Students present a 2-3 minute version of a newscast. They include three of the following: news, current events, weather and sports. They design a poster to include at least four pictures to be referenced in the report. They review and...

See how bias operates firsthand. Half of the class reads one article while the other half reads another article on the same event. The obvious differences emerge when the two sides talk about their observations though. Several handouts...

One picture but a thousand stories. As a part of a case study of how the death of Michael Brown was reported by professional news sources and on social media class members examine the reactions of various groups to a photograph taken by...

Young journalists use the E.S.C.A.P.E. (evidence, source, context, audience, purpose, and execution) strategy to evaluate historical and contemporary examples of bias in the news. The class then uses the provided discussion questions to...

Advertising is everywhere! Does your class know that their attention span is for sale, even when they're watching a simple news story? The second installment in a five-part series from iCivics examines the relationship between news...

Students explain the impact that the media may have in shaping their intellectual and emotional responses to current events. They examine broadcast and Web-based news sites to find subtexts through the use of language, audio, and visual...

Young historians create a 1940's news radio broadcast on the five major World War II conferences, including the Atlantic, Casablanca, Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam.

Students examine forms of broadcast journalism. they identify roles played by journalists in various news formats.

Young scholars consider the impact a reporter has on broadcast journalism. They research a famous broadcast journalist to prepare a mock news report.

Verification of provenance and the original source of an image or video can be a long and winding process. Young journalists learn about the difficulty of finding the original source of a scrape, a copy of an original news story, and...

Class members investigate the role media should play in a healthy democracy. As part of this study, groups analyze political advertising, use FactCheck to assess not only the veracity of but the persuasions techniques used in candidates'...

Tweet all about it! Junior journalists explore the Twittersphere to determine its effectiveness as a news broadcasting tool in the 12th installment of the 16-part Social Media Toolbox. Participants follow and record their observations of...

Sixth graders create a daily newscast which they broadcast to the whole school. They write the scripts for the broadcast, after reviewing interviews, feature writing, and proposals. They organize the newscast for presentation and edit...

How does geography influence daily life? Guided by an essential question, class groups select and then research an ancient culture, and develop a news broadcast about the geographical setting and its impact on the culture. Teams...

Read and discuss the vocabulary related to a news article about a new recruitment campaign for the British army. High schoolers read the article, define key vocabulary terms, identify suffixes from the article, and complete a variety of...

As part of a media literacy unit, class members establish criteria for good video reporting, and practice giving both positive (warm) and constructive (cool) criticism.

What is sponsored content? Who produces sponsored content? Why? Is it fair or unfair? What are the privacy implications for consumers? To answer these questions, class members view a model screencast before crafting their own that...

Is journalism more or less reliable with the influx of Internet sources? Learners investigate the issues of freedom of speech, journalistic ethics, and social responsibility in the age of Twitter and Facebook. After examining the...

Learners brainstorm a list of news sources. They interview people about today's media and discuss their results. After watching segments of a film about Walter Cronkite, they role play as reporters and subjects from an historic period...

Middle schoolers explore the excavations of the Palace of Knossos on the Island of Crete. They create a simulated news broadcasting on the work of Sir Arthur Evans and his colleges. In their news investigation, learners cover such topics...

The 2010 immigration bill passed in Arizona provides class members with an opportunity to examine various perspectives of the immigration debate by watching news videos, reading interview, editorials, and viewing images. Discussion...

The case of the 1928 execution of Ruth Snyder takes center stage in a instructional activity that asks young journalists to consider the ethics involved in publishing an image of an execution. A series of discussion questions ask...

After listening to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech, young historians research information about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, possible motives for the attack, and the consequences of the attack. Scholars...

Ninth graders, in groups, create and videotape a news broadcast. Each group researches, develops and writes a weather forecast, a commentary on an environmental concern, a school activity and a commercial.