Dear J201 students,

You are invited to participate in an online study concerning what people learn from reading news stories. By taking this online survey, you will receive 0.5 extra credit points for J201. In total, we expect your participation to take approximately 20 minutes. This study will be open until Friday February 23rd at 10pm.

You can participate in this study from any computer equipped with a Web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, or Safari) and an Internet connection. If you do not have an Internet connection at home, you can complete the study from a campus computer lab or library.

As with any research, your participation is voluntary, and all of the information you give will be kept strictly confidential. Douglas McLeod, Evjue Centennial professor, and graduate students in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication are conducting this study. If you have questions about the project, please contact Prof. Douglas McLeod at dmmcleod@wisc.edu.

If you would like to receive extra credit, but do not want to participate in the study, you may attend an alternate lecture on Friday March 23rd 11am-12pm, Vilas 2130. Please note that you cannot receive credit for both—you will get a maximum of .5 points for participating in the study or attending the lecture.

You must be at least 18 years old to participate in this study.

To participate in the online study, simply click on the following link and follow the directions: https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bCJawc9HiNlDYvX

Thank you in advance for your help with our study.√

Dear J201 students,

Here’s another opportunity for you to earn .5 percentage points of extra credit. You are invited to participate in an online study concerning what people learn from reading opinion pieces. Douglas McLeod, Evjue Centennial professor, and graduate students in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication are conducting this study.

Your participation in the survey will involve reading opinion pieces and answering questions about various political and social issues. In total, we expect your participation to take approximately 20 minutes. This study will be open until Wednesday February 14^th at 11pm.

 You can participate in this study from any computer equipped with a Web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, or Safari) and an Internet connection. If you do not have an Internet connection at home, you can complete the study from a campus computer lab or library.

As with any research, your participation is voluntary, and all of the information you give will be kept strictly confidential. If you have questions about the project, please contact Prof. Douglas McLeod at dmmcleod@wisc.edu.

If you would like to receive extra credit, but do not want to participate in the study, you may attend an alternate lecture on Friday March 16^th 11am-12pm, Vilas 2130. Please note that you cannot receive credit for both—you will get a maximum of .5 points for participating in the study or attending the lecture.

You must be at least 18 years old to participate in this study.

To participate in the online study, simply click on the following link and follow the directions:

https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_88OPBnkCijE1TKd

Thank you in advance for your help with our study.

Dear J201 students,

Here’s an opportunity for you to earn extra credit for J201. You are invited to participate in an online study concerning what people learn from reading news stories. Douglas McLeod, Evjue Centennial professor, and graduate students in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication are conducting this study.

In this on-line study, some questions concerning your perceptions of social and political issues will be asked through a self-report questionnaire. You will also encounter a news story and potentially some additional content, followed by a second questionnaire. In total, we expect your participation to take approximately 20 minutes. This study will be open until Sunday, February 11th at 9pm.

You can participate in this study from any computer equipped with a Web browser (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Safari) and an Internet connection. If you do not have an Internet connection at home, you can complete the study from a campus computer lab or library.

As with any research, your participation is voluntary, and all of the information you give will be kept strictly confidential. If you have questions about the project, please contact Prof. Douglas McLeod at dmmcleod@wisc.edu.

If you would like to receive extra credit, but do not want to participate in the study, you may attend an alternate lecture about the study on March 22nd at 4:30pm, Vilas 5055. Please note that you cannot receive credit for both—you will get extra point for participating in this study or attending the alternative lecture.

You must be at least 18 years old to participate in this study.

To participate in the online study, simply click on the following link and follow the directions: https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2caNADqhzC23MSV

Thank you in advance for your help with our study.

J201: Short Writing Assignment #1 – Due Thursday, February 1 by midnight on Turnitin.com*

Interview a person in their sixties or older about their mass media experiences in the twentieth century, especially with news. Use the questions below as a starting point. Then write a short essay between 500 and 600 words describing, analyzing, and reflecting on the media life of your interviewee.

If you don’t have a family member or other acquaintance in this age bracket, you can interview the relative of a friend, as long as that person isn’t already the interviewee for someone else taking the course.

Assignment requirements:

• 500-600 words
• You may use first-person (“In my interview with…..” or “From such-and-such, I concluded….”)
• The essay should have a clear beginning, middle, and end. For instance, you could have an introductory paragraph giving an introduction to your subject and what the key takeaways were from your interview, body paragraphs analyzing the content of your interview, drawing out themes, and reflecting on their media experiences, and a conclusion, maybe reflecting on what surprised you most. Make sure you don’t simply recount the whole interview but instead focus on your own analysis of the content.
• Write in Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced
• Put your name, the participant’s name and age, and the relationship you have with your interview participant at the top of the page
• Paraphrase your interview. However, if there’s a great quote, you can include what your participant said verbatim in quotation marks.
• Include only information that seems the most poignant or interesting. For example, if your participant didn’t say anything interesting about radio, no need to include that. Focus on what you found interesting.
• APA style is not required, since you won’t have discussed it in section yet, but feel free to get a head start practicing it: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/

Possible questions you could ask:

• When you were growing up, how did your parents get their news? What newspaper subscriptions did they have, if any? When and why did that change, if it did?
• How did you consume news growing up? As an adult? How did you hear about world or national events? When and how did that change in your lifetime?
• What do you remember about your experiences with radio?
• What kinds of radio programs, if any, did you listen to (entertainment, music, talk, )? When were they on, and why did you like them?
• In what ways, if any, did TV shape your home life?
• What do you remember about the nightly TV news broadcasts of the 1950s and 1960s? Did your family have a favorite anchor and why?
• Anything else you want to share?

*Be on the lookout in Week 1 for an email from your TA with instructions on how to sign up for Turnitin.com