Course takes a 'real' look at TV

The atmosphere of many lecture classes tends to be the same somber, sometimes groggy group of students listening to a professor lecture. \nBut throw a news camera in the picture, and suddenly students begin to participate left and right.\nIn IU's new "The (Sur)Real World of Reality TV" course, the reality of TV has been unexpectedly evident with local and national media expressing interest.\nTelecommunications professor Herb Terry said he selected this topic to teach how to take advantage of the national hype of reality TV and give it an academic spin.\nBut he said the recent buzz surrounding his course has given students a firsthand look at how media works. With a camera in the room, it gives students the chance to see how differently people act when on TV, he said.\nWTHR-Channel 13 reporter David MacAnally came to Terry's class Wednesday to talk with students about how the course has changed their view of television. \n"(The class) got their first experience of what it is like to have a camera wandering around while you're trying to behave normal," Terry said.\nMacAnally is just one of many reporters to contact Terry about his new class. Terry said he has heard from VH1, Indianapolis Monthly and other radio and television stations and newspapers about doing stories.\nMacAnally said he's working on the story because he wants to find how the class has changed students' views of reality television.\n"We thought that the whole idea of reality TV and the phenomena has interested a lot of people," MacAnally said. "And to see that academia was taking an interest, not just the viewer, and trying to get at why people are interested -- that caught our eye."\nAs the semester continues, members of Terry's course might not be simply learning about reality TV, but might also have an opportunity to participate in it. Terry said he expects the media's interest in his course "to go on for a while."\nTerry isn't the only one who noticed a change in the class since the media invasion. Students in COAS S104 have noticed an increase in participation from everyone.\n"It definitely changed the class. People were much more involved with the camera around," freshman Christie Quattrini said. "Today was kind of the reality of all the attention."\nTerry teaches the freshman seminar topics course to focus on not just reality TV, but the economics, political science, ethics, law and culture behind it all. He said he wants to help his students find an area of interest to study through popular topics in society.\n"I don't care what these people major in," Terry said. "But they will see there are a whole bunch of different ways of looking at the same phenomena."\nTerry also is looking to start a new living/learning center tentatively known as the Global Living/Learning Center, which he hopes to have opened by the fall. He said this would then be tied into his fall seminar addressing how the rest of the world views the U.S. presidential election.\n"What I try to find is these topics that the students may have some interest in, but then to try to work them into an academic context," Terry said. "I am constantly on the lookout for sorts of topics that students can resonate with, but can have different academic takes on them."\n-- Contact staff writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.