Assignment 2 - Rational for Media Studies
As a prospective college educator in the field of communication and journalism, as opposed to a K – 12 teacher, I have chosen to take some liberty with this assignment.
One would think that no rational would be needed to justify using film, television, and media in college level Mass Communication classes; however, in my own undergraduate experience, a very important tool was not being utilized as much as it should have. That tool is the study of “important current events” in the news media itself (print, television, radio, and online). Granted, in my upper level journalism classes, we were always shown examples of “newscasts” or “news articles;” however, they were used mainly as teaching tools for shooting, reporting, and editing techniques, how to pick and chose sound bytes or quotes, and how to formulate a story to keep an audience interested, thus garnering ratings or readers. The important factor that was left out was how to determine what truly is “newsworthy” and important for citizens to know.
I believe that in today’s society, many news organizations have lost site of their true purpose; “to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing.” Therefore, journalism schools are changing their focus and training young journalists to become feature reporters so that they can jump right in to the money making pool of the Mass Media. Politics, world events, and all the “boring” real news are being shoved aside to make way for pieces on demolition derby’s, snow sculptors, and 10 minute biographies on the new anchor in town.
To corral this idea into a more general education approach, I believe that “important current events” should be taught or discussed at all levels of education, starting from grade school and continuing through college (even if you aren’t a communication major). By coming in contact with politics and world events at a young age, children may actually become interested in the subjects and remain engaged throughout adulthood.
An example of how this could be incorporated into a curriculum at almost any level would be to dedicate 15 to 20 minutes every morning to discuss the important things that happened in the news the previous day. A teacher could lead the discussion, especially at younger levels, and point out to students why these things are important and what kind of impact it has on their daily lives. To engage the students in discussion, one might ask them what they think about it (the topic), why they think it happened, or what they think could have been done to change it. Upper level students could be told to choose a topic of “importance” (a very subjective term) each week and follow it from Monday – Friday, giving a short summary followed by discussion at the end of each week. Students could then also be allowed to incorporate their findings into their own media, (i.e. news stories, commentaries, blogs/websites), so they could understand, to an extent, how the media itself works and why it is so important that the important messages be told. Although this would not tie directly to traditional subjects, it opens up avenues of critical thinking and research. Perhaps the “history” of a topic would need to be explored. Regardless, the use of the Mass Media to study current events would be a useful practice and would help in the educational development of all students; and hopefully be a skill that they would keep with them and use later in life.
One would think that no rational would be needed to justify using film, television, and media in college level Mass Communication classes; however, in my own undergraduate experience, a very important tool was not being utilized as much as it should have. That tool is the study of “important current events” in the news media itself (print, television, radio, and online). Granted, in my upper level journalism classes, we were always shown examples of “newscasts” or “news articles;” however, they were used mainly as teaching tools for shooting, reporting, and editing techniques, how to pick and chose sound bytes or quotes, and how to formulate a story to keep an audience interested, thus garnering ratings or readers. The important factor that was left out was how to determine what truly is “newsworthy” and important for citizens to know.
I believe that in today’s society, many news organizations have lost site of their true purpose; “to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing.” Therefore, journalism schools are changing their focus and training young journalists to become feature reporters so that they can jump right in to the money making pool of the Mass Media. Politics, world events, and all the “boring” real news are being shoved aside to make way for pieces on demolition derby’s, snow sculptors, and 10 minute biographies on the new anchor in town.
To corral this idea into a more general education approach, I believe that “important current events” should be taught or discussed at all levels of education, starting from grade school and continuing through college (even if you aren’t a communication major). By coming in contact with politics and world events at a young age, children may actually become interested in the subjects and remain engaged throughout adulthood.
An example of how this could be incorporated into a curriculum at almost any level would be to dedicate 15 to 20 minutes every morning to discuss the important things that happened in the news the previous day. A teacher could lead the discussion, especially at younger levels, and point out to students why these things are important and what kind of impact it has on their daily lives. To engage the students in discussion, one might ask them what they think about it (the topic), why they think it happened, or what they think could have been done to change it. Upper level students could be told to choose a topic of “importance” (a very subjective term) each week and follow it from Monday – Friday, giving a short summary followed by discussion at the end of each week. Students could then also be allowed to incorporate their findings into their own media, (i.e. news stories, commentaries, blogs/websites), so they could understand, to an extent, how the media itself works and why it is so important that the important messages be told. Although this would not tie directly to traditional subjects, it opens up avenues of critical thinking and research. Perhaps the “history” of a topic would need to be explored. Regardless, the use of the Mass Media to study current events would be a useful practice and would help in the educational development of all students; and hopefully be a skill that they would keep with them and use later in life.
posted by MLD at
3:18 PM
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