women who were not entertainers, wives of politicians or Princess Diana?
a. 29 b. 59 c. 79 d. 99 e. 159

70. Total number of news stories that mentioned ex-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was a grandfather (9/1/06-12/1/06).
a. 6 b. 60 c. 160 d. 260 e. 306

71. Total number of news stories that mentioned that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a grandmother (9/1/06-12/1/06).
a. 6 b. 60 c. 160 d. 260 e. 306

72. Which of the following terms has been used by print & broadcast journalists to describe Speaker Pelosi?
a. “Wicked Witch of the West” b. “Shrew” c. “castrater” d. “Squeaker” e. all
a. Fox News’ executive editor of Special Report & Roll Call
b. New York Post bureau chief Deborah Orin-Eilbeck
c. Chris Matthews of Hardball said Pelosi was “going to castrate” Rep. Steny Hoyer” if he was selected House majority leader; she had supported John Murtha, who lost

73. Which media talk show host referred to Hillary Clinton as a “She-Devil”?
a. Rush Limbaugh b. Chris Matthews c. Bill O’Reilly d. both a & c

• What do these items illustrate? That the media portray different groups of people in ways and frequencies that are not reality—skewing “reality” for readers/viewers dependent on those sources for their knowledge of these topics. The point of the above items is that people without power in society tend to treated differently—even badly—by the mass media, which is controlled largely by white men. To what extent do these portrayals “cultivate” incorrect or negative or stereotyped perspectives among media consumers?

V. MEDIA TRIVIA: Miscellaneous

74. T/F The majority of people worldwide are followers of Christian religions.
• Christians=33%; Muslims=21%; Hindus=14%; Non-religious=16%

75. One-fourth of the world’s population lives in the United States. How much of the world’s natural resources are consumed by Americans?
a. 25% b. 33% c. 50% d. 67% e. 75%

76. Number of plastic grocery bags used in a year by the average U.S. family of four.
a. 500 b. 1,000 c. 1,500 d. 2,000
• Actually, 1,460 plastic bags/family. YIKES! Total plastic bags used in the U.S. in 2006 = 88.5 billion; it takes 12 million barrels of oil to make those bags....

77. Americans recycle what percentage of plastic bags?
a. less than 1% b. 5% c. 10% d. 15% e. 20%

78. How long does it take for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill?
a. 10 yrs b. 100 yrs c. 500 yrs d. 1,000 yrs e. 1,500 yrs

79. Debate over health care reform has dominated the news and talk shows in recent weeks. According to the World Health Organization, which country(s) ranks in the top 10 nations that provide the best health care to citizens?
a. U.S. (#37) ----- YOWIE!
b. France (#1)
c. Japan (#10)
d. Costa Rica (#36)
e. Slovenia (#38)
• Wait a minnit. Let me get this straight—The United States ranks below Costa Rica in its health care system? At least we beat Slovenia!

So what have we learned?
1. We’re being lied to, boys and girls. Or at least misled . . .
2. The things we think are truth clearly aren’t always.
3. The people who control the content of the mass media system have a lot of power to mislead us, or at least to make us see the world in the ways they want us to—in politics, marketing/advertising, general worldview.... Hmmmm.
.