1. Selected News English Reading Course Instructor: TONG Yanfang (Ellen) E-mail: ellentongs@163.com Website: Ellen’s Workshop (ellensangreal.org) Wechat: Ellen’s Workshop (ellens_tales)

2. In old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press. That is an improvement certainly. But still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralizing. Somebody — was it Burke? — called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time no doubt. But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three. The Lords Temporal say nothing, the Lords Spiritual have nothing to say, and the House of Commons has nothing to say and says it. We are dominated by Journalism. ----Oscar Wilde

4. Why is press called “the fourth estate”? What does it mean? Why is there such a contradiction between the two perceptions of the fourth estate? (hegemony / censorship) Why are we taking this course?

5. Plato’s Cave

7. Course Introduction I: Course Objective & Topics to coverCourse Objective & Topics to cover II: Assessment & basic tasksAssessment & basic tasks III: Accesses to course materialsAccesses to course materials IV: Sources of newsSources of news Go to Homework

8. I : Course Objectives This course should give students: A basic knowledge and understanding of English news: what makes “news” & how to read behind news. Ability to read, understand, and analyze news English News & English News Reading

9. Course Objective – 1 English News

10. Topics to cover basics of news: definition of “journalism”, news headlines, leads, structure, news language, news bias, etc. types of news: soft news & hard news, in-depth report, breaking news, feature story, opinion, etc. different categories of news: international, domestic; sports, obituaries, disasters, business, society, science and technology, environment etc.

15. Course Objective – 2. English News Reading

16. What makes an ideal reader?  A reader who perfectly understands what s/he is reading  A reader that believes everything he reads  A reader who reads mostly for information that can help handle life  A reader who quickly learns something useful from what s/he reads  A reader who digs into what s/he reads for things s/he needs  A reader who feels there’s something that could only be felt by spending time reading  … Sample 1Sample 2

17. Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. ---- Sir Francis Bacon

18. What’s an ideal reader? understanding perfectly getting inspired profoundly making connections effectively reading critically/skeptically …

19. II : Assessment Class Performance 50% + Final 50% --class performance: 1. Pair Report: 20% 2. Quizzes &/ assignments: 10% 3. Class participation: 20% (18% +/--) 4. Bonus Credit: +0~3% for each optional task Deduction: absenteeism: -2% each time late arrival & bad influence: 0~3% Refer to details in the word file named “ Course Introduction ”

20. III : Accesses to Course Material (1) ellensangreal.org

21. IV : Sources of News

22. Major Newspapers in the US The New York Times The Los Angeles Post The Washington Post Christian Science Monitor The Wall Street Journal USA Today …

23. Major Newspapers in the UK The Times The Guardian The Daily Telegraph Daily Mirror The Sun The Economist …

25. Four Major News Agencies in the West Agence France Presse (AFP) in France Reuters in UK Associated Press (AP) in US The United Press International (UPI) in US ( 美国合众国际新闻社 )

26. What is news? News is a fresh report of events, facts, or opinions that people did not know before they read your story. News is anything timely that interests a number of persons, and the best news is that which has the greatest interest of the greatest number. News is any event, idea or opinion that is timely, that interests or affects a large number of people in a community and that is capable of being understood by them.

27. If a dog bites a man, it is not news; if a man bites a dog, it’s (big) news. News is the reporting of anything timely which has importance, use or interest to a considerable number of persons in a publication audience.

28. a definition from Dictionary of Canadian English Something told as having just happened: information about something that has just happened or will soon happen. 新闻是已经或正在或将要发生的事实 的最及时的报道。

29. A News Story Contains: 5Ws –Who is the story about? –What is the story about? –Where did the story happen? –When did this story happen? –Why did this story happen? (How did the story happen?) Sample

30. Homework Pair report (1): Choose 1 to 4 of the news agencies in the west, and give a 3-5 minute’s introduction. Pair report (2): Give a brief introduction to the concept of “The Fourth Estate” in front of the class For All: Read the course materials of Week (on Wechat account / website; you may choose to print them out)