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LESSON FIVE - Citizen journalism (I)

Teacher: Justin Olmstead

Date: Double period Wednesday 3 & 4 (100 mins)

Year level: Year 9

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Citizen journalism is the name given to ordinary citizens using their own video
recording equipment (including mobile phone cameras), and social media and
user-generated video web sites, to create, disseminate, and evaluate current
events. Its popularity has risen as media skepticism and political cynicism have
increased.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will:

become aware of citizen journalism as a craft
become aware of the advantages of citizen journalism
learn to take a critical view of how news is gathered and presented
become aware of the decisions made in gathering and transmitting news

AUSVELS STANDARDS

Interpret, analyse and evaluate how different perspectives of issue,
event, situation, individuals or groups are constructed to serve specific
purposes in texts

Explore and explain the combinations of language and visual choices
that authors make to present information, opinions and perspectives
in different texts

Use comprehension strategies to interpret and analyse texts,
comparing and evaluating representations of an event, issue, situation
or character in different texts

Analyse how the construction and interpretation of texts,
including media texts, can be influenced by cultural perspectives and
other texts

Interpret and compare how representations of people and culture in
literary texts are drawn from different historical, social and cultural
contexts

Explore and reflect on personal understanding of the world and
significant human experience gained from interpreting various
representations of life matters in texts

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ENGAGEMENT 10 mins
The teacher shows the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4wWqfRzp_M
The teacher then facilitates discussion about the video.
Questions to ask:
- What does this video show?
- Does the quality of the video affect its impact?
- Have you ever seen behaviour like this in public?
- If so, how did you react? Why?

EXPLANATION 25 mins
PART 1. Explain that citizens can mean individual citizens or groups of
citizens (but not governments or corporations) and that journalism can mean
gathering news (taking photographs or video, reporting on events), distributing
news (through media such as blogs, social networking sites or video sites, or by
providing the news they gathered to mainstream news sources) or interpreting
news (providing analysis based on their particular point of view).
Introduce students to the idea that media are constructions that re-present
reality every part of a media text is the result of a decision made consciously or
unconsciously, regarding what to include and exclude as well as how to present
what is included, and audiences perceive media texts correctly or not as
representations of reality.
This is particularly true of news, which we generally accept as an accurate and
objective reflection of reality.

PART 2. The teacher shows the Citizen journalism: An introduction
PowerPoint presentation, which details a short history of citizen journalism.
The teacher then facilitates a discussion about the slide show and asks the
following questions:
What is citizen journalism? (students come up with a definition for it and the
teacher writes this on the board)
Why is it significant?
Do you think citizen journalists can be as reliable as traditional news sources?
Will citizen journalists provide a more diverse range of representations?
These questions can be discussed, but its not important to reach a consensus.
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PowerPoint presentation


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EXPLORATION 40 mins

The class is divided into two groups. Distribute Rating a news source for accuracy
and completeness handout to one group and Rating a news source for diversity
representation handout to the other.

Group one now investigates a current news story, using:

two mainstream news sources - the Herald Sun newspaper and The
Age newspaper (either online or the paper version)

and

two new media sources such as Twitter, Wikipedia or citizen
journalism sites such as Digital Journal
(http://www.digitaljournal.com/), The Examiner
(http://www.examiner.com/), or Global Voices
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(http://globalvoicesonline.org/)

(An up-to-date list of citizen journalism sites is available at:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=List_of_citizen_journalism_websit
es).

Group two now browses the top five stories at:

two mainstream news sources the Herald Sun newspaper and The Age
newspaper (either online or the paper version)

and

a citizen journalism site such as Digital Journal
(http://www.digitaljournal.com/), The Examiner
(http://www.examiner.com/), or Global Voices
(http://globalvoicesonline.org/). They will then report back to the class
on how the different sources scored in terms of diversity representation
using the Rating a news source for diversity representation handout.

ELABORATION 20 mins

The students will then report back to the class how the different sources scored
in terms of accuracy and completeness using the handout Rating a news source
for accuracy and completeness.

Students will write a short blog entry (using their existing blog accounts created
in previous lessons) expressing an opinion on one of the issues raised in the
lesson, such as:

the need for diversity in news reports
the need for news outlets to represent minority groups
the use of citizen journalism as a news source
the right or duty of citizens to act as journalists
the ethics of citizen journalism
the disadvantages of citizen journalism

EVALUATION 10-15 mins

Once the two groups have shared the results of their research, ask students:

What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of mainstream media and
citizen journalism?

Will citizen journalism improve the representation of diversity in the
media?

Is it a duty for us all to act as citizen journalists?

Considering the examples above, what ethical factors must be considered
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for citizen journalists to be responsible?

Which groups in your community would benefit from citizen journalism?

HOMEWORK

Students are advised that, in the next lesson, they are going to cover the school
sports day as citizen journalists, and their goal is to reach as broad an audience
as possible.

