by Norma Hilton | 24 Nov 2023 | Educators' Catalog, Journalism, News Decoder Tips, News Photography
Photojournalists tell stories through images. To do that they have to get into the thick of it. A man is arrested during the protests against the government of President Dina Boluarte in Lima, Peru on 4 February 2023. Credit: Alfonso Silva-Santisteban. This article...
Telling stories through photos doesn’t require an expensive camera and decades of experience. Students can be photojournalists too — so long as they’re prepared and know what makes an effective photo. In this piece, correspondent Norma Hilton covers tips for capturing news with a camera, while staying safe.
Exercise: Read the article with your class, then have students compile a list of photojournalism tips from the text. With these tips in mind, students will then go out into the local community to take photos of a newsworthy event (e.g. a student rally, school football game, mayoral debate, city council meeting, etc.). Can students capture an effective photo that tells a story? As an extension of this exercise, students can put together a photo essay and pitch their story to us for a chance to be published on our global news site.
by Norma Hilton | 17 Oct 2023 | Journalism, Media Literacy, Middle East
We grab for news when events turn tragic and frightening. But we don’t think about the journalists who stayed put amid the mayhem to bring us that news. A camera catches the pepper spraying by police of a journalist covering protests in Hong Kong in 2014....
by Norma Hilton | 8 Sep 2023 | Asia, Human Rights
Six years after Rohingya fled genocide in Myanmar, a million are still living in a state of legal limbo in Bangladesh. The world seems not to care. Rohingya camps in Bangladesh. Photo by Norma Hilton. This article was produced exclusively for News Decoder’s global...
by Norma Hilton | 3 Aug 2023 | Educators' Catalog, Journalism, Media Literacy
Making sure that information is true isn’t easy. Our correspondent takes you through the arduous process of fact-checking a news story. Illustration by Ana Schwartz for News Decoder When I first started out in journalism as a 17-year-old, I had never heard of...
Correspondent Norma Hilton models the process of fact-checking in this important article for students and adults alike. In a world inundated with instantaneous information at our fingertips, knowing how to distinguish fact from fiction is ever-critical.
Exercise: After reading the article, have students dissect the fact-checking process modeled in the text. Prompt a class discussion on what the process looks like in practice, step-by-step. Did anything about the process surprise them? Then, in pairs, students should fact-check a short news text (either one they’ve selected or one you provide to them). Which sources should they examine to confirm that the text is credible?
by Norma Hilton | 17 Jan 2023 | Health and Wellness, Journalism, University of Toronto Journalism Fellows
Journalists who shine the light on the world’s trouble spots often keep their own troubles to themselves. And that’s a problem. A camera catches the pepper spraying by police of a journalist covering protests in Hong Kong in 2014. Credit: Mongkok under a...
