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Classroom activity: Interpreting the media
From Iraq: war and peace online
resource
Age group: 8 to 16 year olds
Aims:
To enable pupils to acquire the skills of critical
thinking and an ability to understand how news can be manipulated,
in order to make sense of the world To analyse the vocabulary and language used
in putting across a point of view To discuss current issues
What to do:
Play the game Chinese Whispers, choosing a phrase relating to a
current news item. After the game talk with the class about how
the phrase changed as it went around the class. Then go on to make
the link between classroom and global issues: if it is difficult
to pass information accurately across a classroom, then how difficult
is it to send news accurately across the world? How is news delivered?
What are the forms of communication used? Are they reliable? How
do we know?
Explain to the class that there have been around 750 correspondents
reporting on the news in Iraq, yet many of the main news stories
particularly in the first week of the war were incorrect. Many TV
channels have increased their news coverage with additional news
programmes, so the main stories are heard over and over again. There
appears to be little other news. Ask the class what they think is
happening to the news stories that would be shown if there were
no war.
Look at the following extract from the Guardian 29 March 2003:
There are many ways in which these could be used. For instance,
as the basis of class discussion related to the errors, the excuses
and, above all, the difficulty in believing or maintaining interest
in what we read if we know that in such a hi-tech world such huge
mistakes can be made. Also, the extracts could be used as a starting
point for looking at current newspaper articles: the source of information,
the style of the piece, the language used, ambiguity, and how ideas,
values and emotions are explored and represented.
Further class discussions may centre on the propaganda machine/media
circus debate, about the cost of war, the humanitarian aspects related
to the war, and on the media coverage and its impact on younger
children – especially when horrific images are being shown
on TV at all hours of the day.
From Iraq: war and peace online
resource
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