Visitors are welcome to these sessions and are free to join in the discussion.
(NO parking permit is required in Faculty/Staff lots after 6PM. Lot B is closest to Horton.)

Why do most U.S. citizens know so little about Latin America and the dominant U.S. role in the region for more than the last century? This Monday and Wednesday, my Analysis of News class (CMN 515) will be looking at the news coverage (and covering up) of aspects of United States interventions in Latin America. We will explore these in relation to the contrasting narratives in our news media about the U.S. role in the world (such as those Prof. Daniel Hallin of UC-San Diego calls the Geopolitical worldview, the Fortress America worldview, and the Human Rights worldview).

Although my students will be expected to understand this two-part case study in terms of many news-analysis concepts that we have already explored in the course, these two sessions will also be comprehensible on their own. Therefore, visitors are encouraged to attend one, or preferably both, of these sessions. Indeed, since these sessions will cover some disturbing information that is rarely seen in U.S. mainstream news media or school textbooks, I think my students would benefit from the insights and perspectives of others with some experience with Latin American and/or other journalistic topics.

On Monday, we will focus mostly on the U.S. role in Guatemala, though within the larger context of U.S. Cold-War policies at home and abroad (that have enduring implications). On Wednesday, we will focus mostly on the U.S. role in El Salvador and on the ongoing controversy surrounding the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas (recently renamed). On one of the two days we may also have time to look at the U.S.-backed September 11, 1973 coup that overthrew the elected government of Chile and set up the Pinochet dictatorship. And we will also look at least briefly at the larger pattern of U.S. interventions in the region from the early 19th century to the present (in Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Venezuela, etc.), as well as at some of the threads that connect crude colonialism and gunboat imperialism of old with today's more "refined" neo-liberal economic policies. On both of these days, we will also hear from a few mainstream journalists (through video interviews) who will try to explain and justify the minimal coverage of Latin America, and the narrow range of perspectives about it, in our news media.

Please note that these will be "video-heavy" sessions, in both senses of the word "heavy." Therefore, we will end with an optional open discussion from 8:00 pm to about 8:30 pm. Please join us if you are interested. (If anyone is planning to bring or send more than one person to these sessions, I'd appreciate an email RSVP, so that I can predict whether we will need to move to Horton 207, which I've reserved as a larger, backup room.)