Journalism professors are concerned with how effectively students understand current news events and engage with mainstream news sources. This essay is based on a survey administered to students in a newswriting course and analyzed the kinds of current news that students followed in weekly assignments designed with a digital, interactive approach. Some outcomes indicated that students' grades improved, breaking news and crime were the stories students followed the most, and students appeared to engage better with news sources through the interactive exercise. This essay also discusses practical implications for educators who are searching for innovative ways to boost media literacy and current news discussions in their classrooms.
This case study focusing on journalism curriculum in Tennessee sheds light on the obstacles that journalism schools face in efforts to include more instruction of sunshine laws into courses. Journalists use these laws to gather information to write their stories, either by attending public meetings or by filing open records requests. This study identified three issues-curriculum structure, faculty background, and ongoing sunshine law developments-as emergent themes that may pose similar concerns for journalism educators elsewhere. Pedagogical recommendations also are offered.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.