Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Turning Students into News Junkies
By Raluca Cozma,
Associate Professor and Director
of Undergraduate Education,
Greenlee School of Journalism
and Communication,
Iowa State University
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, November, 2016 issue)
During introductions at the beginning of each semester, I ask my students to share who their favorite journalist is. In recent years, more often than not, students can’t name a journalist they admire, not because of a shortage of greats in the field, but because they don’t consistently follow the news. As we celebrated the third annual News Engagement Day this October, I thought I’d share classroom strategies we can use to make students realize that, in order to become successful writers and effective producers of content, they need to appreciate and consume others’ work. These strategies go beyond the habitual current-events quiz, which often inspires fear more than passion for the news.
Showcase the best. In my reporting classes, I routinely assign reading or watching award-winning pieces across news platforms. Students then get together and dissect the strengths of each piece and articulate what strategies they could emulate in their own storytelling. At the end of the semester, one of their most common comments is how much they appreciated being introduced to inspiring stories they wouldn’t have otherwise invested time in. I’ve noticed dwindling interest in long-form stories like “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” but showing a short video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab0rt_QokBI) about Gay Talese’s writing bunker where the reporter explains the meticulous process involved in his gathering and organizing of hundreds of interviews helps students appreciate the man behind the work. They then seek out the Esquire piece on their own, although it’s unlikely that Ol’ Blue Eyes himself is on any of their iPod playlists. Equally awe-inspiring are several (creative-component) mini-documentaries produced by former master’s students that I play in class. They showcase storytelling techniques of some of the most successful local journalists. Watching them in class not only introduces students to professional role models but also to academic work examples for those considering upgrading their credentials with an advanced degree.
Personalize the news. When behind-the-scenes videos or mini-documentaries are not available, I invite guest speakers (be it young professionals who graduated just a few years ago or veteran journalists with decades of experience under their belt) to share their storytelling techniques and tricks and to share their favorite and most-challenging professional moments and assignments. I find that meeting and hearing from these mentors help students internalize the concepts introduced in lectures as well as become more appreciative of news and news work.
Encourage peer learning. Many reporting instructors create and maintain news blogs to host enterprise stories produced by students over the course of a semester. This increases accountability and makes reporting assignments feel more like a real job than homework. When pitching their story ideas, I ask my students to verify that someone else in the class has not already covered the story they have in mind. For extra credit, after each set of stories is published, I ask students to read at least three stories on the class news site and leave meaningful, constructive feedback. They are exposed to new stories, get to wear an editor’s hat, and also receive useful comments on their own work.
Nurture appreciation for news in non-reporting courses. In the past couple of years, I started requiring a digital New York Times subscription in my international-communication seminar. For $1 a week (adding up to $16 for the semester), in addition to getting access to the newspaper’s digital archive (which begins in 1851) and its daily coverage of various foreign news events, students can also use resources, such as the Topics section, to conduct research on the country assigned to them. Students’ response has been overwhelmingly positive, and many reported that they kept their subscription after the semester ended.
Play to students’ strengths. Meeting students where they spend most of their time – on social media – is an effective way to encourage engagement with the news. In many classes, I ask students to “tweet their beat,” whereby they need to curate pertinent news content from credible sources in addition to promoting their own stories. Even in my graduate seminar on political communication, I dedicate one weekly class session to theory and research and the other to analysis of media performance, as exemplified by stories students need to find and share on Twitter using a class hashtag. This allows students to perform ad-hoc case studies of the concepts discussed in class and forces them to read several news reports until they find one that perfectly exemplifies a mass-communication theory. I’ve noticed the most impressive impact of this type of assignment on new international students who, by the end of the semester, can expertly discuss differences in various types of U.S. news media and platforms. This type of knowledge then translates into increased ease in formulating research problems for their master’s theses.
These are just a few strategies to engage students with the news. AEJMC’s webpage links to a New York Times piece that lists 50 more ways to teach with current events (http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/50-ways-to-teach-current-events/). To share your own strategies, please drop me a note at .
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