The Mass Media


Civics Citizen Participation and Government The Mass Media
Students explore the role of mass media in politics, including the types of media and factors that affect coverage. They learn about important ways to make choices about the news they consume, and they consider their own responsibility as consumers. Finally, they create their own piece of media that conveys their opinion about media and consumer responsibility.

This learning experience is designed for device-enabled classrooms. The teacher guides the lesson, and students use embedded resources, social media skills, and critical thinking skills to actively participate. To get access to a free version of the complete lesson, sign up for an exploros account.

1:1 Devices
Teacher Pack

The Pack contains associated resources for the learning experience, typically in the form of articles and videos. There is a teacher Pack (with only teacher information) and a student Pack (which contains only student information). As a teacher, you can toggle between both to see everything.

Here are the teacher pack items for The Mass Media:

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Overview

In this experience, students explore the role of mass media in politics, including types of media and factors that affect coverage. Then they learn ways to make choices about the news they consume. Finally, they evaluate a news article and rate its reliability and any bias in its approach.

Objectives

  • Describe the types of mass media, including their strengths and weaknesses as news sources.
  • Identify types of bias in media news coverage.
  • Analyze bias in a news story.


You log onto a news site on the Internet and read a headline in huge letters: “Emergency: Government Fails!” You start to freak out, but before doing that, you take a deep breath and evaluate your news source. You realize that the source is known for sensational exaggeration. In this experience, you will learn more about mass media, how to evaluate it, and its role in politics.

Objectives

  • Describe the types of mass media, including their strengths and weaknesses as news sources.
  • Identify types of bias in media news coverage.
  • Analyze bias in a news story.


portrait

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)


Mark Twain is often credited with saying: 


“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”


What do you think this statement means?

Post your answer

Discuss student responses as a class. Ask them to consider what makes it so much harder to spread truth than lies. Set the stage for an exploration of the role of mass media in the rest of the experience.


When everyone is ready to continue, unlock the next scene.

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