Featured

How different countries use newsproviding media

In the groups you have been working with all week, make a Prezi presentation of media usage in a country you of your choice You can look at Reporters Without Borders’ 2018 World Press Freedom Index for inspiration. Some things might be easy to find out, others a bit harder, and others yet again might be impossible… but let’s try! 🙂

Find out:

  • do they have a free press or any kind of censorship? Why/why not?
  • do they have state media or not? What could be the importance of this?
  • What are the biggest newsproviding media in this country?
  • Who owns these media?
  • How many use these?
  • Are they politically minded – liberal, conservative etc? If so, how is this seen?
  • Find the three biggest newsproviding media in this country and look at their frontpages: compare headlines, choice of causes, focus, read a story from each and comment on the journalism. Also, find them on social media; check out their Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram account. How are they on social media? Many followers? What kind of profile do they have here? What kind of cases are their fronting on their social media?

The presentations should be ready at 11 today.

Here are some previous student answers to look at for inspiration as well.

Media in South Africa

Media in China

Media in Brazil

Media in India

 

 

In the news: Human Rights?

Fighting for human rights can be very dangerous. If you are a woman fighting for human rights in a country with no respect for them, it is even more dangerous… Read these stories and reflect on the courage needed to be an activist in any form and to stand up for your right to protest…

Burundi girls jailed

 

Iranian human rights laywer sentenced to 38 years in prison

 

Female activists released in Saudi Arabia

Media coverage

The media has immense power, and often it is easy to forget that the cases written about, and its angle, is chosen by someone for some reason. Some media are more conservative, some more liberal, some write from one cultural background and some from another. This causes the both what is reported and how it is reported to vary from different media and different countries.

Look at the front pages of these different media: The LA Times, The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, CNN, The Australian and BBC .

Do all these media report on the same issues? Which are the recurring ones?

What are the various media focusing on? Do any of them focus on similar topics, or do they all vary?

Look up The Guardian, CNN and Al-Jazeera on social media (FB, instagram, twitter) – what are they sharing on social media? Is this different from the headlines on the actual newspaper? If so, why do you think they choose to share other cases on social media?

Choose two articles about the same topic to read, make sure they are from different media sources. Compare the two in terms of what it reports and focus on, the language – for who is this written, and possible opinions or views shining through. Write a short text where you discuss your findings.

In the news: The Terror Attack in New Zealand and how their PM is standing up for the nation

Great article from The Guardian on the role the prime minister of New Zealand has taken on after the attacks:

Real leaders do exist

Read these articles to find out more about and debate the role of the media in terror attacks:

Terror attacks by Muslims receive 357% more press attention, study finds (The Guardian)

Christchurch shootings: Social media races to stop attack footage (BBC)

Spotlight

spotlight

(Picture from http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS8FoV_CqN1-EetgwddDzbfaFYsOlAufiupBdzDTGLm6l8ty-F1)

“Spotlight” is a film dealing with real events, and how investigative journalism lead to reveal several crimes committed by members of the Catholic Church.

Investigative journalism is an important part of the media – it takes time and serious effort to do research and to find out the truth about a topic. It can be expensive, and therefore many do not make it a priority. But the work and the findings are important for the freedoms and protection of freedoms in our society. Read more about investigative journalism here.

Choose two of the questions on the film study work sheet (if you have lost it you can find it on It’s Learning under Resources) and write a blog post where you discuss your answer to these questions.

At the end of the post, sum up briefly what you learnt from this film, and how you liked it.

Unfortunately, this issue is still very relevant… Read more about that here

 

Hanna & Ingunn

Gran Torino

Gran Torino is a film released in 2008 that features Clint Eastwood as the main character as well as him being the director. Today’s subject day will be dedicated to watching and working with this film. It provides a range of topics to discuss, from multiculturalism and cultural differences, to various socioeconomic challenges, and shows a number of approaches to the value of human life.

We will primarily work in groups: before we watch the film by studying and discussing the film poster, and after the film we will delve into discussions around possible themes that come to mind while watching it. The end result will be an individual blog post that you publish on your own blog at the end of the day, based on questions handed out in class and the group discussions during the day.

Hilde