Teach Public Interest Communication

Please describe any classroom activities you feel would be helpful to include in a public interest communications curriculum.

Here is a write-up about running simulations in the classroom – Bafa Bafa is about cultural differences and Star Power is about the use and abuse of power. They have primary lessons in social science (cultural lens and abuse of power) but have clear takeaways for PIC. Students have responded and rated these simulations the highest of any activity I’ve done (and highest when others ran them, not me): https://teachingdatabase.humanrights.uconn.edu/2019/01/24/simulating-in-the-classroom-part-i/#

Materials and resources highlighting public interest communications concepts and frameworks: https://teach.publicinterestcommunications.org/for-educators/readings/

Sample syllabi: https://teach.publicinterestcommunications.org/for-educators/sample-syllabi/

In-class exercises:

For inspiration 

Find short videos of youth activists talking about why they are engaged in making change and how they got into it. Show the video in the classroom and give students prompts to start a discussion. Prompts could include: What surprised you? Have you met any changemakers like that? What questions do you have? 

The idea is to show students that people their age and younger have made a positive difference in the world, and for them to realize that they can create positive change too. 

Alternately, you can assign it as homework and have them write answers to the prompts, then discuss their answers in class.  

For critical thinking about social issues

1. Pick an issue you care about and find an organization working on that issue.
2. Identify the main points the organization makes about the problem. How accurate are the statements? Conduct research to determine their accuracy, and provide the sources you use to make your determination.  
3. Identify the solution the organization is promoting. 
4. Identify the main points the organization makes about that solution. Again, conduct research to determine the accuracy of the statements.
5. Now, find an organization or people that oppose the proposed solution. 
6. Identify the main points they make. 
7. How accurate are those points? Conduct research and cite your sources in your assessment.  

Discuss students’ findings in class.

For learning about the importance of words in framing

1. Find two news stories that present the same event or news differently. 
2. What are the differences? 
3. What words highlight those differences?
4. Identify the dominant frames presented in the news stories.
5. How do the frames differ?

 Have students share their findings in pairs, then with the class.

For learning about the importance of tailoring messages for different worldviews and values.

1. Before class, find a public interest communications campaign that uses different messages for different actors (aka audiences). For instance, an action alert in a social media post (which is for supporters) should use different language than the press release (which is for reporters), and both should use different language than a letter to lawmakers.
2. Give your students the link to the campaign website. Ask them to examine messaging around the campaign on the website and on social media, and ask them to look for differences in language. 
3. Ask them what differences they notice. Why is the language different? Who is it geared for? Discuss.

 For making people care about big issues:

1. Have students read these articles: 1) The Arithmetic of Compassion. (n.d.). Psychic Numbing. https://www.arithmeticofcompassion.org/psychic-numbing and 2) The Arithmetic of Compassion. (n.d.) Pseudoinefficacy. https://www.arithmeticofcompassion.org/pseudoinefficacy 
2. Ask students to identify examples of two types of content: 1) messaging that makes people care about big issues and 2) messaging that doesn’t. 
3. Answer the following questions:
   1. What about the content makes them effective or ineffective?
   2. What would you do differently?

Exercises to cultivate empathy (From The Journalism Behind Journalism)

Find a hard news or feature story that goes in depth on an issue – such as education; health care; technology; business; climate; transportation; or school, city, or county budgets. Read, watch, or listen, and answer the following questions: 

1. How does empathy play a role in this piece of coverage?
   1. If you do not detect empathy, explain how you do not. 
2. Based on the journalist’s descriptions of people, places, and circumstances, what types of empathy might they have employed in the process of reporting and writing this story (i.e. cognitive, behavioral, affective)? 
3. Does the story leave you feeling empowered to help? Or, does it leave you feeling powerless or overwhelmed? Describe your reaction and why you think you’re having such a reaction. 

Choose a news story from the past two weeks that involves someone who took an action or exhibited a behavior that you neither understand nor relate to. 

