Grant Hannis teaches an undergraduate history of journalism course. He uses case studies to help students critically engage with historical texts and understand their context. Two case studies are described. In the first, students analyze a 1608 news report about a boat journey by land and air to consider its credibility. In the second, students learn to understand Mark Twain's ironic travel writing and consider how independent he was as a journalist critical of tourists. The case studies encourage independent critical thinking and show how journalism has both evolved and remained the same. Student feedback found the approach beneficial for learning but some felt anxious being put on the spot in class.

1. BEA
Grant Hannis
Massey University
Helping Students to Critically
Engage with Historical and
Modern Journalism

2. Associate Professor Grant Hannis
School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing
Massey University
Wellington, New Zealand

3. I teach an undergraduate history of journalism course.
Students can struggle to understand the texts we use,
their context, and to critically analyze the material.
I use a case study approach to help students address
these issues.
It serves as trial runs for the written assignments.
Graded in their own right, to encourage engagement.
I will describe two of the case studies, their benefits and
students’ comments.

4. In 1607 Englishman William Bush reportedly travelled in a
pinnace (a small boat) from Lambourn, a small town in
Berkshire, to Custom House Quay in London, a distance of
about 60 miles.
Bush had built the boat himself, but what was remarkable
about the journey was that it only travelled part of the way
by water, the rest of the time it went by land and, at the
start of the journey, by air!
A newsbook on the event, written by London pamphleteer
Anthony Nixon, was published in 1608.

6.  Students must read and understand the unfamiliar text.
 They must consider whether the story is true:
- A boat cannot fly or sail on land, of course. But the
newsbook does explain how these feats were achieved (the
boat “flew” on cables down from a church tower and sat on a
large tricycle to travel across land).
- The newsbook says Bush was greeted by thousands in
London. Newsbook sold in London, presumably readers must
have remembered the event – suggests it was true.

7.  Students must also consider whether such events, a fun
story about a vehicle designed for one form of transport
being used for another, are still newsworthy. They are:

8.  Extract from “The Innocents Abroad” by
Mark Twain (1869). Originally newspaper
columns.
 Twain visits pyramids with a group of
American tourists. They clamber to the top
of a pyramid. Twain accepts bets from their
local guide that the guide cannot quickly
ascend a nearby pyramid.
 Guide repeatedly wins, much to Twain’s
annoyance. Guide’s mother appears.
 Twain says he would pay them both to jump
off the pyramid.

9.  Students must learn to understand Twain
is writing ironically.
 Students must also consider how
independent Twain was:
- He was financially independent of the
tourists and the tourist industry, so could
deliberately depict himself as a boorish
tourist to mock tourists’ attitudes and
guides’ willingness to profit from those
attitudes.

10. - But some of his self-deprecating humor
may be too strong for us today: Twain
consoled himself that the guide was a
heathen and thus would burn in Hell.
This comment is heavily ironic but is not
something we would likely say today,
even in jest. Students realise we are all
products of our time.
- So Twain was an independent critic of
the tourists and the tourism industry, but
he was independent of his times.

11. Students also consider whether travel writing is still a staple of
journalism. It is, both generally and the personal account:

12.  Encourages the students to think critically. They are given
the texts and questions before class, so have time to read
the material, think about it and read around the topic.
 The case studies highlight big issues: the nature of truth in
reporting, the nature of journalistic independence, etc.
 Students read the texts unmediated and must identify and
find modern comparative texts:. Learn to do their own
research.
 Understand how the world has changed and, just as
importantly, how it has remained the same.

13.  “This paper definitely made me think more critically. Wish
I had taken it a lot sooner because it would have benefited
my other essays.”
 “I loved learning about the history. It was so cool to see
how print journalism has evolved over the years and see
how it may change in the future. I think the tutorials were
particularly beneficial to my learning.”
 But not easy to be put on the spot in class: “It was helpful
to be taught how to pick apart readings. My only
constructive criticism would be in tutorials we are
randomly selected to answer questions. This made me
anxious.”

14. Associate Professor Grant Hannis
School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing
Massey University
Wellington, New Zealand