Sharon Rosenhause, President of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, was a speaker who really challenged her audience to view the story from all angles. We worked in groups to figure out how many different interviews we could get.
When our students look at a story, they usually do not go through the different viewpoints they could interview. They find their friend or someone the relatively know. I want to use what she talked about to challenge my students in to finding a multitude of opinions.
One activity that was suggest was great and so
mething I plan on using. The teacher said to have the students look the school newspapers from the past and see what demographics they represent and also look at what seems to be missing. It would be good for the students to see who the are representing fairly and who they are over looking.My student too often forget that the news should be the voice for everyone and not just everyone they are friends for.
Jessica Latvatalo
R.L. Turner High School
Carrollton, TX
Great post! I think this would make a helpful activity to use in my newspaper class. We want to be a voice for the voiceless and this would help us cover all "fault lines" at our school. I think our class is a small group of students compared to the diversity of the school. I agree that the students need to interview more than just their friends.
ReplyDeleteKat Gurganus
Keller High School
Keller, Texas
I really enjoyed the exercise that Rosenhause had us complete. I found it useful for widening perspective, but also for just being a better reporter. Too often my reporters go straight to the "usual sources" instead of first sitting and really thinking about all of the people and groups that might be involved.
ReplyDeleteThis exercise could also be adapted for an intro level class. Also, Lynsie told me the policy about sources she uses with her reporters: Get one expert and two with experience. I thought this was great advice, and I'm going to steal it. (Thanks Lynsie!)
I see this as a way to teach point of view, in depth. Diversity is an interesting subject. By nature, it lends to a variety of reactions. Being able to show empathy is one thing, comprehension is another.
ReplyDeletePurposefully seeking an opposing view requires great effort. Most people are lazy when it comes to becoming culturally diverse. Instead, the trend is to gravitate to what is natural, blending into what is comfortable, easy, and predictable.
Widening perspectives, shifting paradigms, walking in someone else's shoe are all good ideas in theory. Making the "rubber hit the road" is an entirely different concept. Fault lines draw clear lines in the road and force multiple views. This helps provide a structure for exploring the unknown.