In the modern world, we are constantly being bombarded with information from so many different sources. When the first newspapers hit the US, their creators could never have fathomed how much the news industry would change over the coming centuries. Currently, you can get your information from newspapers, the Internet, the television, your phone, your tablet, tickers on the sides of city skyscrapers, and much more. However, it is important to look at the most basic form of news consumption: a published newspaper.
There is something to be said about the experience of physically reading the newspaper. The turning of the pages, the placement of photographs, and the idea that everything deemed important or “newsworthy” is in one place, on the page, staring right back at you. A newspaper reader develops habits, preferences, and talents for digesting the news that are much different than the person who points and clicks, or checks a tweet.
This class is called “Journalism”, but perhaps a more appropriate name for it would be “News Value and News Writing”. By the end of this class, you will know what the purpose of a newspaper is, the value of the news, and what items are truly newsworthy. Because you are also all now staff of the school newspaper, The Communiqué, you will be learning the techniques and practices that are necessary for producing your own student newspaper.
“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” ~Thomas Jefferson