When educators are asked in my workshops, what the main goal of a media concern is, they generally answer “to inform”. For those of us who think in terms of author’s purpose, what other answer could there be, right? Usually, after a little prompting, someone comes up with “to make money”. We all want to pay our bills, so this is not an indictment. But it does mean that the stories that sell are the stories that get pushed. Bad news sells. Now, that is an indictment–for humanity. We buy bad news so we get more bad news. And if your bad news is biased (which it almost always is), that’s bad news for people on your campus who may be consuming their bad news from other outlets.
Helping Students to Navigate Difficult World Happenings
How can we help our students to navigate difficult topics if we are against some of them? How can they all be our students if we are against some of them? How can we work and play well with others if the morning news cycle has us mad at “others” as we pull into the parking lot?
Mental health PSA: Consume less news, it’s healthy and it’s an easy way to feel less stressed. Next, as you consume less media, be aware that you are getting a balanced diet and not consuming whatever the algorithm and your clickbait friends feed you. Here’s AllSides Media, a site that can help with that. And if you’d like a course on how you can use this resource with your staff and students,