Write a text/blog post where you comment on what you have learned about:
- the process of investigative jouralism
- editorial decision making
Include examples from the movie Spotlight to enhance your comments.
Category: Media
The Social Dilemma and The Great Hack
You have now watched two documentaries about social media and how it can be used to influence people without them even knowing it. Write a blog post where you briefly summarize what they were about and compare the two documentaries in terms of genre and form. Which of the two did you like the best, or did you feel you learned the most from? Give reasons for your answer.
September elections
September 2021 has been a month of many elections around the world, amongst them general elections in Canada, Germany, Iceland, Russia and Norway. Write a blog post to publish on your own blog in which you cover who won in these elections and by how much, as well as comparing voter turn-out. In addition, research whether there has been media coverage on election irregularities in any of these elections.
Consider and discuss your sources in all aspects of this task.
Hilde
In the news: The situation for women and girls in Afghanistan
Study the two news stories below to find out more about the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is back in power.
Discuss: what do the two stories tell you about the situation for females in Afghanistan, past and present? What do girls and women have to face should they want to study? Do these stories make you more pessimistic or more optimistic on the behalf of Afghanistan’s future? Why?
In the news: What’s going on in Afghanistan?
The Taliban is in power again in Afghanistan, 20 years after 9-11 and the following invasion of Afghanistan. The USA have decided to pull out all their remaining troops by August this year, leading to total chaos and heart-breaking scenes at the airport in Kabul, with local Afghans trying to board planes to get out of a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. US President Joe Biden has stated that the withdrawal will be completed and that the main concern for him is getting American troops home safely.
So what is the problem? Should we care about the development in Afghanistan? Is it an international responsibility to “clean up” after the mess we have left and to ensure a democratic development in Afghanistan? Or should we just leave them alone and hope that human rights will be respected and democracy thrive? (not very likely….)
Using the sources below, discuss these questions in your groups. Choose a secretary who writes down the main points of your answers and discussion. Also, discuss the reliability of these sources and how they differ in language and style.
Who are the Taliban:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11451718
Timeline of the history of Afghanistan:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/asia-jan-june11-timeline-afghanistan
(excerpts in class)
Death to 2020 – working with a mockumentary
Discussion questions after watching this film on Netflix:
- Say something about (some of) these characters from the movie. How did they strike you? What kind of “stereotypical persons” are some of them portrayed as? In what ways do you think the filmmakers used humor/irony with them?
- How did the movie present US politics and the presidential election? Do you think the movie chose a side? Discuss how the movie portrayed this.
- How did the movie portray fake news and how they spread?
- Was it difficult to separate irony from facts in this mockumentary? Give examples from the film.
Ingunn
Snowden and Assange – Heroes or Criminals?
What do these men have in common?
Julian Assange is the head of WikiLeaks and faces a harsh prison sentence in the USA if he were to be extradited from Britain. He released over 750,000 documents which showed corruption and human rights abuse at the hands of the American government in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as at the prison camp on Guantánamo. The documents were given to him by private Chelsea Manning, who was arrested in 2010 and served 7 years in prison. Just yesterday, a British court decided against extraditing Assange, on the grounds of his mental health.
Edward Snowden is a former contractor for the National Security Agency who in 2013 transmitted to journalists 1.7 million classified documents detailing NSA online surveillance of American citizens. He was charged under the Espionage Act, but gained asylum in Russia.
So, are these people heroes or criminals? How crucial is it for a democracy to have whistleblowers? And where is the line between warning the public and exposing wrongs on the one side and breaking the law and putting your country at risk on the other? What is more important, freedom of speech and the right to privacy, or loyalty to your employer and country? And what costs does this come with for the individual who has to make that choice?
A court sketch of Julian Assange at the Old Bailey in London for the ruling in his extradition case on Monday, January 4, 2021.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/04/uk/julian-assange-extradition-wikileaks-us-gbr-intl/index.html
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.
IF YOU DID NOT GET TO WATCH THE WHOLE FILM: write a blog post about the importance of investigative journalism, using what you can read here about Watergate as examples to prove your point.
Hanna
Group project: Foreign media
Press freedom and journalistic independence are values that democratic societies cherish. Unfortunately, too many countries do not respect these values. Today we will look at press freedom in the world. Each group will be allotted a country. Spend the rest of the lesson doing research on this country’s treatment of the media, and condition and status of free press.
In the groups make a Prezi or Google presentation of media usage in the country you have been researching. Use the websites Reporters Without Borders (https://rsf.org/en and https://rsf.org/en/ranking) and Committee to Protect Journalists (https://cpj.org/). You may use other sources as well. If you come across specific stories about journalists/bloggers/ others who have somehow been punished for their involvement in and use of media, tell us! Be ready to present your findings at 14:00 today.
Group Erika: Hong Kong
Group William: Brazil
Group Victoria: Russia
Group Verner: Egypt
Group Dejen: India
Group Øystein: South Africa
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 at least two of the 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?
Hanna
One story, many truths?
How has president Trump met the Covid-19 pandemic? Fox reports that his vice president could not have been more proud, Alternet repeats allegations of him being a mass murderer, while the New York Times asks questions. How can the same issue cause so different “truths?” And what is true?
Keeping the five C’s in mind (context, credibility, corroboration, construction and compare) – visit the three links above and read/watch how the different news outlets respond to how Trump has handled the pandemic.
Then, use the post-its you have been given to answer the questions below. One post it per answer, and then put up your post its around the classroom.
- how do the different articles portray Trump’s reaction to the pandemic?
- What adjectives/loaded words are used in the different articles?
- Can you tell which article is more liberal and which is more conservative? How
- Which of the articles were easiest to read? Why?
- Which of the articles do you find most believable? Why?
- Hanna
English 1 