News Decoder has been a return to roots for me — a startup with slim financial returns that belie both its social worth and the joy of working with youth. The author is the founder of News Decoder. This month he is turning over management of the educational nonprofit...
Writing should not tie you up in knots. It is no more formal than speaking. Write as you would speak. Think of writing as speaking on paper. (Courtesy of Lansing Community College Library) Two authors taught me how to write. One was British civil servant Sir Ernest...
Marie Colvin started as a journalist writing for a New York trade union. She ended up a war correspondent who changed people’s lives. Medical staff examine Marie Colvin in Colombo’s eye hospital in Sri Lanka, 17 April 2001. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe) A...
Susan Ruel reflects on the life and career of Marie Colvin, an accomplished foreign correspondent killed in Syria in 2012. Colvin reported on major conflicts in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, believing someone has to go there and see what is happening. “She always told the stories of the ordinary men and women who bore the consequences of the power struggles and wars waged by political leaders,” Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Robert Mahoney said. With more journalists murdered or missing this year than in nearly all of 2021, the rights of journalists in war zones cannot be taken for granted.
Exercise: Ask students to discuss how media coverage of war and conflict zones has evolved and what they think accounts for the increased threat against journalists.
How we perceive events like the war in Ukraine depends on our news sources. While never perfect, news media perform invaluable services. Russian President Vladimir Putin appears on a television screen at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany, 25 February 2022....
Are sports stars pampered youth not mature enough to handle wealth and fame? Or do journalists pick on them? The truth is in the middle. Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka attends a press conference in Osaka, Japan, 15 September 2019. (The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP...
I got my start as a news photographer in the analog age. Technology has reshaped the tools of the trade, but human trust remains its watchword. The author’s photo of the Jamaican bobsled team crashing at the 1988 Winter Olympics, as published in the New York...
Many Russians dream of a democratic future. But an onslaught of propaganda shields Vladimir Putin from opponents and obscures the truth. Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during the Victory Day military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the Nazi...
The world is awash in misinformation. But can we rein it in without eroding free speech? Our podcast explores this thorny issue facing our societies. News Decoder · Let's Talk About It This story won second prize in News Decoder’s 12th Storytelling...
Many young people find it difficult to write. They can struggle to convey their thoughts and can get bogged down in convoluted sentences. Our recommendation is to write as though you are explaining an issue to your family over dinner – to keep it simple. That’s one reason a podcast can offer a more natural way to examine an issue, even one as thorny as free speech. In their engaging podcast, Chloe Patricof and Anabella Paige of The Hewitt School speak naturally about a tough topic – misinformation – and turn to the managing editor of a U.S. media company to explore whether government regulation is an answer. Such a conversation can be an alluring way to delve into a knotty issue.
Exercise: Have your students pair up and record a conversation about a polarizing issue in their community, making sure to try to convey the views of all legitimate sides.
While around the world misinformation and lies abound, in Africa, stories transmit morals, acceptable behavior and universal truths. “Anansi the Spider” by Annie Wong (Headexplodie), courtesy of Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. In a time of widespread...
Editors around the world explain how they’re helping kids to understand and cope with the news as Russia invades Ukraine. From News-O-Matic, by a reader named Derin A week before Russia invaded Ukraine, editor Joyce Grant at Canada’s Teaching Kids News conducted...