Lesson 1: Information Neighborhoods - Knowing Where You Are

Which of the people below do you think delivers the news?

In this lesson we will explore differences between news sources, the concept of information neighborhoods, and what we consider to be "news."

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

Understand the different information neighborhoods and their characteristics.
Evaluate various sources, identifying those that are news.
Define the term "news."

The News and You

Fill out the pre-course questionnaire. The questionnaire is for informational purposes only and will be used to help the instructor understand the students' feelings towards the news.

What is This?

With your group, review each of the sources listed on the Are These Sources News? page and determine if they are news or not. As a group, document your determinations and the reasons for your decisions. Also document any questions or need for additional information that comes up, whether they be questions the group can't resolve on your own or something that the exercise makes you want to know more about. We will use those questions to guide our next lesson.

Things to think about while examining the sources:

If you don’t consider a source “news,” what would you call/consider it?
What information is each source conveying?
Why would someone use this source?

Taking it further:

Do you usually put this much effort into thinking about information you are exposed to?
When do you believe information without questioning it?
When do you automatically treat information as suspicious or suspect?
Think about the differences between the information and/or information sources in the scenarios above. What is causing you to have different reactions in each case?

Information Neighborhoods

After completing the exercise above, you should have an idea of what other types of information are out there and how they differ from what you consider news. These other types of information can be grouped into information neighborhoods.

In order to more fully understand these neighborhoods and the differences between them, with your group complete the information neighborhoods taxonomy chart. For each neighborhood, you will define its primary goal, discuss methods used, give examples of practitioners, and determine outcomes. If you get stuck, try to think what a journalist would do if she/he had to write a story about a topic with which she/he was unfamiliar. We will be discussing journalists in the next lesson so this will give you a head start.

What is News?

Is this news? In which information neighbor would you place this information?

Watch this video.

The earlier exercises should have given you a chance to clarify your thoughts on what is and isn’t news. This is a question we will be exploring throughout the course. In order to expand our understanding of “news” and get some additional perspectives, let's use the remaining class time to open up the discussion of “what is news” to the entire class. Share with the class anything about the news that you feel strongly about, something new you realized/learned today or any of the questions you documented while working with your group.

Preparation For The Next Lesson

Think about the discussions today and how they made you feel or what they made you think about. If the discussions made you want to know more about something or brought up additional questions, bring them to the next lesson.
Is the line between information neighborhoods distinct or blurred? Have you, or anyone you know, ever mistaken entertainment or promotion for news? What effect did that have on you? Did the experience cause any changes in your behavior? Be prepared to discuss in the next lesson.
Compare the cover of three different newspapers on the same day and make note of the differences in the stories covered. Think about what might have prompted different decisions about what stories made the cover of each paper. Be prepared to discuss in the next lesson.

Exploring Further On Your Own

Dan Rather on Media Consolidation and "Junk Media"
Interviews - News Vs. Entertainment? | News War | FRONTLINE | PBS
Think Like a Journalist
Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask

News Literacy Overview
News Literacy Glossary
News Literacy Lesson 2
News Literacy Lesson 3
News Literacy Lesson 4
Porfolio Page
ETAP 623 Fall 2011