Language Arts—9-12
Language Arts—9-12
Note to Educators: The following questions and activities are suggestions for enriching your upcoming tour to CNN Center. Organized into three sections—before, during and after the trip—these lessons will help focus student learning on the elements of the tour that will best connect to your educational goals and objectives. For your convenience, materials are linked to the Georgia QCC objectives. We hope you and your students enjoy the CNN Tour and that you continue to bring the world of CNN into your classroom every day!
Before the Tour
Focus Questions: Prior to the CNN Studio Tour, pose the following questions to students:
❑ How do writers and editors know that a report is accurate? What is the importance of multiple sources? How can news reporters determine what is objective and what is biased?
❑ How do producers determine what makes it onto the broadcasts and Web sites? How do their choices affect what viewers know and believe about their world? What determines that a piece of news is not sufficiently significant to be reported? How are the media regulated?
❑ How is news reported differently on the various CNN networks and media? How might the format affect the message?
❑ How do writers develop stories? How do they determine what is balanced and fair? How is a full story condensed into a 2-3 minute package for television or a 1-page news story on the Web? Must they determine the difference between correlation and causation, or is their job to simply report the “facts”?
Activities:
1. Terms to Know: Introduce students to the following terms prior to the tour. Definitions can be found on the CNN Studio Tour site at studiotour: Control room, monitors, CNN Air, CNN Program, CNN Preset, master control, routers, feeds, bureaus, graphics, fonts, TelePrompTer, producer, director, technical director, graphics and audio, anchors, talent, Chroma-key, hard copies, blue screen effect, analog, digital, fiber optics, robotic cameras, lavalieres, affiliates, wire services, AP, Reuters, satellite, transponder, feeds. [QCC 4 Core Skills (Topic: Information Processing)]
2. Ask students to create a KWL chart—what they Know, what they Want to know, and follow up with what they Learned. From this, they should create a list of questions for the tour guide at CNN. Have them categorize their questions by: The Control Room, Special Effects, CNN, Headline News, Other News Networks, Entertainment. [QCC 10 Core Skills (Topic: Information Processing)]
3. The day or two prior to the tour, have students research the top story of the day. Have them compare coverage of this story across several news outlets. To which resources would they go to find out information on this story? How does coverage of the story differ across multiple mediums? While on the tour, students should imagine how this story gets developed at CNN. How many people are involved in the making of a news story? What are the individual responsibilities? After the tour, students should research how CNN covered the story. What types of “experts” did they have to support the story? What “angles” did they take? What were the messages conveyed in the stories they read or saw? [QCC 29 Communication Skills (Topic: Speaking/Listening)]
4. Download a story off of and distribute it to students. Have them deconstruct the story into facts and opinions. Is the story balanced? How do they know? While on the tour, students should locate those mechanisms that are in place to help ensure balance and accuracy of facts. [QCC 7 Core Skills (Topic: Core Skills)]
After the Tour
1. Have students imagine that they are the producers of that day’s CNN morning news show. How will they decide what to put on air? Review with them the term “newsworthy.” Explain that a newsworthy event is one that meets one or more of the following criteria: is informative and educational; has a national effect on the audience; is timely; will have an impact on those who see and hear it; will arouse controversy because of varied sides, opinions, or solutions; deals with people, places, or events that are well known or prominent; contains conflict on either a physical, moral, or emotional level; promotes human interest or empathy; provides an update to any previous story; or is unusual in any way. Then have them imagine they are producers for Headline News. How might their line-up change based on the Headline News format? [QCC 33 Journalism (Topic: Writing/Usage/Grammar)]
2. Have students report on an event in today’s news using a news communication method from the past. They can act as a town crier, write a letter for the pony express, write an article for the “penny press,” write a radio script, script and create a storyboard for a movie newsreel, or write a newspaper article for a 1950s paper. Compare it with how that same story is reported on CNN. How does the method of reporting the news affect the news event itself? [QCC 29 Communication Skills (Topic: Speaking/Listening)]
3. Have students download a CNN show transcript from . Have them evaluate the script for language and style. Then, have them locate a Web story from that addresses the same topic. How does the story translate on the different mediums? How do students account for the comparison? [QCC 33 Journalism (Topic: Writing/Usage/Grammar)]
4. Ask students to consider the various types of programs available on CNN. For a listing of CNN programs, see . How do the writing styles of each of the programs differ? Have student teams pretend they are the producers for one of the programs. How might they produce a program and write the script to appeal to their unique audience? How do the writing styles differ from news stories, features, sports, editorials, talk shows, etc.? Have student teams create a show rundown for their chosen program. (For a sample rundown of a CNN program, see studiotour) [Language Arts QCC 30 Journalism (Topic: Writing/Usage/Grammar)]
5. Encourage students to practice what they have learned by becoming a “CNN anchor” at the CNN Virtual Anchor Desk. Once back in the classroom, students can analyze their tapes to see if they used their voice effectively (volume, rate, clarity, and inflection) and nonverbal signs appropriately (gestures, eye contact, facial expression, and posture).[QCC 28 & 29 Oral/Written Communication Speech (Topic: Speaking/Listening)]
6. Ask students: Would you want any of the jobs that you saw and heard described on the tour? Why or why not? What background would you need to be successful at the job? [Guidance QCC 4 Educational and Occupational Exploration]
7. Debate topics:
❑ Should the government regulate the amount or type of information journalists have access to, and/or can report, on international, political, and economic issues?
❑ Should young people be exposed to news programming that depicts street violence or graphic scenes of war?
❑ How should journalists prioritize the criteria that influences their programming choices?
❑ In 1980, when Ted Turner launched a 24-hour news network, critics were sure it would fail. Why? Why do you think it didn’t fail? Considering changes in communications technology around the world, will this type of network be successful 30 years from now? What changes might occur to ensure the network keeps up with the times?
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