Students could view a 30-minute local commercial network news broadcasts and keep a log of the specific stories, types of stories, and the time of stories in number of seconds. Then, they could identify the types of content in terms of time devoted to “news,” “weather,” “sports,” consumer/health/entertainment feature stories,” and “ads.” Within the “news” category, characterize the types of stories included. Finally, they could reflect on what you learned about the world based on your results.

Students' teaching activities

Amanda Furth

Analyzing TV News

1) record stories covered

2) record type of stories

3) record length of stories in seconds

4) identify type of content: news, weather, sports, consumer/health/entertainment, ads

5) identify editing techniques

6) discuss hidden agenda's demonstrated through stories selected & perspectives demonstrated

Reid Westrem and Brock Dubbels

Comparing TV and Newspaper writing

My advanced students perform a daily news and announcements show on TV every day. My beginning students need to learn how to write and perform for this show. This activity is used after students have studied news writing for newspapers and are beginning a study of broadcast news. It follows a brief lecture, in which the following points are made:

Writing broadcast news

1. Keep it short and simple (subject ‘ verb ‘ object).
"Police have arrested a suspect'"
-- Cut out unnecessary words.
-- Avoid long introductory or parenthetical phrases.
-- Be conversational, when appropriate.

2. Attributions go at or near the beginning.
NO: The nation's unemployment rate will drop this year, Bush said.
YES: Bush claimed that the nation's unemployment rate would drop this year.

3. Remember: the audience cannot see the text!
NO: The mayor said, ‘I need to take off some weight.'
YES: The mayor said he needs to take off some weight.
(Use your voice, pauses and facial expressions to signal a quote.)
e.g. The mayor said he would' ‘hit the weights' ‘next week.
NO: Ticketmaster said that they can't refund tickets.
YES: Ticketmaster said that they canNOT refund tickets.

Ok, here's the activity:

a) Obtain the text of two broadcast news reports. This can be done several ways:
-- Watch and videotape tonight's news broadcast from ABC, CBS or NBC (5:30 pm) or CNN or CNN Headline News. Type the text for two stories.
-- Go to CNN's transcript page ( http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/), click on a news reporting show (not analysis or commentary) and find stories. Or use the link that says, ‘Click here for breaking news transcripts,' which often provides what you'll be looking for.

Choose stories featuring only a reading by the anchor and possibly a video clip with quotes (not an interview with a special analyst or with a reporter on the scene). [Note: The writing for NewsBreak is for anchors only and does not feature remote links with reporters or live interviews, which are more complex.]

b) Copy and paste the text for the two stories into a word-processing file, such as Microsoft Word.

c) For each broadcast report, find an article on the same topic on the website of a major daily newspaper, such as The New York Times or Washington Post. Copy and paste the text into your file.

d) Compare the two versions of each story:
-- Use the word-count feature to compare the lengths of each version (the newspaper article should be much longer).
-- Compute the average length in words of the first five sentences of each story (newspaper sentences should be much longer).
-- Note the sentence structure of each (newspaper sentences should be more complicated, often departing from the basic subject-verb-object structure).
-- Note the use of attributions (the broadcast sentences should begin with attributions, while the newspaper sentences should end with them, if they're included).

e) Write a summary paragraph for each story based on your observations.

Tamela McCartney and Kimberly Sy

Using the resources provided in Module 10, have your students choose 3 different media (generally from the USA) from which they will make an analysis (Radio, Internet, Television, Newspapers, Magazines). Using a current international news story, have the students analyze how the story differs coming from each source. Is the coverage the same? Different? Which is more detailed? Are any visual? How does this affect the story? Why might the coverage be different?

Then, have the students compare the coverage from the US media to that of the media from another country. Why might there be differences? What differences are there? What does the difference in coverage tell you about the country from which the news originates?

Louise Covert and Becca Robertson

Currently, I live outside the metro area. The coverage of news is different here. There is more local and rural news featured. I think it is interesting to tape news segments from this part of the state and juxtapose these with news that my students who live in Eagan, MN typically view when and if they watch the news.

