Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
LESSON 8
What Is the New Media?
Objectives Students will become familiar with and discuss the role of the new media.
Handouts (8-1) Information Age Checklist: Sources – SMART;
Deliberation in Democracy materials
A. Daily Warm-Up
Check for understanding about the last lesson: what is one way in which a reporter’s job
is the same or different in the U.S. compared to other countries?
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CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
E. Extended Activities
Homework / Journal Entry
Journal Entry: Something I learned today about the connections between democracy,
the press, and being a citizen is .
Celebrate World Press Freedom Day, May 3; this a great day to invite speakers!
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CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
Handout 8-1
Like journalists, you depend on sources for information. You may read a story in the
newspaper, see it on television or hear it from a friend. To judge the reliability of the
story, you should always consider the source. Use the following SMART test to
check your sources:
Source. For you to evaluate a source, you have to know who or what the source
is. Where does the story come from? Is the person reporting the story an eyewitness
to the story? Did the person get the story from others? From eyewitnesses? From a
book? Track the source down. If the source is unclear, be skeptical about the story.
Motive. Why do they say so? Sources often have a special interest or particular
point of view that may cause them to slant information. Biased sources can be
accurate, but o need to check them carefully. Get all sides to a story.
Authority. How good is the source? Eyewitnesses can be wrong. Was the
witness in a good position? If the source isn’t an eyewitness, make sure it’s a source
you can trust – e.g., an expert on the subject, a newspaper with good fact checking.
Be wary of any source that is repeating hearsay and rumors.
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CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
Deliberating in a Democracy
The Tension Between Traditional and New Media
Student Objectives
• Understand the role of the free press in promoting vibrant and diverse political
discourse, transparency in government, and the free flow of ideas and opinions.
• Appreciate the tension between traditional news reported by professional journalists and
new media characterized by personal electronic devices and citizen journalists.
• Analyze the reasons supporting and opposing equal reliance by citizens on news from
traditional and new media sources.
• Identify areas of agreement and disagreement with other students.
• Decide, individually and as a group, to what extent citizens should rely on news from
traditional and new media sources; support decisions based on evidence and sound
reasoning.
• Reflect on the value of deliberation when deciding issues in a democracy.
Materials
• Reading
• Deliberation Question with Reasons
(optional—use if students have difficulty extracting the arguments or time is limited)
• Lesson Procedures
• Handout 1—Deliberation Guide
• Handout 2—Deliberation Activities
• Handout 3—Student Reflection on Deliberation
© 2005, 2006, 2007 Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. All Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago materials and publications
are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained herein for distribution
to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators.
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CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
Deliberating in a Democracy
The Tension Between Traditional and New Media
READING
1 The tension between news from traditional media and new media is a growing one.
2 Traditional media is where news is reported by professional journalists in mainstream
3 newspapers, television, and radio. It’s your grandfather’s news. New media, on the other
4 hand, is fed by citizen journalists and is found on texts, tweets, blogs and teeny electronics
5 old fingertips are loathe to touch. Yes, there is overlap, but you get the idea.
6
7 To understand the tension, it is helpful to get a handle on the vital function of the press in
8 America. The United States enjoys a long tradition of free press anchored in the First
9 Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, “Congress shall make no law…. abridging the
10 freedom of speech or of the press.” From John Peter Zenger1 to President Obama,
11 Americans have relied on the press to take an overseer or watchdog role. In a word, free
12 press in America is revered.
13
14 Professional journalists in traditional media earn their status by adhering to a code of
15 professional ethics.2 It is expected that their sources are verified, multiple views are aired,
16 facts are checked, and conflicts are disclosed. Thus, their stories are assumed to be
17 reliable. Great journalists like Walter Cronkite and Pulitzer Prize winners Carl Bernstein and
18 Bob Woodward come to mind.
19
20 It is widely viewed that Cronkite’s commentary hastened the end of America’s involvement
21 in Viet Nam, and Bernstein and Woodward’s coverage of Watergate led to the resignation
22 of President Nixon. These dramatic examples serve as powerful reminders of the watchdog
23 role of the press.
24
25 Enter texts, tweets, blogs, YouTube and citizen journalists. Reporting without rules. These
26 stories present, unapologetically, one person’s observations and opinions. New media
27 deliberately avoids the whole story in favor of an up close and personal view from the
Written by Classroom Law Project for use with Constitutional Rights Foundation Deliberating in a Democracy materials.
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CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
1 observer – whether writer, filmer, blogger, texter, tweeter, whateverer, sometimes named,
2 sometimes anonymous, sometimes with a pseudonym. And it is fast – reporting right there,
3 right then, when it happens. Some would call this pure reporting.
4
5 This creates confusion about where news seekers should get their news. Professor Jon
6 Kleinberg, a Cornell University computer scientist who studied how news items bounced
7 around the internet, suggests news is now on a continuum. “There’s really no such thing as
8 a two-part classification of news and blogs,” he says. Any bright line between journalists
9 and bloggers is now blurred.
