Exercise 2: Be the journalist

Duration: ca. 45 minutes

 

Goal: Enable students to share the experience of being a journalist covering an attack and not having much confirmed information.

 

Method(s): analysis of available data; writing from a perspective of a journalist

 

Materials: set of information and guiding questions

 

Instruction for the teacher: Provide students with instructions for the exercise (background story and description of their duties) and guide them throughout the task if needed.

 

Description of a task to the students:

 

It is Monday morning. On Saturday, several places of worship in a neighbouring country were attacked. Information is limited. What is known is that the attacks were organised by a neo-Nazi group and that ten people were killed and many more wounded in the attacked synagogues and mosques. Several accounts on Facebook and Instagram have shared videos of the attacks but neither the government, nor the police have confirmed the number of victims. Your duty is to write a short fact-based overview article (200-300 words) about the events for a major newspaper. Since the text will read by a lot of people, it should be informative but contain only those information that is confirmed.

 

The confirmed facts:

• The attacks were carried out on Saturday.
• The attacks took place in several places of worship in a neighbouring country (synagogues and mosques).
• The attack was organized by a neo-Nazi group.

 

Remember that you do not have detailed knowledge about what synagogues and mosques were targeted and about the group that carried out the attacks.

 

Read through the facts, the description of the task and then write 200-300 word article about the events. Before writing the article, think about the following questions:

• What is the information that you have access to?
• How large part of this information consists of facts? How much of what you know is rumours and opinions?
• How to get access to confirmed facts?
• How the victims of the attacks may see it?
• How the members of the attacking group may see it?
• How do you see it?

 

Tips for teacher:

• Discuss the writing experience with fellow students. Write down the main take-aways of yours and of the fellow students. Then, go through the following questions:
• What were the dilemmas you were facing regarding finding reliable data?
• Did you have enough data to write an informative fact-based article?
• In case you were missing some data, what was it?
• Read your article as a loved one of somebody who was affected by the attacks. What would be your opinion about the article? Explain your thought processes to others.
• Should the journalists consider the victims of the attacks while writing? Explain your thought process to others.