What is News?

Start by asking students whether or not they read a newspaper, watch or listen to TV or radio news, or regularly visit an online news source. For those who do, ask which outlets they read, watch or listen to. For those that don’t, ask: Where do you get your news?

Tell students that most young Canadians are likely to say they heard about a news story because somebody shared it with them on social media, and feel that news will “find them” if it’s important.

At the same time, Canadians are almost three times as likely to say they trust traditional news sources (newspapers, TV/radio news, and their online outlets) as to trust information that comes to them through social media.

Ask students: Why might people feel that news outlets are more trustworthy than social media as a source for news?

After students have discussed this for a few minutes, have them access the student chapter Reliable News. 

Go  through it with the class, asking students what they think is involved in each of the headings before expanding them.

When you have finished reading it, ask students: How can you find out if a news outlet does the things that make it a reliable source of news?

Possible answers:

• Look to see if they’ve posted their standards and processes;
• look to see if their corrections are easy to find;
• look to see if they keep news and opinion articles separate, and don’t mix news and opinion in the same article.

Ask students if they have ever done a similar exercise, in class or elsewhere. If so, ask them to reflect on what has changed since the last time they did.