“Teaching students to
read through and about the newspaper better prepares them to be educated
citizens. We believe that an active
sense of citizenship entails being critical of how news is received and used in
society. Developing the practice of
critically reading the newspaper fosters not only newspaper reading skills that
are useful to citizens but also general practices that allow citizens to
discern the world around them and act accordingly.”
Segall, A. & Schmidt,
S. (2006, May/June). Reading the
newspaper as a social text. The Social
Studies. 91-99.
Avner Segall and Sandra Schmidt critically discuss society’s
use of newspapers as a source of informational media and how students should be
taught to read newspapers as a way to learn about their world around them. Segall and Schmitt begin their article by
stating, “media texts act as social texts” (2006, p. 91). This statement begins the authors’ discussion
of the use of media in order to further social constructions and ideological
beliefs. By understanding that media
plays an important part in an individuals construction of what society is and
how an individual fits within society, students to begin to perceive that
newspapers are not purely objective sources.
Under the guise of objective and/or scientific language, newspapers have
a profound influence on how people perceive issues, events, themselves and
others. It is for this reason that
Segall and Schmidt offer strategies to encourage students to engage newspaper
in a deconstructive way. “Many students
are inclined to believe that the newspaper reflects rather than creates the
news and that what appears on the newspaper’s front page by definition
constitutes the most important world events of the previous day” (Segall and
Schmidt, 2006, p. 93). If students
continue to read and engage with media in this way, they will be left with the
beliefs and constructions held by the newspaper in lieu of a critically reached
viewpoint gathered by scrutinizing media coverage. Segall and Schmidt offer that teachers should
teach students to be aware of messages written “between the lines” of
newspapers. It is their believe that by
encouraging students to critically engage with media such as newspapers, students
will be active and informed citizens. Segall and Schmidt state in their concluding
paragraph, “Developing the practice of critically reading the newspaper fosters
not only newspaper reading skills that are useful for citizens but also general
practices that allow citizens to discern the world around them and to act
accordingly” (2006, p. 98).
Two weeks ago, we discussed Journell’s 2010, article on
citizen types and I couldn’t help by consider the Segall and Schmidt article
with Journell’s citizen types in mind.
In my own reflection on citizenship, I believe a citizen should
participate actively and positively in society. My belief of what constitutes a good citizen aligns most closely with Journell's deliberative, social justice, and participatory forms of citizenship. I believe the best way to encourage people to participate is to
encourage the questioning of the status quo.
Through questioning, as we learned in our methods class, the human brain
learns. Therefore, I agree with Segall
and Schmidt that we, as Social Studies teachers, should encourage students to
question the information that is presented to them as fact. However, teachers have a responsibility to
teach students how to go about questioning sources such as textbooks and
newspapers in a constructive and meaningful way. Segall and Schmidt’s article offers strategies
to encourage students to consider language, placement of stories, audience,
what groups are heard/not heard and agency when reading newspapers. Newspapers being a common method of
disseminating current information are often seen as objective sources of facts.
Therefore, newspapers have the ability to exert a great amount of influence on
the unquestioning reader. However,
unquestioning citizens do not always lead the most prosperous democratic societies. Change and improvement are often sparked by
questions, discourse and the need to improve.
Therefore, by teaching students to question the very avenue in which
information is disseminated helps to grow students’ questioning skills
regarding their intake of information from the world around them. This skill then can be encourage students to question
and deliberate information they hear in the State of the Union address,
watching a documentary, or even when reading scholarly works.
Journell W. (2010, April). Standardizing citizenship: the potential influence of state curriculum standards on the civic development of adolescents. The Teacher. 351-358.
