2. News Judgment
• Easily the most fundamental skill for
journalism students to learn. What’s the most
important story or piece of information?
• How do you practice and develop it? Follow
the news.
3. Eh, not so interested
• First, news is boring.
Students are not motivated to follow
serious news (politics, national security,
global conflict, etc.).
• Second, they don’t want to read.
Assign them a news site, and they will
still miss the key stories. Why? They
don’t know where to look, or how to
distinguish a story’s relative importance.
4. News is more than that
• News judgment, though, can be executed on
stories of all topics.
• We exercise news judgment on stories involving
sports, entertainment, celebrities.
So why not use news involving those topics to get
them to hone their news judgment chops?
5. Combine the two
• Give them a subject they like and light reading
and maybe they’ll try to follow the news?
6. The assignment
• Each student must choose a person, group or
entity in the news.
• Then, the student must identify 5-10 Twitter
feeds that consistently report on their
particular subject.
7. Follow the follows
• Each week, over the course of a semester,
students will assess the respective Twitter
feeds they’ve chosen.
• How does each feed cover the subject/person
differently?
8. Variables
• Frequency – Indicates how important the
Tweeter feels the subject is to the audience
• Type of news – What kind of news does the
Tweeter Tweet? Only the good stuff? Only the
unflattering? More (or less) of one type?
• Tone – Are the Tweets straight? Edgy?
Sarcastic? Emotional?
• Original info or Retweets? – How does that
impact the student’s trust of the Tweeter?
9. In the end
• Students write a paper detailing the coverage
of their topic through the Twitter-verse.
• Were some Twitter feeds more/less reliable
with information? Why?
• Were some Twitter feeds more/less fair with
their information? How so?
• How did the portrayal of information impact
your perception of the subject? Did it change?
10. The Final Analysis
• Through a subject for which they already have
an incentive to follow closely, students can
monitor how news sources (individual
reporters or entire news outlets) cover a
particular entity.
• Which Twitter feed covered the subject more
accurately? More fairly?
That’s news judgment!
