PARTICIPATE
PARTICIPATING IN A CONNECTED WORLD:
EXPLORING CIVIC ISSUES, DISCOVERING CIVIC INTERESTS
QUESTION two:
What civic issues do you hear people in your community talking about most?
Activity #2: Exploring Civic Issues in the News and in Your Networks
(30 min)
Step 1: Scan Your News Sources
Ask students to look at today’s headlines in local print newspaper, watch/listen to local news, scan online local news sites.
-
What civic issues are featured in the top news stories?
-
What civic issues are discussed but are given less space, time, and attention?
-
Are there any issues being reported on that you’d be curious to learn more about? What more would you like to learn?
-
What challenges might you encounter (or have you encountered) as you try to learn about this issue?
Step 2: Scan Your Networks
Ask students to look at their news feeds on their favorite social media sites. They should look across the posts from a single day or across several hours if they have a very active feed. (If some students are not an active social media users, ask them to pair up with someone who is active on a social media site.)
Invite them to explore the following questions:
-
What are the topics or civic issues represented across the posts? Make a list of the issues you see represented in what people post - including posts that contain news articles/links in addition to original posts (status updates, tweets, etc.) in which a person is sharing an idea or perspective about an issue.
-
Are there any issues being raised or discussed on social media that you’d be curious to learn more about? What more would you like to learn?
-
What challenges might you encounter (or have you encountered) as you try to learn about this issue?