Beyond News: Seeking Truth in Polarizing Media

Participants watch short video clips from Fox News and MSNBC

Did you ever turn on your tele and wonder how the talking heads on your screen make the world around you look to spin out of balance or that there’s so much mayhem going on that you lose focus of what you can do to change things?

I f you answered yes, Truman Sociology Professor Madeline Troche-Rodriguez and Social Sciences Professor Joshua Jones hosted a critique on the role of the Media on, Thursday, Mar. 24, at the front lobby from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. to address such oversimplified upshot.

Student Andrew Dahl asks a question during the presentation

The participants watched video clips from Fox News and MSNBC coverage of Wisconsin 2011 budget process to illustrate the context and extent of polarization in the American media. The show hosts and news commentators, shown in the clips, were selective in their reporting, omitting arguments that did not reflect their own ideological slant.

Even though I joined a little while after it had begun, the purpose of the presentation was, according to Jones, to promote the public to “engage in dialogue,” and also to widen the scope of that debate. He also stated that media messages have purposes and encouraged attendees to do citizen journalism, read multiple sources, and not just be isolated to liberal and conservative view of an issue.

Journalism Professor Ben Ortiz responds to questions by students

40 to 60 students and faculty participated in the event, where students asked questions and the faculty provided expert opinion on the issues at hand.

Organizers distributed flyers with the addresses of international English language news Websites to help students explore different views of issues happening around the world.

Pink Elephant Sale Raises Funds for Female Students

Walker attends to a student who ordered a blueberry muffin

If you passed by the Cafeteria entrance between the hours of 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22, you had an opportunity to see the incredible exhibit of lots of odds and ends displayed on tables. And if you stopped to ask, you would have known that the American Association of Women in Community Colleges’ (AAWCC) Pink Elephant (PE) sale was taking place.

The items on sale included beads, house wares, purses, dresses, belts, shoes, home wall arts, three-rings binders, and other bits and pieces. Food items such as cupcakes, cookies and blueberry muffin also were also on sale.

The prices of the varied items also  ranged from 25 cents to upward of six dollars, and the terms of payment were limited to cash only.

Sarah Yankey,  last year's AAWCC scholarship  recipient, stops by the PE Sale

Teresa Walker of the Human Resources Department, Felicity Murray from the Registrar’s Office and Joanne Kalnitz, an Associate Professor in the Communications Department, stood behind spectacular arrangements of six tables put end-to-end, to attend to the many students and staff who bought the stuff.

The aim of the PE sale was according to Murray “to raise money for scholarships,” for Truman female students and the scholarships will “help students to pay for tuition, to purchase books, food or (even) transportation,” said Walker.

It’s interesting for me to learn that all the things sold at the fundraiser event was donated by different groups who wanted to support AAWCC.

Even though the fundraiser was ongoing and the funds realized then was not made available to me at the time of my visit, the organizers, however, told me similar fund drives in the past raised not more than $ 400, and other college-based scholarships chipped in some cash to support the benefit. Six female students received AAWCC scholarship awards last year.

Although AAWCC is a 37-year old organization, Truman Chapter is, however, about 20 years old.