Shocking News
- This course is presently not described -
- Module
- Prevention
- Intervention
Exercise Category: Good Practices
CC - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Purpose
- To strengthen the resilience of youngsters against violence in the media
- To support youngsters in putting news in the right context and perspective
Description
Children and youngsters are confronted with pictures of war or violence on a daily basis in the media. From the age of 6 it is no longer possible to hide shocking news from children. It is therefore important to discuss with children and youngsters what they see, to nuance the news and to provide background information. The aim of this intervention is to strengthen the resilience of youngsters against violence in the media and to help them to put what they see in perspective. Below is an example of a lesson on shocking news for high school students.
Example:
Choose a recent confrontational picture from a newspaper or moving news footage which shows violence. Show the picture or news footage to the students and ask them to respond. What do students think of this picture? Do they have difficulty with it? Why? Discuss what considerations editors have in mind when deciding to publish or not publish a certain image. Spend 10 minutes on the introduction of the lesson.
Give the students the following assignments (40 minutes):
- Each student can choose from the newspaper a picture he or she has difficulty with or of which he or she can imagine other people have difficulties with
- Let the students write a letter to the editor about the selected photo. In this letter the students argue why they have difficulty with seeing this picture in the news.
- Let the student evaluate each other’s letters.