News Reporting

First Amendment Rights and News Reporting  Essential Questions:  Who publishes news?  How and why is the news chosen?  Who decides it is news? How?  Does anyone control the news?

Discussion  Who publishes news?  (HINT: think about last class)  Would who reports and who owns the reporting station affect the news?

Discussion continued….  How and why is the news chosen?  If you send an to family members telling them about what you did last weekend, is that publishing information?  if you put up a post on MySpace, Facebook or a Web site giving your opinion on a movie you saw last week, is that publishing information?  FACT  FACT: Any time anyone shares information with anyone else, he/she is publishing news because we all are publishers.

Congratulations….  You are a publisher!  Do you know about the freedom of the press?  This is 1 of 5 first amendment freedoms guaranteed to ALL Americans and everyone in this country  What does “freedom of the press” mean?

Work in Pair – 16 min. to Completed 8 minutes until you switch roles with your partner!

Discussion & Sharing  After your interview experience, what are some insights about news reporting do you have?  What if we were not free to publish information?

Newsuem  Five Freedoms  Freedom of the Press and…..  blog-proclaiming-the-five-freedoms.html blog-proclaiming-the-five-freedoms.html

5 Freedoms handouthandout

The Five Freedoms  Religion  Choose my own religion.  Go to a church of my own choosing.  Be free from paying taxes to support a church I don’t believe in.

The Five Freedoms  Speech  Share my ideas with others.  Say what I believe about political issues.  Criticize leaders or government policies.

The Five Freedoms  Press  Write letters to the editor.  Work on my school newspaper or one day become a reporter.  Start my own Web site, Facebook or MySpace page, or blog in which I share my opinion on issues in my school or community.

The Five Freedoms  Assembly  Gather with people who agree with me for demonstrations on public property.  Attend community meetings.  Join private clubs and other voluntary organizations (and they can choose to exclude certain members).

The Five Freedoms  Petition  Circulate a petition on an issue I care about.  Sign a petition.  Write letters to officials and government leaders.

You have to eliminate 1 freedom!!!!  Place one of your 4 sticky notes on the freedom you would eliminate

Only 1 freedom is left!  Do you agree that this right is the most important freedom?  Why or why not?  Would it still be a useful right?  How would people exercise it?  Would people exercising this right have to do anything differently if they didn’t have the other four?

Discussion  If you only had freedom of ______, would the events/ achievements below have been/be possible?  Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the National Mall  Women gaining the right to vote  An all-night prayer vigil in memory of a fallen soldier  The creation of a Web site that details the sources of politicians’ campaign contributions

Bill of Rights  Our Founding Fathers had debates over having a Bill of Rights  How different might our country be today if we hadn’t made a list of rights to protect?  Do they think we would still have those rights if they weren’t listed in the Constitution?

Sum it up…  Are there any rights you think our Founding Fathers forgot to put in the Bill of Rights or the First Amendment?  What would you add if you had been writing this document 200 years ago?  Is there anything you would add today that they didn’t foresee?

Essential Question?  Who publishes news?