Students are advised that, before the next lesson, they must talk with their
fellow students and organize themselves into teams of 4, and think about
how they will cover the sports day what camera angles etc.

Each team must nominate one director, one camera operator, one
interviewer to conduct the interviews, and one production assistant to
produce their story.

(The student who fills the role of production assistant will then edit the
video footage).

Students are given the Citizen Journalism Worksheet as a guide for
producing their reports, and advised to bring it to the next lesson.
APPENDICES
1. Rating a News Source for Accuracy and Completeness Handout
Read a story on your topic from each of your news sources and rate each story based on four criteria:
Facts: Is the story based on facts (statements which have been proven using evidence such as quotes
or citations) or opinions (unproven statements that are just what somebody thinks)?
Fairness: Does the story present all sides of an issue? Does it present information without trying to
persuade you that one side or the other is right?
Sourcing: How many sources does the story use to get information? Do you think these sources are
reliable?
Completeness: Are there important parts of this story that are left out? (Once youve gone through all
four sources, return to this question to see what was included in some sources and not others.)
Source:
Is the story
Based on facts or opinions?
Evidence:


Objective or biased?
Evidence:
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Based on multiple sources?
Evidence:



Complete:
Evidence:






2. Rating a News Source for Diversity of Representation Handout
1. Analyse your chosen news sources to determine how many stories feature diversity (talking about
or including members of cultural minorities, aboriginals, gays/lesbians or people with disabilities.)
News source Date Number of stories Number of stories that
feature diversity













2. Using only the stories that talk about or feature cultural diversity, fill out the table below.
Headline Placement of story Topic Role of
minority group
in the story
Length of story













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Why is this important?
Headline: The headline is what grabs your attention and makes you decide whether or not to pay
attention to a story. (The equivalent to the headline in TV news would be the anchors introduction to
the story.) Headlines also influence how we read the rest of the story: a headline that is phrased
positively or negatively can make us read an otherwise neutral story in that way.
Placement of story: Is it on the front page of a newspaper or web site? If not, how far do you have to
go to find it? What section is it in? (Something placed in News will be taken more seriously than
something place in Life or Arts.) In TV news the question is about time: how far into the newscast
does the story appear?
Topic: Members of minority groups sometimes only appear in the news in connection with certain
stories. Sometimes they will only appear in stories that are actually about them, and not in stories
about more general topics which would affect them as well.
Role of minority group in the story: How is the minority group portrayed in the story? Are they
consistently cast in a particular role, such as criminals or victims? Are they shown as active, able to
affect the world and their place in it, or passive? Do they have an opportunity to speak for
themselves? If experts are interviewed, are the experts members of a minority group?

3. CITIZEN JOURNALISM WORKSHEET
CREATING ENGAGING NEWS REPORTS
STEP 1. Generate Ideas. Think about news story ideas that could come out of the sports day. Will
there be a hero of the day? A sore loser? An epic showdown between two great rivals? Will there be
cheating or allegations of foul play? Bad sportsmanship? Incompetent judges or timekeepers?
Steroids?
Brainstorm 5 potential ideas by thinking about what makes these stories interesting and important.
Write these down to share with your teacher or a small group of peers. After getting their feedback,
select the best idea.
STEP 2. Gather Background Information. What background information could be used to make this
story relevant to a wider audience? How does this story connect to larger social and political issues?
Use facts, opinions or other interesting information by gathering information from a variety of
sources.
STEP 3. Consider News Values. What aspects of your story are relevant? Is there a human interest
angle? Is there conflict or controversy? The more genuine news values there are in your story, the
more your audience will like it.
STEP 4. Identify Potential Sources. Make a list of possible sources that could be used to add depth
and vividness to your story. Sources may include friends, teachers, innocent bystanders or
eyewitnesses.
Things to remember when producing your report:
Use a hook to get peoples attention using humour, suspense or ambiguity
Tell the story with attention to the who, what, where, when and why
Choose interesting students, or knowledgeable experts to interview
Try to make emotional connections that will get the audience involved
Deliver your message persuasively
Get lots of video footage!

Suggested starter interview questions:
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- Who are you?
- Why did you come to the school sports today?
- What did you see?
- Whats good about school sports?
- Do you like to compete or just watch?
-
NB: You should come up with at least 10 questions for your interviews, on topics that you choose.
REFERENCES

Johnson, M The Citizen Reporter lesson, MediaSmarts online
http://mediasmarts.ca/sites/mediasmarts/files/pdfs/lesson-
plan/Lesson_Citizen_Reporter.pdf

Greiner, N The impact of citizen journalism:
http://www.slideshare.net/journ1453/the-impact-of-citizen-journalism

Elliott, D Citizen Journalism:
http://www.slideshare.net/Dean1414/citizen-journalism-
14915176?next_slideshow=1

7 things you should know about citizen journalism:
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7031.pdf

ABC Open: https://open.abc.net.au/