{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02261904761904762, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 4.755707762557078, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Turning TV News Experiences into Technology Case Studies

Television is a technological business, especially when producing images: “Because we tend to think of technological development as analogous with biological development, we’re likely to assume that changes in our experience of television reflect changes in television technology.”’ Much of the visual know-how we offer students in practical television news courses results from our professional experience with technology. The lessons we learn on the job and the ideas that guide us in the profession may seem to be technical at their roots. But if all we teach students is how to run the latest high-tech toy, we haven’t shared what we really know about visual communication, and we haven’t prepared them to deal with the toys of the future. A better method would extract from our technical expertise the best visual ideas . and pass these on to students, along with a healthy skepticism about technology and its managers. To instill skepticism we have a wealth of historic evidence, from our own experience as well as from published accounts. MacDonald, for example, argues that technology had little to do with the way network television developed. But our strongest evidence is our experience in the business. The stories about our own problems and solutions can help students understand the role of technology. But first we have to thinkthroughthe stories, looking for their hidden ideas. Professionals-turned-professors sometimes indulge in recounting “war stories”-those moments of glory or challenge that made working in the media seemimportant andvaluable. These stories often get told naively, as if they teach only a practical lesson in how to do a job. The underlying assumption is that doing the job that way is right and good (or the opposite, if the story is about a failure). In other words, the “war story” pretends to teach universal truths or principles. Told uncritically, these stories do little more than make us look good and teach students to follow our example. A better use for “war stories” is to turn them into case studies. A case study invites students to find solutions of their own and to think critically about the solutions of professionals. Turning a “war story” into a case study takes thought and an openness to criticism. To get the ball rolling, I will offer two of my own stories and try to make them into case studies, to see if I can wrestle the visual communication ideas from the practical experience with technology.