Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes	Part A: How do you feel in response to these news items?
25 minutes	Part B: How do news articles inform and impact?
25 minutes	Part C: Creating better news media
05 minutes	Reflection

Part A: How do you feel in response to these news items?

Step 1.

Provide students with the Student Worksheet.

Step 2.

Play a Rorschach game with students – show the class a series of news snippets from the 2020 bushfires. These can be found in the provided PowerPoint. The news items will be numbered.

On the Student Worksheet, students circle the emotion they feel in response to the news item, and write down the slide number.

You may elect to make the resource into cards, with one face on each. If students are working with cards, they should ‘play’ cards as you would in a card game in response to the media prompts.

Step 3:

Encourage students to share their responses.

Which were the scariest images? Why?
Which ones were the least concerning? Why?
Were there any patterns in terms of everyone's responses?

Step 4:

Discuss:

Why do you think news outlets prefer these types of images and chase these kinds of stories? They want audiences to be emotionally invested in the stories. These images are engaging to audiences and therefore probably profitable for the news outlet.

Part B: How do news articles inform and impact?

Step 1:

In a Think, Pair, Share, ask students to consider the reasons behind why news media would show audiences such scary content as we saw in the previous activity. Write their opinions on the board.

Step 2.

Pose the question: is it helpful to show news items that are scary? Why/why not?

Extension:

You might want to set up a debate here (depending on the time you have):

News media should limit the scary content they share with audiences

VS

News media has a responsibility to share scary content with audiences

Organise students so they can have a robust class discussion that explores various perspectives on the matter.

Step 3.

Project on the screen a series of the three news media items (available on the provided PowerPoint.)

Independently, using the Student Worksheet, students annotate the pros and cons of each resource.

Students should also consider what information is missing, and start to consider how they might present the resource differently.

For example, this image might make people feel overwhelmed, hopeless, and distraught - especially if they have experienced a bushfire.

A Fire Inside2021Analysing Imagery_Enlgish lesson

However, it is potentially helpful and effective to see how powerful and dangerous bushfires are, and this would be an informative image as to what is happening in this part of the world during a bushfire.

Discuss the balance between these competing considerations.

Alternatively, the following image is hopeful and peaceful. It provides audiences with reassurance that there is life after the bushfires. It is less disturbing for audiences.

However, it does not really show the impact of bushfires. As an ‘after’ image, it is not as useful for breaking news coverage.

Do students think this is a more or less helpful approach?

Which image do you think is more likely to get people invested in watching the news or buying a newspaper? Why?

Try to bring students to the understanding that news outlets can be informative without being sensationalist.

Part C: Creating better news media

Step 1.

In groups, students are to create a front page for a daily newspaper in their area.

Students are to pretend that raging fires are threatening their community. The goal of each group is to create the front page of a newspaper that is informative, helpful in tone and focuses on the prevention of bushfires and the protection of the community.

Each group should work through the following areas:

Headlines – Students will write headlines that do not scare readers but inform them about the threats and position them to prepare appropriately.
Images – Students will consider which images are appropriate for readers, as well as their sizing and placement. They will decide which sorts of photographs will be used and can decide whether certain content needs to be presented in different ways i.e. graphs, infographics.
Content - Students will consider which stories need to be included on the front page. What is the most important information for readers to know?
Journalism (how the content is written) – Students will write short articles that focus on helping communities stay calm, stay positive, and be able to prepare appropriately for the threat.
Advertising – Students will brainstorm which services might be most needed in the time of bushfires, and decide which advertisements are placed on the front page for immediate access to readers.

They might like to look at examples provided on the Student Worksheet.

Step 2.

Once students have done an initial brainstorm in their groups, they are to use computers to start generating content for their newspaper’s front page. You may want to use the online newspaper creator https://makemynewspaper.com/templates/free.

Teachers may need to assist their students by supporting their digital literacy. Consider what your students know about searching Google for images, and how to position and scale photographs effectively.

Reflection and Future Planning

Ask students to reflect on their progress with today’s lesson and write down on a post-it why they think their front page will be helpful to readers. Students can place post-its on the whiteboard and leave them for the teacher to read, or they can be used to have a brief class discussion. The teacher may select a few responses and speak to them a little.

Differentiated Learning

Part A:

Most students should be able to complete this activity without support. Please be aware that students may find the content of the PowerPoint confronting or distressing – please provide a trigger warning for students before using the PowerPoint and offer them space if they need it.

If students have difficulty personally empathising or relating, they may like to write a small reflection on how they think the Australian bushfires of 2020 impacted people.

Part B:

Students have the option to only study texts and demonstrate their understanding of what information the news item provides readers without extending to consider what information is missing.

Part C:

If teachers want to expand on this activity, an assessment task could be created where students would continue working on their class newspaper’s front page and refine their work until it is a polished product.

For students who need additional support, they may like to work on layout rather than creating original content.

Reflection:

Students can do a ‘what worked?/what didn’t work’ reflection instead of thinking squarely about audiences and readers.

Teacher reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn’t work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Resilient Australia - Natural Disasters and News Media

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