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Lesson plan: Leaders in a media age

January 16, 2001
Web posted at: 11:56 AM EST (1656 GMT)

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Identify ways in which the president can use various media to communicate his messages and intent.
• Demonstrate ways in which the news media can create public opinion.
• Examine several news sources on a given topic relating to the president or politics to form their own opinion about the issue.
• Analyze news sources for tone, point of view and accuracy.

Standards

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning
Language Arts Media Benchmarks

Students understand the influence of media on society as a whole (e.g., influence in shaping various governmental, social and cultural norms; influence on the democratic process; influence on beliefs, lifestyles and understanding of relationships and culture; how it shapes viewers' perceptions of reality; and the various consequences in society of ideas and images in media.)

Materials

CNNfyi.com article, "What happens when reporters try to predict the future?"
Various media resources

Suggested time

One to two class periods

Procedures

1. Ask students how they form their opinions of politicians and tally their answers on the board. Responses may include television coverage, newspapers, newsmagazines, Internet coverage, hearsay, radio, political cartoons and political analysis.

2. Allow students to watch the press corps video in the CNNfyi.com article "What happens when reporters try to predict the future?" Then ask the following:

• According to the video, how have political pundits often judged new presidents during their transition into office? What did the press say about Bill Clinton? What events precipitated these reviews? Did the press change their views on Clinton? Support your answer with examples.
• What events caused reporters to judge former President George Bush favorably and unfavorably? How did former President Ronald Reagan's coverage move from negative to positive?
• How accurate do you think that political reporting is? (If the class tends to respond that it is quite accurate, remind them of the incorrect reporting on Florida's returns the night of the 2000 presidential election). What do you think causes inaccurate reporting?

3. Refer to the CNNfyi.com backgrounder "Understanding the role of the media" for additional information about the media and its purposes. Concerning media presentation, especially television coverage, ask students how much they think the physical appearance and characteristics of politicians affect the public's opinions of them. Ask for examples. How do they think that presidents and other political leaders can use the media to their advantage? How much control do students think these leaders have over media coverage on their actions?

Accommodations

Verbal: Students can choose a political news article and a political editorial or commentary and point out the differences in style, coverage, language and balance. Ask them to address the following questions: How can you tell the difference between hard news coverage and editorial writing? What qualities do you think that an editorial needs to be persuasive?

International languages: Allow students to go to one of the CNN international sites to read a political news article in their native language or a language that they are studying. Ask them to discuss tone, details and balance. Alternatively, if they receive newspapers or newsmagazines at home that are in a different language, they can use a political article found in one of them.

Assessment

Direct students to choose a media report on a recent national political event. The source can be a newspaper article, newsmagazine article, Web site, television report, etc., but not an editorial. Ask them to critique the coverage in terms of completeness, fairness, objectivity and accuracy. For information on analyzing the news, use HighWired.com's lesson plan, "Evaluating news sources."

Challenge

1. Students can choose an international news source that covers the same U.S. political event they find covered by a U.S. news source. Ask them to compare and contrast the coverage.

2. Use HighWired.com's lesson plan on "The Nixon-Kennedy debates" as an example of how appearance affected an audience's point of view.

Neweum's Presidential Campaign and the Press
James Fallows
Free Press/Fair Press
Thousands of newspapers on the Net
BBC Online

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