Post #6

Assignment #1: Creating a Television News Broadcast

Purpose of Assignment: to teach high school students about news broadcasting and an introduction to media bias.

Time: One week, 50 min class periods

Procedure:

1. To start off, I would poll students on how many watch the news and what kinds of things are being discussed in the news today. I would then show a few clips of local newscasts from various stations. Students will be advised to listen carefully to the news cast and keep track of the descriptor words. Then I would start a class discussion of the issues going on in the school and begin going over their assignment.
2. Students will work in groups and come up with there own news story about a school event. (Class will have brainstormed topics together in my intro to assignment to pick from and Groups will be chosen by the teacher). Students will be advised to include the 5 W’s in there news story.
3. Students will work collaboratively gathering information and interviewing people (recording interviews) as they like for their story.
4. Students will script their news broadcast, record it, and edit it as desired.(students will have already been exposed to the software and other tools available for video production).
5. Students will then share their broadcasts with the class and share its strengths/ weaknesses.
6. Afterwards there will be a class discussion of each groups broadcast and if it was bias or not. As a class, we would look at the FAIR sites questions for detecting bias. Each group would then evaluate their work and think about if they covered the story from different viewpoints and shared the story in a unbiased way.
7. Students homework will be to write a short reflection on the assignment. The paper should reflect on the making of their news broadcast, whether or not they showed it in a non-biased way, and what they could have done differently to make it better or report in a non-biased way.

Rationale:

I think it is kind of hard to think of what kind of assignments I would have students do related to news and my content area. Teaching Art these days is usually more traditional with some incorporation of media arts/technology. I think that since most students are exposed to so much media that they should realize that much of the information they might see might be biased.

One night while listening to the news, there was a story about a girl and her boyfriend that went missing after a night out. Apparently the girl had never ever gotten in trouble or didn’t do drugs and this night she experimented with CRYSTAL METH. And anytime they said that word it was clearly emphasized that they were on CRYSTAL METH. If I could find this story it would be a great story to show about bias and descriptor words. This story was very one-sided and exaggerated, thus a great example of TV news showing what they want.

Also. I would only show a few news clips of example stories and see what the students themselves come up with for stories and how they show it. I would then go into how the news can be bias and see if any groups broadcast their story in a bias way.


Assignment #2: Caricature of Person in the Media

Purpose of Assignment: to teach high school students about stereotyping and bias in the media.

Time: One week, 50 min class periods

Procedure:

1. In connection/continuation of the previous assignment, I would have students brainstorm the types of stereotyping and bias we see in the media. As a class, we will go over different types of stereotyping and images of those stereotypes we may see in the media, like in magazines, TV shows, and advertisements.
2. As another class activity, I would have students look at the design of the local newspaper: its content and layout. We would then examine political cartoons that are found in the paper and go over a little history of political cartoons. Also we will discuss political cartoons in terms of their techniques employed, the exaggeration of features, the visual portrayal of issue, the parodying of language and social practices, and portrayal of certain attitude or stance.
3. Students assignment will be to create there own caricature of a news anchor that they have watched, a politician that was recently in the news, or a stereotyped person.
4. Students will then share there works with the class and their reason/inspiration for their chose of character.
   

Rationale:

Students are bombarded with so many different views of different people, many of which are stereotypical. I think students need that constant reminder that everyone is different. While there may be people out there like the ones depicted in the media, that one represents a very small portion of those people. Students also need to realize that when listening to reports on a politician they may be biased towards a particular party and sometimes you may not always recognize that. We need to constantly teach students to critically analyze what they see and hear in the media.

Teaching News vs "Fake News"

When thinking about news vs. "fake news" many can tell the difference between the two, but the younger audience more often sees the "fake." When talking to students about this topic, I would show clips from various "fake news" newscasts. Many are meant to be comical and show satire. I would emphasize that satire in this form is similar to that in literature. It is an art form and a form of expression or reaction to something. When these issues are put on the comic chopping block, it can shine new light on the issue for some people...a viewpoint they may not have seen before. I would then start a class discussion about their thoughts of the issue of news vs "fake news."

The next activity might be similar to my assignment #2 above. Students can look at political comics and how they are similar to "fake news" broadcasts. I would then have students create there own political comics focusing more on a school base rather than a public base with it still being school appropriate, allowing students to be creative and have a little fun with the project.