10
11 Professor Sreenath Sreenivasan teaches new media at Columbia University’s school of
12 Journalism goes on to say that it is not about mainstream versus non-mainstream media.
13 It’s all about, “What’s news to me?” he says. Rather than relying on familiar news
14 organizations, people are more apt to trust their friends’ judgment. People may not even
15 notice where the news item originated. “If my friend sent me this article, I’m going to trust it
16 more because he sent it to me,” Sreenivasan says.3
17
18 But that is a problem, warns New York Times reporter Anand Giridharadas. He cites as
19 example a recent study by the Obama administration’s Office of Public Engagement.4 It
20 invited citizens to participate in direct democracy by submitting their ideas to the President
21 with the results published in the Citizen’s Briefing Book. The premise was that the best
22 ideas would rise to the top and then would be shared with the various departments of the
23 government. The White House received 44,000 proposals and 1.4 million votes on the
24 proposals. The results were quietly published, but they were embarrassing – not so much
25 to the administration but to the citizens.
26
27 In the middle of two wars and an economic meltdown, the highest-ranking idea was to
28 legalize marijuana. Other big vote getters were on legalizing online poker and revoking the
29 Church of Scientology’s tax-exempt status. Some suggest that the internet is doing more to
30 promote misinformation than to educate citizens and point to the current health care debate
Written by Classroom Law Project for use with Constitutional Rights Foundation Deliberating in a Democracy materials.
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CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
1 as evidence. So while the internet offers the possibility of unfettered deliberation, it has yet
2 to become an actuality. Thoughtful discourse, Giridharadas suggests, is lacking.
3
4 On the other hand, Julia Luscher Thomson –a reporter with the Tallahassee Democrat
5 newspaper– may disagree. Luscher Thomson used Facebook and other social media for
6 investigative reporting when other means failed. When 23-year old Rachel Hoffman, a
7 recent college graduate and police informant, was killed in a botched drug sting, the
8 Tallahassee Democrat wanted to get to the bottom of it. Using social media to reach
9 Hoffman’s peers, the newspaper kept the story alive and law enforcement accountable.5
10
11 Indeed, around the world, citizen journalists get the news out when traditional means have
12 failed. Consider, for example, the recent presidential election in Iran and how student Neda
13 Agha Soltan became an instant martyr in its pro-democracy movement. The Iranian
14 government halted all but its own government-controlled media to report news but could not
15 stop citizen journalists. So when Soltan was shot down in a pro-democracy rally, the whole
16 world knew.
17
18 In India, text messages are used to inform voters on the criminal record of candidates for
19 parliament. In Africa, cell phones are used to improve election monitoring. And across the
20 globe, new scientific discoveries can be shared with the world immediately, providing all
21 people with access to the information instead of just limited audiences. One could therefore
22 say that new media provides more information to the average Joe and Jane in their quest
23 to become better informed citizens.
24
25 Research refutes that notion. People like information that agrees with them and dislike that
26 which does not. In a recent study researchers at University of Illinois and the University of
27 Florida, found that people are 67% more likely to select information that supports their own
28 point of view, compared to 33% who are willing to read opposing ideas. People are most
29 resistant to new ideas when the information is about politics, religion and ethical issues.6
30 This raises concerns that, when citizens avoid newspapers with a variety of news stories in
31 favor of their like-minded blogs, America’s precious melting pot of ideas suffers.
Written by Classroom Law Project for use with Constitutional Rights Foundation Deliberating in a Democracy materials.
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CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
1
2 Professional journalist Gregory M. Lamb says that mainstream newspapers continue and
3 will in fact set much of the news agenda. In contrast, he says, most blogs will serve chiefly
4 as news amplifiers. That is, big business media sources will continue to report the news –
5 whether in print or online– but new media will draw attention and refocus certain stories.
6 Lamb describes it positively as a symbiotic relationship.7
7
8 The challenge, then, is for citizens’ to become great filterers. Pondering that challenge,
9 Giridharadas wonders how all this public opinion can “be channeled and filtered to create
10 freer, more successful societies, because simply putting things on-line is no cure-all.”8
11
12 A study that included a group of teens from Newport, OR, noted that the first thing they did
13 when they woke up is fire up their cellphones and “start sending messages, checking
14 messages, and otherwise connecting with the larger world.” While now, that larger world
15 means friends and making plans for getting together later, as they grow up, that will evolve.
16 News will become a part of those conversations, blurring the line between texting and news
17 disseminating. And that has big implications for the media landscape of the future.9
18
19 Endnotes
1
John Peter Zenger was a printer in New York in 1734. He published articles critical of the
government, was arrested and put on trial. He won.
2
Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics includes as major headings: “seek the
truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable.” Numerous
subheadings instruct journalists to verify sources, seek multiple views, disclose conflicts,
avoid stereotypes, and not distort, sensationalize, mislead, plagarize, and so on.
3
Gregory M. Lamb, A Marriage Made in Cyberspace, Christian Science Monitor, page 33-
4, September 20, 2009.
4
Anand Giridharadas, ‘Athens’ on the Net, NYTimes.com, September 12, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/weekinreview/13giridharadas.html.