1. Write down all the reasons you can think of as to why the person may have taken these actions or engaged in this behavior.
   1. Include sarcastic reasons, skeptical reasons, but also challenge yourself to include reasons that you would not define as evil or selfish. Truly engage in the mental exercise of allowing this subject to have humanity. 
   2. NOTE: You do not have to agree with these reasons – simply acknowledge that they could have been motivating factors for this individual. 
2. From your list, choose one of your reasons, and answer the following questions:
   1. Why did you choose this reason? 
   2. How does this reason reflect on the individual? 
   3. How does this reason reflect upon the societal or systemic context? 
   4. What consequences (if any) should the individual face, given the reason you chose? 
   5. How might the audience feel after reading your story (i.e. powerless, empowered, disgusted, motivated, etc.)? 

Go to a public place and observe the people around you. Choose one person and imagine that you and this person have switched places in life. Imagine what your life is like as this person. Answer the following questions about you as this person, as well as others that occur to you, and write up a one- to two-page summary of who you are and what’s important to you.

1. Why are you in this location? 
2. Why are you wearing the clothes you’re wearing? 
3. If you’re with anyone, who? 
4. Where did you just come from? 
5. Where are you going after this? 
6. Where do you live? With whom? 
7. What do you do for a living? 
8. Where do you see yourself in five years? 
9. What is your name? 
10. Etc. 

Exercises to Address Unconscious Bias (From The Journalism Behind Journalism)

Building your rolodex: 

1. Choose a beat. 
2. Then, create a list of at least ten sources related to that beat in your local community, using the following steps:
   1. Brainstorm and write down any names or titles you think should be on your list. 
   2. Do some research to identify sources whose names or titles you may not have known as you brainstormed. 
   3. Assess your initial list through the context of bias.
      1. Are your listed sources all from official outlets? 
      2. Which perspectives/voices are missing? 
      3. What about race, ethnicity, gender, ability, socio-economic status? Are these perspectives represented? 
3. Address the gaps you identified in your list by researching and adding additional sources who can provide differing perspectives. 

Visit Mismatch.org, a site that facilitates conversations with people across socially salient differences, such as political leaning or disparate viewpoints on major issues (will need instructor coordination). 

1. Choose a conversation guide. 
2. Set up conversations through the platform (could be with students at your own school or at a school in another part of the country or world). 
3. Before the conversation, write down:
   1. How you expect the conversation to go. 
   2. How you’re feeling about having the conversation. 
   3. What your assumptions are about the person you are paired to speak with. 
4. After the conversation:
   1. Discuss how the conversation went for you.
      1. How did the conversation compare with your expectations? 
      2. How did your paired partner compare with your assumptions? 
      3. What did you learn about your biases? 
      4. How do you feel after having the conversation? 
      5. Has your thinking about the bias you discussed changed after the conversation? How? 

Exercises to speak to multiple communities  (From The Journalism Behind Journalism)

Explore a resource or article on ConsciousStyleGuide.com, and answer the following questions: 

1. Which resource or article did you choose? 
2. What were three primary takeaways from the resource? 
3. How can you apply this resource to your journalistic writing? 

Systems thinking: Choose an issue on your campus or in your local community, such as homeless encampments, tuition fee increases, poorly performing schools, a high-crime area, flu season, or anything else of interest to you. Apply a systems journalism approach to your research. 

1. Answer:
   1. Basic info
      1. What is the event or incident prompting initial coverage? 
      2. Who is being affected by this issue? 
      3. Who is involved in creating the issue? 
      4. What are the perspectives each side brings? Which are relevant?
2. Research
   1. What are the trends over time related to this story? 
   2. What has been happening over time? Getting worse? Better? 
3. Then, answer the following questions:
   1. What has influenced these patterns? 
   2. What are the relationships between the elements involved? 
   3. How do interconnected policies, structures, and power dynamics fuel or maintain the patterns? 
4. Finally, answer:
   1. Why is the system structured this way? 
   2. What assumptions, beliefs, experiences, values, and worldviews do people hold – in the newsroom? In the community? Among those affected? 
   3. What beliefs and assumptions have kept the systems in place? 

(The information found at  systems.journalismdesign.com/tools can help guide your work)