Reading Between the Lines:
An informal course on questioning the media

Instructor: Sanjoy Mahajan, Physics Department, Cambridge University
When: 5.30-7.00, weekdays 8-15 Jan (Tues-Tues)
Where: Center for Student Services (building 86, on Holliston just
       south of the parking structure), 3rd floor conference room
Who: All are welcome.
Host: Erik Winfree, CNS

As scientists, we spend millions convincing Nature to share a few
scraps of data.  The social world, however, floods us with data at no
cost (except to our sanity); in the United States alone, newspapers
publish many gigabytes of data every day.  But the resulting picture
of the world is always fragmented, often misleading, and sometimes
dishonest.

We will try to rebuild the picture through analysis of media reports
and government documents.  We will look at (1) the humanitarian
bombing of Yugoslavia, (2) the debate on publicly financed healthcare,
(3) US relations with Vietnam, including the war and the US embargo,
(4) the US/UN invasion of Haiti to restore democracy, (5) the history
of free trade, and (6) other topics you are interested in.

The sessions will be mostly independent of one another, so come to
whichever ones you can.  Pizza and other tasty takeout food (Thai?)
will be served, and the sessions will be informal and
discussion-based, with optional readings and small projects to try on
your own.

"It  is  by  the  goodness of God that in our country we have those
 three  unspeakably  precious  things: freedom of speech, freedom of
 conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them."
 --Mark Twain

Further information: Sanjoy Mahajan