McNeil+Lehrer+News+Project

For this project, I hope to be able to combine my experiences as a news reporter with the experiences of the teachers involved with the McNeil Lehrer News Project at Benjamin Rush to create something that will (a) help the kids become more discerning consumers of media, even if that media is news and (b) will empower the students to take the lead in reporting some of their own events.

To do this, I propose the following:


 * For the teachers and administrators:**

1-I'd like to know what the teachers themselves know about news, particularly when it relates to broadcast. Since we're going to be putting together a news broadcast, it would be nice to know if the teachers feel confident about teaching the kids how to write for a newscast, how to gather news, and how a news cast is structured. It would also be a good idea to discuss news you NEED to know versus news you WANT to know. From a media literacy standpoint, I think that this particular discussion could be good for the students, but we need to know if the teachers have thought about it.

2-Find out how much time we have allotted to us each day to do this activity. If there is only 30 minutes allotted for this, we're not going to be able to do as much as we would if we had a hour to use. We can get a lot out of that half an hour if we plan it well. Because the teachers involved will know a lot more about planning lessons for their classes than I will, we can work together to see what is going to work best and how we can make it happen.

3-I'd like to know where the teachers are technically. Part of the reason why I ended up a print reporter despite having a degree in broadcast journalism was because I got tired of slicing up my thumbs cutting reel-to-reel tape while working at WRTI. Knowing how to use things properly is important.

4-I think it would be great for school administrators to be involved in this part of things. They are going to be among the first people these students interview. I'd like to know what they know about the news media.


 * For the students:**

1-What are you interested in? Some students are going to want to be in front of the cameras while others are going to want to be as far in the background as possible. The first time that I talk with the students, I want them to (a) get to know me so that my presence doesn't cause them to clam up because I'm a stranger and they're nervous and (b) find out what part of this project interests them the most. If the teacher agrees, I'd like to then divide the students into teams that would include writers, technical people, online news people, researchers, and photographers (camera operators). While each student would spend most of their time with their assigned team, they would be taught all of the different parts of putting together a news cast.

2-Watch some video of the McNeil Lehrer News Hour or the BBC News Hour so that they can get a sense of what it is they do and contrast it with say, Action News or any of the other national news casts. I'd like for the students to understand the difference between a news broadcast on public television and a news broadcast on commercial television. The differences are subtle, but they are important for students to know, especially when they are trying to discern what news is.

3-Have a discussion similar to the one I'd like to have with the teachers regarding news you NEED to know versus news you WANT to know. I've had this discussion with students before and it has always been interesting. First of all, there are no right or wrong answers to this question, but the idea behind this is to get students to think about why they place the news into the categories they have assigned it to. If you believe that what is happening on American Idol is news you NEED to know, why is that? If you think that it is news you WANT to know, how did you make that decision?

4-Take a tour of a television news room and talk with people like assignment editors, producers and reporters. How do they make the decisions regarding what goes on the air every day? How would you make these decisions differently? Who do you think should have more of a say, the news director, the producer or the reporter?

5-Bring in the parents to watch the news with the students. I know that this would probably require some after school time, but this is a chance to help parents feel like they are a part of the educational process while finding out just what the kids are learning at home regarding the media.

This is just my brainstorm of what I'd like to see initially in terms of this program. Any feedback that I can get will be a really, really big help and would be tremendously appreciated!