1. We would first watch a segment of channel ll or 5 in the cities. Noting the kinds of stories in the categories of news, weather, sports, and feature spots for the evening.

2. I would have students create a Venn diagram to look at similarities and differences between the two newscasts.

3. Questions to ask students to prompt discussion and guide their discernment regarding the 2 different news programs:

4. What kinds of stories are featured in the metro area segments? The Rochester segment?

5. What sorts of advertisements are featured throughout each of the two programs?

6. In what ways are the anchors similar and different in these two program?

7. Is one version more sophisticated? Another more familiar?

8. What kinds of beliefs and values are communicated in each of these programs based on the kinds of stories that are featured?

9. Why do you think there is more air-time and emphasis on weather in the Rochester programming?

10. We would talk about the anchors--what they look like, what they are wearing, their mannerisims and non-verbal communication with viewers and rapport with each/one another during the news broadcast, too.

11. This would be a way to invite students to consider different viewpoints, discourses, and stances toward news based on a specific audience.

12. We would talk about these points as a large group and share other experiences they may have had with these differences in broadcasting in other cities, states, etc.

Jeffrey Wendelberger

The goal of this activity is to have students develop a critical understanding the of television news. Students will watch excerpts of news programs during class, participate in discussions and write a compare/contrast paper.

Teachers should first tape episodes of a local television news broadcast and an episode of a non-network news source, such as BBC news or The Newshour with Jim Lehrer.

In the classroom, show students excerpts from both news sources. The excerpts should deal with the same subject matter. As students view the excerpts they should keep a log that tracks the amount of time each source spends on the story, the techniques used to convey the information—charts, interviews, video, etc.

After viewing the excerpts and gathering data, students should participate in a discussion about the differences between the two sources and the possible reasons for those differences.

Finally, students should write a paper in which the compare and contrast the news value of the stories from the two different sources.

Students should focus their papers around such issues as: What were the differences between the two sources' stories? What factors might account for these differences? What important things would regular viewers of local news stations likely not know about the news subject? Which news source is more likely to satisfy a democracy's need for informed citizens?

Adam Banse and Dan Gough

Dan and I came up with an idea for teaching students how much "news" there actually is in TV news broadcasts.

A class of 30 would be divided up into groups of five. Each group would be assigned to watch one night of the evening news between Saturday and Thursday.

Each group member would be assigned to watch one newscast from each station: channels 4,5,9,11 or 29.

Each student will be required to take a log of the minutes of each episode and classify what was covered.

For example, if the opening story is on Dru Sjodin and the story lasted 45 seconds, the students would write: crime, 45 seconds. Or, if the newscasters chit-chatted with one another, they would write: banter 27 seconds.
The students will average out their finding as a group and give a PowerPoint or whiteboard presentation.

At the end the class will combine all of their findings and rate which stations do the best and worst jobs of providing their audience with actual "news."

Jennifer Larson

My teaching activity will have students analyze the language used in different news reports on the same event. The media could include TV, internet, newspaper, radio. Students will examine the rhetoric used in each report-- the diction, imagery, selection of detail, etc.--and report on how the different rhetoric presented the event differently. I would recommend students choose a significant event for the week; this week a big event was the discovery of Dru Sjodin's body, e.g. A follow up discussion could look at the way the different media forms presented each and discuss why--going after the author's/media's purpose.

Scott Devens

This teaching activity deals with the characteristics of television news, particularly (as noted in the module) the underlying assumption that the more immediate the coverage the better. The activity will also include students learning about an historical event that shaped our country/world significantly.

Basically, the gist of the lesson/unit/activity would be to analyze some of the "immediate" television news stories from the 9/11 disaster. We would compare and contrast the initial coverage (day of) with coverage from a couple of weeks later. Students would most likely observe that immediate, day-of coverage was often simply a camera fixated on the smoking, burning buildings. Was this a "better" news segment because it was happening now? Or, were the later stories, those with more information about what actually happened recently actually "better" news? Why do television stations constantly promote their news as "better" simply because it is current? (to compete with other forms of media) We could also analyze why it seemed justified for stations to just show a burning building for very long-lengths of time? Less "important" or far-reaching stories, especially local ones, don't get that much airtime; why?

