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Learning card

News Stories in Social Media

Description

This activity encourages students to reflect on how news is presented on social media by personalities or opinion leaders by asking themselves how they mention sources and whether they share news stories.

Tag
  • Instagram
  • News
  • Snapchat
  • Social Media
  • Video
  • Youtube
Skills

CONTENT MANAGEMENT

  • To manage content dissemination and sharing

INDIVIDUAL MANAGEMENT

  • To self-manage

SOCIAL MANAGEMENT

  • To participate in social media

PERFORMANCE

  • To act

NARRATIVE AND AESTHETIC

  • To interpret

IDEOLOGY AND ETHICS

  • To evaluate and reflect
  • To take action and apply
Learning areas
  • Social Sciences
  • Technologies
Card language
  • English
  • Spanish
  • Finnish
  • Italian

Structure

Sessions
2
Duration
45’ (Variable)
Number of participants
10-30 participants
Age
  • 14-16
  • 17-18
Materials
  • Smartphone
  • Daily newspaper (paper and/or digital)

Process

Key questions
  • How do social media personalities select the news they mention and how do they present them?
  • Where do these stories originate, do they mention sources?
Development

In the first session, students should work in groups of 2-5 people and check out the most recent local newspapers and list the main topics and themes, as well as the most interesting pieces (15’ group work – 5’ reporting).

Students should check out their own social media feed, especially Snapchat; see if there is any mention of the daily news in the feed (20’).

Then students report their findings: list the channels covered; news sites and newspapers checked out; where else could the student find the same information (10’).

In the second session, students check other people’s feeds within the same group: how similar and different are they (is there a ‘personal bubble’?)? They should select one or a few news topics and analyse them in more detail: Where is the news originally coming from? Is the social media personality judging/ evaluating/commenting on the news somehow, presenting it in a certain light? (20’ group work – 10’ reporting).

Closing discussion: How does social media serve as a news source? Does it cover significant news? Does it make you go and find more information on certain topics? (20’).

Evaluation

Teachers can evaluate the ways in which students consume news and how they apply thematic hierarchies in doing so.

References for professors
Author

Raine Koskimaa, University of Jyväskylä (Finland), raine.koskimaa@jyu.it

  • Instagram
  • News
  • Snapchat
  • Social Media
  • Video
  • Youtube