Stacey

The objective of this project is to help design a broadcast journalism curriculum for Benjamin Rush Arts Academy in which media literacy is a central focus. The first thing to do is to contact Principal Jessica Brown and schedule times for our team to go into the high school and learn about the environment. It is important to learn the culture and atmosphere of the school and its students and teachers so that we can formulate a custom curriculum that will be easily integrated into Benjamin Rush Arts Academy.
 * [|Designing Broadcast News Program/Curriculum for Benjamin Rush Arts Academy] **

I have first-hand experience of being in a broadcast journalism program in high school that was very successful. The course that is being referenced was a credit course which fulfilled an English requirement for seniors and an elective requirement for juniors. This course concentrated both on a daily student-run news broadcast that mixed studio and field work, as well as individual script-writing and production projects. Another central aspect of the course concentrated on the critical analysis of different forms of media through discussion and writing analysis. I would like to blend some of this experience and perspective with the ideas and approaches that we have discussed within our Media Literacy course. It is important that this curriculum be approached from both a critical media literacy aspect and well as a practical experience and production aspect so that this curriculum can be holistic in its nature. As Steven Goodman points out in his book //Teaching Youth Media//, media production can play a crucial role in helping students understand their media-saturated environment. What our team learns about Benjamin Rush Arts Academy will determine whether this curriculum gets designed and implemented as a program with weekly broadcasts or a credit course with a regular broadcast. Much of the design of this curriculum will evolve depending on the format of this broadcast journalism program or course.

What we need to know about Benjamin Rush Arts Academy: 1. Who will teach this course? Will there be separate teachers who work together but ultimately one concentrates on the production while the other focuses of critical analysis and media literacy? How qualified are these teachers? 2. What type of equipment is available to the students? Does the school have cameras, mics, sound equipment, editing software? Or will the students be encouraged to provide some of their own equipment? 3. Does the school have a studio, or something that could double as a studio? Is the studio stocked with the essential equipment required for broadcasting? 4. What aspects of media literacy and critical analysis does the school value and wish to place emphasis on? How would the theachers prefer to approach critical media analysis?

After these and other questions are answered by Principal Jessica Brown and the teachers at Benjamin Rush Arts Academy it will be significantly easier to state the aims and goals of this particular broadcast journalism/media literacy course or program. And depending on the structure of this course or program, we as a team, will be better equipped to determine lesson plans, assignments and how the students and their work will be assessed.