Ambassador talk Analysis Paper
Analysis papers
There are expected to be six speakers during the course of the semester (5 foreign diplomats and the Diplomat in Residence). Students are STRONGLY encouraged to write all 6 essays with the understanding that the lowest grade will be dropped in calculating the final grade. It is possible that we will have a last minute cancellation of a speaker, and students will not be allowed to make up essays that they neglected to turn in.
These papers are meant to encourage students to think deeply about the information communicated by the visiting consuls general.
Within a week of each consular visit, students must turn in a 2-3 page, single spaced paper in which they analyze some aspect of the diplomat’s talk or responses to audience questions.
Essays should follow the traditional 5 paragraph format, in which a thesis statement is provided in an introductory paragraph, three paragraphs of argument follow, and a concluding paragraph restates the thesis and illustrates how it was supported by the essay. (See Blackboard for information on argumentative essays.)
The topic of analysis should be narrow – one statement/response should be enough to serve as a jumping off point for the essay.
Students may also compare speaker responses in their essays (either compare two responses by the same speaker or compare the response to the same question by different speakers).
These papers are not summaries; rather, they provide the students an opportunity to analyze some aspect of the event, whether the answer to a question, the manner of presentation, the amount of candor shown by the guest, etc.
Students should not simply present their opinions about something. Rather, they should support their statements with arguments and/or justifications, for example, I am convinced that Midwest trade is vital to the economy of X because the consulate devotes two-thirds of its staff toward building economic partnerships with Midwestern companies, the CG to the Midwest is an ambassador while other 3 CsG in the US do not have that rank, and the CG devoted three-quarters of her remarks to the issue of economics.
Students may use concepts learned in the class to support/augment their arguments. They may also consult news accounts, analysis, or opinion pieces that are publicly available. The best analyses are those that incorporate outside information.
All information that is not original work of the student must be cited using Chicago Style citations. A bibliography/works cited is required only if a student cites material from sources other than the class textbook. If only the class textbook is used, a citation is needed but not a bibliography.
Communication. Luton: University of Luton Press.
Wang B, Lee F and Wang H (2013) Technological practices, news production processes and journalistic witnessing: Hong Kong journalists in the 2011 Japan earthquake.Journalism Studies 14(4) 491-506.
Yell S (2012) National disaster news and communities of feeling: The affective interpellation of local and global publics. Social Semiotics 22(4): 409-428.
Author biography
Simon Cottle is Professor of Media and Communications, Head of School and Director of the Mediatized Conflict Research Group in the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies (JOMEC) at Cardiff University. He has researched and written widely on conflicts, crises and catastrophes and media and communications. His latest books are Disasters and the Media (with co-authors Mervi Pantti and Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Peter Lang, 2012), Transnational Protests and the Media (with co-editor Libby Lester, Peter Lang, 2011), Global Crisis Reporting:
Journalism in the Global Age (Open University Press, 2009) and Mediatized Conflict: Developments in Media and Conflict Studies (Open University Press, 2006). He is the series editor of Global Crises and Media, (Peter Lang). Simon is currently also preparing two new books: Reporting Dangerously: Journalist Killing and Security (with Richard Sambrook and Nick Mosdell) and Humanitarianism, Communications and Change (edited with Glenda Cooper, forthcoming).
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