Ask questions, i.e.: "Why do you think that the HCTA selected these
people to join their group?" and/or "What is meant by power and number?"
4. Situation of erecting a monument.
Erecting a Monument
An Exercise in Bureaucracy and Community Service
Suppose that you and a group of your friends have decided that you would like to erect a monument in honor of a kind patron in your community. This friend of young people has contributed much money and time to the development of a local youth center. Find out the process you would have to go through and answer the following questions:
1. Where would you want to put the monument? Why?
2. Whose permission would you have to obtain to put it there? Would you have to go through any government agencies? If so, what questions might they ask you and what would be your answers.
3. How would you gain support (both financial and moral) for your project? Whose support would you want to have?
4. Who will arrange for the purchase of the monument? Is there a local store where you could buy what you need? Would you have to order it from another community?
5. Assuming all went well and the big day came, what kind of ceremony would you have? Who would speak? Who would you invite? Who would be seated in the chairs by the podium?
6. How would you feel after it was all over?
7. If you were writing another plan of action for another class, what steps would you take in your plan of action? Who would you involve and what would their role be?
Teaching Bias in the News: Part I
What every citizen should consider before making a political
stand or decision based on what you see or hear in the media.
Select an article from a local Newspaper. Analyze it carefully to determine if it carries a bias. Feel free to use the procedure for detecting bias as a checklist to guide you in your analysis.
A Procedure For Detecting Bias:
1. Identify clues to look for, including:
* loaded or emotionally charged word
* overgeneralizations
* loaded (rhetorical) questions
* one-sided presentation
2. Search the material line-by-line or piece-by-piece to find evidence of these clues.
3. Determine which and how each piece of evidence connects to the others to identify a pattern or the consistency of the evidence found.
4. State the evidence that supports any pattern found.
5. State any evidence that contradicts a pattern.
6. State any bias found.
Bias in the Media: Part II
I. If you recall, the original task was to show how the media can sometimes show a less than factual picture of an issue depending on the particular bias of the writer, editor, or even community that the media serves. Making decisions based on media information should be carefully considered. In part one, you were asked to read an article from a newspaper and determine the bias of the article. Select a partner that was instructed to do the same. Now select two articles about the same issue, but each of you read a seperate article. The next skill to practice is what to do when you receive conflicting information about the issue you are formulating an opinion about.
Use the articles and your partner to complete the following questions.
Analysis Steps
1. What are the ideas that both articles agree on?
2. What are the ideas that the articles disagree on?
3. What are the issues that are mentioned in only one of the articles?
4. Why do you think that these issues may have been left out of the other article?
5. What does this tell you about the purpose of each article?
6. How do you feel about the issue now that you have explored the media?
