Current Events

Thursday, January 9, 2025

What Is News?



What makes one thing worth reporting, while another thing is not? We offer a test for news which can work in all societies. We consider what makes some news stories stronger than others. Finally, we look at how news comes to journalists, and the areas of life where we most often find it.


Look at today's Front Pages and Complete 'Where does news come from?'

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Year In Review



1) What were the BIG headlines in 2024 (name at least 3)?

2) What made these events Headlines?

3) What similarities or differences did these events share?

4) Which do you think is the most important? Least? Why?

5) What predictions can you make up about the events we will study this year?

Friday, December 13, 2024

I Robot, I Media



Q. How can we ensure that our development as moral and social animals keeps pace with our rapidly evolving communications technology?

A. By playing an active role in our media consumption, trusting reporters who demonstrate fairness and reliability over time, offering corrections when they get something wrong, and when we care enough--reading the original documents they worked from.




Monday, December 9, 2024

Don't Panic



Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, journeyman Arthur Dent is swept off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, an alien researcher penning a new edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."  Do movie trailers appeal to our 'deep' or 'hyper' attention?

Douglas Adams cult classic may have been the stuff of Science Fiction in the 1970s, but one can't help compare his fictitious guide to existing modern-day technology.  Never before have we had access to so much information at our fingertips.  So why is it we seem to know so little?  

Isn't now the time to panic?







1) Which had the most impact on the way we get the news? The least? Explain.

2) Where Do you get most of your news from? Why?

3) What new technologies have changed media in your lifetime?  The future?



Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Believe It Or Not!

 


At its most extreme, bias will drive people away from sources they disagree with and push them to consume only media from outlets that confirm their existing worldviews. In the age of social media, this has become especially true. Because we often surround ourselves with like-minded people as our friends and acquaintances, our social media feeds will often reflect a shared bias. At its most extreme application, we create an echo chamber, or a situation where ideas and beliefs are amplified and reinforced through communication and repetition, around ourselves.




Monday, December 2, 2024

The Matrix In Me


You can see it when you look out your window...  when you turn on your television... when you go to work.  It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.  The truth that like everyone else you were born into a prison that you can not smell or taste or touch.  A prison for your mind.  More precisely the prison OF your mind.  




Prejudice.jpg
Implicit.harvard.edu


How do the outcomes of this test compare to similar tests on racial bias?


1) Which of these dolls is the 'good' one?  Why?
2) Which of these dolls is the bad one?  Why?
3) Which of these dolls looks most like you?