[I also tried to think of a good activity about teaching about: what really IS "news"? To me, it's really kind of a "Zen" question. There is a book about time and place that I've used before called "Einstein's Dreams" that might be a starting point for interesting discussions. I am thinking about what a 1/2 hour "news" show might look like with a reporter on the scene at Walden Pond back in Henry's time there? Isn't every news story really reporting stuff about personal decisions? Of course, some decisions a person may make (like 9/11) may affect many, many people in a negative or positive way. I'm trying to think of an activity that might illustrate how one person's internal decision about just one aspect of their life would be much, much more important than what is on the TV news. Or, how does/will the collective decisions of thousands or millions of people to buy hybird-type automobiles affect the world? How can people balance their civic duty of being informed of local, national and world events with the reality that each person's "world" actually involves who and what they actually interact with each day. Maybe what I'm trying to get at is: if a television is playing a news show in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does the TV really make any sound? Perhaps reading a book and then linking the questions about life in general to these more specific questions about what is "news" would be the best activity to challenge assumptions. Or, doing some reflection after eliminating some media (like TV turnoff week) might help, too.]

Jessie Docktor and Rachel Godlewski

Then, ask students to create a front page with numerous stories but limited space. Both of these activities could be great lessons on appealing to an audience as well (have them think about who reads the paper and watches the show), and could lead to a great discussion about what makes the news and what doesn't, and why.

Amy Gustafson and Kathy Connors

There is a 1994 "Dateline" that covers a story called "Dying to Win." This program focuses on a gymnast that had anorexia and ended up dying because she could not get help or help herself.

We would have the students watch this video and fill out a complimentary worksheet. What the students would be looking for is bias. They would have to find bias in many different areas of the documentary. This can be done with just about any documentary, by the way.

The students would have to find bias through the use of selection and omission, placement, headline, photos, captions and camera angles, names and titles, statistics and crowd counts, source control, and word choice and tone.

We would start off by defining what each of these criteria is. You can find out more about these at the Media Awareness site .
Then, watch the movie once. Have them write down notes while watching the movie. Have them continue as you are rewinding the film. Watch it a second time so that they get all the details down.
We would also supplement this with a longer documentary where they completed the same exercise.

Kari Gladen and Katie Schultz

Students could do a longer (about 1-2 weeks) TV news media project focusing on a specific, on-going news story (like the war in Iraq, the economy, unemployment rate, rising gas prices, etc.). As a class we would choose a news story to study. The students would be split into small groups and each group would sign up for a different news carrying station (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS). They would then watch over a period of time to see how their chosen story is presented by their TV station. As a part of each group project, we would ask the students to watch for and keep a log of any attention-grabbing, sensationalist headlines they see that might be bias toward a certain individual or group of people. In their journals the groups could also report on what the headlines are, how consistent/accurate they appear to be in relation to the actual story that they are covering, and the length and depth of the story's coverage (especially on TV). At the beginning of each class period we could have each group report what they observed on their channel the day before. At the end of the project, we would have each group analyze and report their complete findings to the class as a large group, discuss any differences, and then have the students vote on which station they felt provided the most reliable and complete reports on the issues, and which station they would trust the most if a broadcast were to be aired about a news story related to their school or personal lives.

Katrina Thomson and Jennie Viland

We would tape a couple of morning news shows like Good Morning America and The Today Show and then view them with students in class. Students would be provided with a guide for viewing that they could fill in as they watch. They would then analyze the news coverage in them according to the 7 S's of media analysis. We could also do the same kind of analysis of an evening news show, or even CNN and then have them compare the different "genres" of news and how they are targeted at different audiences.

Erin Warren and Erin Grahmann

Our idea is simply to have the students produce a complete newscast for class. Students could be grouped and assigned beats: top stories, human interest, sports, entertainment, weather, etc. You get the idea. The ultimate objective is to create class news to be taped and broadcast. Learn by doing. As the teacher, you get to be the head mogul of your very own communications company if you so choose; me, I'll be the shadowy string-puller shy of cameras and unnecessary media attention.