Framing the News
Remind students of the key concept that media have social and political implications. Explain to students that word choice is a good example of how news (and other media) can be framed in a way that affects how we understand it.
Have students navigate to the student chapter Framing the News and either have them go through the interactive activity or go through it together as a class.
Remind students of the key concept the each medium has a unique aesthetic form and discuss the “inverted pyramid” described in the activity to understand how where in a story something appears that might affect how a story is read.
Point out that TV and radio newscasts are written in the same way, but because time is so much more precious on TV the background and context that form the “bottom” of the pyramid is often left out.
Ask students: How might the “inverted pyramid” apply to getting news online?
The equivalent of the headline and lede might be seeing the title of a video on a news story or seeing other people talking about it.
The equivalent of the nut graf might be watching a short video on the news story.
The equivalent of the body would be watching a video or reading an article from a professional news outlet.
Ask them which forms of framing might have a bigger of smaller effect on how we understand a news story,
For instance, framing by word choice or headline change how we interpret a story, but framing by selection and omission affect what — and who — are actually in a story.