This document discusses using mass media in the English classroom to improve language learning. It provides several benefits such as exposing students to current information, new vocabulary, and discussion opportunities. The document defines mass media and provides examples like newspapers and online news. It also offers suggestions for classroom activities focused on media analysis, such as identifying biases in articles, discussing the role of journalists, and writing news stories. Teachers are encouraged to help students understand differences between hard news, features, and opinions in mass media.

1. Using Mass Media in the
Classroom
Spring School
English Teaching Resource Center
Chisinau
March 5, 2012
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2. Newspapers &
Mass Media
For Text Analysis and Language
Learning
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3. Why use mass media
messages?
Current information
Cultural information
New vocabulary
New stylistics
Satisfaction as a language learner
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4. Connecting with
Students
• Wide range of material for students’ wide
range of interests
• Chance to understand students
• Increased participation
• Relatable material
• Discussion/debate opportunities
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5. What is mass media?
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6. 6

7. Mass Media=Connection
• Young Moldovans interested in global
engagement
• Opportunity to connect with people across
the world
• Various fora for discussion, debate and
sharing
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8. Where to begin?
• Introduce students to standard differences
• Solicit topics of interest
• Don’t underestimate the value of certain
themes
• Plan an introductory lesson to acquaint
students with ideas of mass media
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9. Journalistic vs. Literary
Writing
Past Tense
Minimize!
• Less capitalization
• Less punctuation
• Shorter paragraphs
• Internationally standard?
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10. Newspaper Articles
6 Sections Online News Today
O
L Headline
D New York Times
Byline ■Headline
■Byline
S Dateline
■Created date (no time)
■Content
C ■Dateline
H Lead ■Entities (inline)
■Contributor declaration
O ■Related Stories/Past Coverage
Content/body
O
L Conclusion/Author Contribution
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11. Inverted Pyramid
Most Important
Somewhat
Important
Fluff
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12. News Values
• Impact
• Timeliness
• Prominence
• Proximity
• Bizarreness/Oddity
• Conflict
• Currency
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13. Types of News Articles
Hard News
Feature Stories
Opinion Pieces
Columns
Editorials
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14. Where does the news
come from?
• Naturally occurring events, like disasters and
accidents
• Planned activities, like meetings and news
conferences
• Reporter’s enterprise
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15. Points for Discussion
• The role of the journalist
• Objectivity and fairness
• Bias
• News providers
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16. Suggested Activities
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17. Ongoing Project Ideas
• Journal
• Giving each student a
“beat”
• Giving each student a
publication or two to
follow
• Group writing
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18. Analysis Activities
• Practice answering the 5 W’s and H questions
• Provide an article
• Provide students with the Ws and H, along with several
variations of these questions
• Bias identification
• Provide two articles from different sources discussing
the same issue
• How do they differ? Can students identify forms of bias?
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19. Discussion Activities
• Seminar Discussion
• Students must bring 2-3 discussion questions
• Article Presentation
• Students choose vocabulary words for the class
and summarize the article’s content
• Each student required to ask at least one
question
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20. Writing Activities
• Summarizing-essential for succinct writing
• Article writing
• Begin with leads, then gradually work to
full articles
• Work through the writing process
• Observation, research, sources,
interviews, fact-checking
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21. Identifying News Values
• In your group, go down the list of news values
and see if the article contains one or more of
these values. State why or why not.
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22. Ws and H
• Who is involved in this story? Who is affected by it? Who is the best
person to tell the story?
• What happened? What is the point of this story? What is the writer
trying to say?
• Where did this happen? Where else could I go to get the full story?
• When did this happen? When did the turning points occur in the story?
• Why is this happening? Is it an isolated case or part of a trend? Why
are people behaving the way they are?
• How did this happen? How will things be different because of what
happened?
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23. Summarize!
• Work in groups to summarize your stories.
What are the most crucial elements?
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24. Advantages Disadvantages
• Exposure to • Difficult to entertain
otherwise potentially all students’
ignored topics interests
• Accessibility • Frustration with
vocabulary and style
• Linguistic exercise
• Intimidating material
• Group or individual
opportunities
• Real world practice
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25. Thank you!
Questions/Comments?
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