Networked News: Understanding and Curating Your Digital News Feed Lesson Plan

Journalism & News

Level: Grades 7-12

Duration: 2-3 hours, plus time for the assessment activity 

About the author: Matthew Johnson, Director of Education, MediaSmarts

This lesson plan is part of the Close Reading Media Across the Curriculum program. Funding provided by the Government of Ontario.

This lesson is part of USE, UNDERSTAND & ENGAGE: A Digital Media Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools.

Overview

In this lesson, students will focus on how to understand and actively curate their digital news feeds to counteract the tendency for algorithms or single viewpoints to create a distorted perception of reality. Students begin by defining "news" as a genre and distinguishing its essential elements and tropes from related sub-genres like opinion and documentary. They then do a news audit to analyze their current habits, then learn to verify the reliability of both mainstream and independent journalists. The lesson ends with an independent assignment where they create a persuasive presentation to advocate for a reliable news source to their peers.

Learning outcomes

Key concepts/big ideas: Students will understand…

Media have commercial considerations:

  • Genre expectations (e.g., news vs. opinion) provide an initial guide for how to interpret information, but these can be manipulated

Media have social and political implications:

  • Relying on a single point of view or a curated algorithm can lead to a distorted or incomplete perception of reality.

Digital media experiences are shaped by the tools we use:

  • Consciously curating online news feeds is a vital skill for building a diverse, accurate, and reliable information diet.

Misconceptions to correct: We can be sure that important news will “find” us through our social network feeds

Framework topics: Students will know…

Finding and Verifying:

  • Key indicators of reliability for news sources, including a source’s knowledge, process, and motivation.
  • The "news finds me" attitude and its potential to limit exposure to diverse information.

Consumer Awareness:

  • That news can originate from traditional outlets, wire services, independent journalists, and social media.
  • The distinctions between news reporting, opinion, and analysis as sub-genres.

Key vocabulary: Genre, news, independent journalist, objectivity, transparency

Core Competencies: Students will be able to…

  • Access: Develop a practical plan to actively curate their online news feeds by identifying reliable sources and seeking diverse viewpoints.
  • Understand: Verify the reliability of news sources, including independent journalists, by assessing their knowledge, processes, and motivations for accuracy and transparency.
  • Engage: Apply intellectual humility when consuming news, questioning their own pre-existing beliefs and potential biases.

Student-facing outcomes:

  • We will learn how to tell if news sources are reliable and that news can come from many places like traditional news, independent journalists, or social media.
  • We will think about how important it is to carefully choose our news online because important stories might not just find us.
  • We will make a plan to improve what news we see online by finding trusted sources and always remember to question our own thoughts and feelings when reading news.

This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) is available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.

Lesson Kit