Elections, misinformation & the news

Overview

PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, in partnership with the Poynter Institute's MediaWise, hosted “Face the Facts: Election 2020 Youth Town Hall.” The virtual event engaged students and first-time voters to be prepared and better informed ahead of the November 2020 elections. The livestream included different segments featuring young people that have been clipped for educators to use separately or all together to guide conversations about civics, elections and the role of young voters in a democratic society.

NewsHour's Amna Nawaz and Hari Sreenivasan join NBC News' Savannah Sellers and Snapchat Host Peter Hamby for a brief discussion on the election, the challenging nature of spotting misinformation, and finding credibility in the news.

Watch the video with students and then answer the discussion questions.

Discussion Questions:

Why do you think show producers chose journalists to talk about elections and misinformation?
In what ways are they experts on these topics?
Based on the conversation, how are this year’s elections going to be different from past years?
How do journalists fact-check?
What advice did the panelists have for young voters?
Did you agree or disagree with anything that the panelists shared? Why or why not?
Do you think journalists play an important role in our democratic society? Why or why not?

Resources

More from Face the Facts:

Young fact-checkers explain how to tell fact from fiction online

Digital Citizenship

Students recognize the responsibilities and opportunities for positively contributing to their digital communities. (ISTE)

Empowered Learner

Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences. (ISTE)

Gathering and Evaluating Sources

Whether students are constructing opinions, explanation, or arguments, they will gather information from a variety of sources and evaluate the relevance of that information. (NCSS D3.1.9-12 - D3.2.9-12)

Demonstrate writing processes used in journalism and broadcasting media.

CCTC AR-JB 2.1: Demonstrate how to cultivate sources for stories.
CCTC AR-JB 2.2: Demonstrate how to obtain information to use in writing a story.
CCTC AR-JB 2.3: Develop written stories for print and broadcast.
CCTC AR-JB 2.4: Demonstrate how photographs support the development of stories.
CCTC AR-JB 2.5: Employ knowledge of the similarities and differences among editorial, feature, and news writing styles.
CCTC AR-JB 2.6: Define the terminology associated with journalism and broadcasting.
CCTC AR-JB 2.7: Develop a complete radio project.
CCTC AR-JB 2.8: Develop a complete television project.

Reading - Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.7: Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” and Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10. 8 (Not applicable to literature)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.9: Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare).

Civic and Political Institutions

In order to act responsibly and effectively, citizens must understand the important institutions of their society and the principles that these institutions are intended to reflect. That requires mastery of a body of knowledge about law, politics, and government. (NCSS D2.Civ.1.9-12 - D2.Civ.6.9-12)

Speaking and Listening - Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.5: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Speaking and Listening - Comprehension and Collaboration

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.2: Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.3: Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.

Face the Facts