JOURNALISM
UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
Jordi Pipó, Elisabet Riera, Núria Cluet
Justification
This book isn’t meant to be the starting point, but what is useful is its conclusion about the school’s role in training critical citizens, who can understand the society they live in.
“(Cañadell), alerta un fenomen també molt preocupant, com és el de la despolitització de l’escola. Quan parlem d’això, no parlem de partits o ideologies, sinó de l’etimologia del terme, del “polis”, de la gestió col·lectiva de l’interès comú. Enfront de la necessària discussió política en els termes aristotèlics, ens trobem amb una clara voluntat de desconflictivització que cerca una pedagogia del conformisme.“
“(...) aquesta escola innovadora (i deshumanitzadora) propicia un procés de reconversió de ciutadà a consumidor, de treballador a emprenedor autoexplotat, o que enalteix una educació emocional que cerca, a la pràctica, la resignació col·lectiva davant injustícies estructurals.”
Xavier Diez sobre el llibre: El menosprecio del conocimiento
Characteristics of the project:
Grade level: 1st Batxillerat
Number of sessions: 7 or 8 sessions
Hook: Fake news about Covid-19 on social media
Questions
Introductory question:
Can we believe all the news?
Essential question:
How can we identify fake news?
Project Overview - Introduction
This project aims to introduce students to the analysis of different news or cases that are not normally shown in the usual mass media.
Analysing cases for most students who were unfamiliar at first should be useful to understand the society around them and make them more critical and, therefore, more free and aware of reality.
The project should help them compare the different news according to the source, recognize which ones are closer to reality, be aware of the reasons for the distortion of the news, and learn to distinguish the fake news or news with little credibility.
Technology should be a means that can help us find and compare different information about the same situation.
Project Overview - Description
Students have to choose one of the topics below in order to gather later into groups according to their interests:
Then, students have to find an example of a piece of news which they will have to compare using different mass media and searching digital tools. They will also use social networks to find more specific information and will learn to find out which means of power are hidden behind the big media and audiovisual corporations.
Finally, students will reach both a personal and a group conclusion about their selected piece of news. These conclusions will be reflected on an online poster and YouTube video (final product).
To search for the news students can use different languages like Catalan, Spanish and English. However, the final product will be in English.
Goals
MAIN GOAL:
*To arise students’ critical thinking skills.
OTHER GOALS:
*Become a beginner journalist about some cases that aren’t usually shown on common mass media or, if shown, maybe they are far away from reality.
*Be more critical of the world that surrounds us.
Final Product
*Online poster with Canva or Postermywall (for example) where students will expose the case they have chosen,
and group conclusions.
*Youtube video (5 min. long) where students will explain the case, the methodology and the individual and group conclusions.
Interdisciplinary connections
*English language
*Technologies and ICT
*Catalan and Spanish language
*Citizenship
Attention to Diversity
Session 1 - Activity 1
Depending on the English level of the students, they will have to answer the reflection questions more or less thoroughly. So, for example, those who have B2 level onwards should write minimum 4 lines for each question. Students below B2 level, should write about 2 lines.
Session 1 - Activity 2
Introductory activity to check the meaning of some challenging words from the NY Times article
https://wordwall.net/resource/19000533
Text adapted from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/technology/china-coronavirus-censorship.html
Assessment criteria
Extra activities
*A local journalist will visit the school or do an online session with the students. During the session, they will be able to ask questions (prepared in advance) about fake news and the strategies to identify them.
Session 1 - Analyzing a NYT’s article
This article in English is the starting point so that students start questioning themselves how much a government can manipulate information in order to hide reality from their citizens.
Sessions 2, 3 - Valtonyc’s case. A research methodology
We are going to analyse the case of the rapper Valtonyc, which allows us follow a methodology from a common example by:
Sessions 4, 5 i 6: Choosing the case study
Taking into account the 5 topics mentioned in slide 5, students have to choose one of the proposed case studies or another one they know about.
The methodology will be the one used in Valtonyc’s case in order to finally create a YouTube video with an online poster in English.
Session 7: Case conclusions. Are they true?
The students of each group will watch all the videos of all the different cases.
During the class, students of different groups will mix and discuss the various cases in order to be able to position themselves on each case with a personal and critical perspective, with arguments.
Teacher’s material
Here you can find the teacher’s guidelines and activities for each session. You can take and adapt any material as you wish.
Click here to access the document with all the material for this project.