New Haven Independent

This reporter stopped by two classes of the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation’s six-week summer program, where Yale undergraduates teach talented students from New Haven middle schools. Caroline Page (pictured at right), a rising senior at Yale, is teaching a journalism class in Yale’s Dwight Hall.

Students are working in a range of media formats. They’ve done photo essays, following a theme through nearby New Haven sights. They’ve written persuasive political statements based loosely on local figures. They’ve composed mock news videos a la Jon Stewart. As a final project, they’re planning to release a podcast — an audio file stored on the computer, instantly dispersible through the web (iPod not necessary).

They’ve dissected media coverage of race and gender — this photo from the Hartford Courant tacked to the wall, for instance, met close scrutiny. It portrays the white men in control, and the black women — enraged at a police officer (pictured in suit) for shooting a loved one — looking powerless and “crazy,” explained one student.

Questions popped up about online news: Where does the money come from? How can you tell if a website’s reliable? What’s the difference between news and a blog? One student said she’d like to start a magazine, perhaps online — a teen magazine that “didn’t talk about wars all the time.”

Other students later leapt into debate about wars — when it’s right to fight them, and when it’s OK for a newspaper to denounce a president’s choice to do so. Tracey Smith (pictured at left) had heard Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly denouncing The New York Times for running so many opinion columns that criticize Bush, including calling the Iraq war a “mistake.” Should the Times be criticized for “blatant unfairness” as O’Reilly charges? Or does the Times have the journalistic duty to continue to cast judgment on the president’s poor decisions?

“If they didn’t like it, they shouldn’t read it,” opined Lynette Perez (pictured in middle). A classmate countered with a more cautious stance. Perez reconsidered: “They [the Times] should speak their mind, but not to the point where it starts a civil war.”