Media & Empathy

First, here's this to bridge our conversations from media's relationship with society & community to our current discussions of empathy and belief.

Here is the assignment description for the Exercise in Empathy...

Each student will ask someone close to them to share a story about the most difficult trial that he/she has faced. (This someone will need to have an understanding of the assignment and agree to participate). During the telling of the story, students are to practice empathy--listening intently, asking questions when appropriate, sharing their own thoughts and feelings if invited. Then students will write a journal entry about the thoughts, feelings and impressions that they experienced during and after this exercise and will turn the entry into the instructor rather than post it on their blog. The journal entry must not include the name or relation of the someone or any details of his/her story--students must consider the assignment as a personal practice of empathy not an exploitation of another's struggles.

And here's another intersection of media and empathy.

And here's a nice bridge from this week's discussion to our final assignment...

And here's an extra credit opportunity...Watch "Listening Is An Act of Love" and post a 400-500 word response relating the film to some concept from the reading/class discussion and you can earn up to 10 pts extra credit. Here are the listings for the KUED Channel 7.2 (Digital):

POV: Listening Is an Act of Love: A StoryCorps SpecialSunday, December 1, 11:30pmStoryCorps animated shorts celebrate the act of listening.POV: Listening Is an Act of Love: A StoryCorps SpecialMonday, December 2, 4:30amStoryCorps animated shorts celebrate the act of listening.POV: Listening Is an Act of Love: A StoryCorps SpecialMonday, December 2, 8:30pmStoryCorps animated shorts celebrate the act of listening.POV: Listening Is an Act of Love: A StoryCorps SpecialTuesday, December 3, 9:30amStoryCorps animated shorts celebrate the act of listening.POV: Listening Is an Act of Love: A StoryCorps SpecialTuesday, December 3, 3:30pmStoryCorps animated shorts celebrate the act of listening.POV: Listening Is an Act of Love: A StoryCorps SpecialTuesday, December 3, 6:00pmStoryCorps animated shorts celebrate the act of listening.