5
Julia Luscher Thompson, Using Social Media to Reach Young Readers – In reporting a
case of police informant who’d been murdered, the Tallahassee Democrat relied on
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and text messages to get its reporting to young readers;
Spring 2009, www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id+100940.
Written by Classroom Law Project for use with Constitutional Rights Foundation Deliberating in a Democracy materials.
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CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
6
Dolores Albarracin, Those Unsure of Own Ideas More Resistant to Views of Others,
University of Illinois News Bureau, http://news.illinois.edu/news/09/0701listening.html.
7
Gregory M. Lamb, page 34.
8
Anand Giridharadas,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/weekinreview/13giridharadas.html.
9
Dante Chinni, What teens’ cellphone mania means for the news business, The Christian
Science Monitor, http://patchworknation.csmonitor.com/csmstaff/2009/0713/what-teens-
cellphone-mania-means-for-the-news-business/.
Lynsi Burton, Shield Law Would Exclude Unpaid Journalists, San Francisco Chronicle,
September 18, 2009, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/09/18/MNQN19OOEQ.DTL
Gary Hengstler, Sheppard v. Maxwell Revisted – Do the Traditional Rules Work for
Nontraditional Media?, 71 Law & Contemporary Problems 171, 2008. This long but
thoughtful and readable law review article deals with the changing media and high-profile
criminal cases.
Jina Moore, Enough with the #CNNFail, or, Why Twitter’s Failings Prove We Still Need
Reporters, http://jinamoore.com/2009/06/17/enough-with-the-cnnfail-or-why-twitters-
failings-prove-we-still-need-reporters/.
David Vaina, New Media Versus Old Media – New media aren’t following the same ethics
as traditional media, April 15, 2008, http://www.america.gov/st/democracyhr-
english/2008/April/20080513173802WRybakcuH0.6948358.html.
Written by Classroom Law Project for use with Constitutional Rights Foundation Deliberating in a Democracy materials.
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CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
Deliberating in a Democracy
The Tension Between Traditional and New Media
1. Any bright line between traditional journalists and new media has blurred.
Many professional journalists contribute to new and traditional media alike.
2. Many news consumers have greater trust for what their friends send them
via new media than what they see in traditional media.
4. New media provide an important tool when the government shuts down
traditional media. Cell phones are proving to be an important means of
communicating current information on protests, voting etc.
Written by Classroom Law Project for use with Constitutional Rights Foundation Deliberating in a Democracy materials.
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CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
Deliberating in a Democracy
The Tension Between Traditional and New Media
1. Unlike the Code of Ethics for professional journalists, there are no rules for
the citizen journalists using new media. Often citizens don’t even know
who the writer is since many are anonymous or write using pseudonyms.
3. People trust their friends to be accurate and distrust traditional media. This
trust may be displaced.
4. When citizens shared what they thought were the most important concerns
facing Americans today, the most popular of the 44,000 were not truly
serious public issues. Their selections reflected self-interests rather than
what would help the United States.
5. Users of new media tend to read that which agrees with their own
viewpoint, especially on topics of religion, politics and ethical issues. New
media caters to one-sided blogs while traditional media attempts to offer
multiple viewpoints. This cools America’s melting pot of ideas.
Written by Classroom Law Project for use with Constitutional Rights Foundation Deliberating in a Democracy materials.
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CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
Deliberating in a Democracy
The Tension Between Traditional and New Media
Lesson Procedures
© 2005, 2006, 2007 Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. All Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago materials and
publications are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained
herein for distribution to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators.
9
CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
© 2005, 2006, 2007 Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. All Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago materials and
publications are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained
herein for distribution to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators.
10
CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
© 2005, 2006, 2007 Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. All Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago materials and
publications are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained
herein for distribution to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators.
11
CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
Deliberating in a Democracy
The Tension Between Traditional and New Media
Handout 1
Deliberation Guide
What Is Deliberation?
Deliberation (meaningful discussion) is the focused exchange of ideas and the analysis
of arguments with the aim of making a decision.
© 2005, 2006, 2007 Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. All Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago materials and
publications are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained
herein for distribution to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators.
12
CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
Deliberating in a Democracy
The Tension Between Traditional and New Media
Handout 2
Deliberation Activities
1) ___________________________________________________________________
2) ___________________________________________________________________
3) ___________________________________________________________________
Deliberation Question
My Personal Position
On a separate sheet of paper, write down reasons to support your opinion. You may
suggest another course of action than the policy proposed in the question or add your
own ideas to address the underlying problem.
© 2005, 2006, 2007 Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. All Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago materials and
publications are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained
herein for distribution to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators.
13
CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT Democracy & What’s News – What’s a Citizen To Do? Youth Summit 2009
Deliberating in a Democracy
The Tension Between Traditional and New Media
Handout 3
Student Reflection on Deliberation
What questions do you still have? Where can you get more information?
What are some reasons why deliberating this issue is important in a democracy?
What did you do well in the deliberation? What do you need to work on to improve your
personal deliberation skills?
What did someone else in your group do or say that was particularly helpful? Is there
anything the group should work on to improve the group deliberation?
© 2005, 2006, 2007 Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. All Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago materials and
publications are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained
herein for distribution to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators.
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