Women,Gender,Sexuality Studies 292N - S- WGSS Reads the News

This course combines understanding world and local news alongside developing critical media skills. How can you bring your critical thinking skills to bear on analyzing news sources and stories? What are the social and political contexts of these accounts and reporters? In an era with news writing Bots, who or what is a reporter or journalist? What is a reliable source? Why do some news stories instantly travel world wide and others require intense digging? Why does the news report on the latest "viral video" while focusing little on in depth analysis of complex social problems. Whose stories are always covered, and whose are marginalized? How do differences of race, class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity impact the readers, writers and subjects of the news? This class will focus on discussing world and local news, while critically reading together news accounts of current issues. Together we will evaluate news stories and sources and share tips on finding and filtering information.