Part #1: Role Play

Divide students into groups of four to six and provide them the following instructions: Pick a certain news network that also does online production. Imagine yourselves as journalists working for this network. You are now in the newsroom with your coworkers, trying to decide which news items to cover on your webpage. Open your Twitter page and find out about the trending topics of your country at the moment. Spend exactly five minutes to do this research and then have a ten-minute discussion about which trending topic you should prioritize to include in the “breaking news” section of the website.

During group discussions, please take into consideration:

·       ethical and political agendas of the certain network you chose,

·       your own ethical and political agendas as journalists,

·       which topic would get the most clicks.

Then, spend five minutes composing the stories you selected for publication on your website.

Part #2: Class Discussion

Reconvene with the class and discuss the following questions: 

1)    How did you decide which stories to choose?

2)    Were there any disagreements? If yes, how did you navigate them?

3)    Were there any challenges? If yes, what were they and how did you manage them?

What did you learn about digital journalism during this exercise?