How Adolescents Advance Intellectual Curiosity, Collaboration, and Civic Engagement By Learning to Create Broadcast News

• In Event: Youth Engagement With Media: Sharing, Synthesis, and Social Capital

Abstract

Media production skills include gathering, evaluating and synthesizing information, using digital media to compose messages, and engaging in cycles of revision and feedback. Using the paradigm of participatory action research, with the goal of creating usable evidence that improves practice, we looked at 544 high school students from 38 U.S. schools who participated in Student Reporting Labs, a media literacy initiative developed by PBS News Hour, where students work collaboratively to understand and analyze journalistic conventions, supported by a teacher and a mentor from the local public broadcasting station. Results of a pre-post online questionnaire show that students differentially engage in different types of media production activities in the classroom. The practice of gathering, evaluating and synthesizing information is associated increased intellectual curiosity, confidence in giving and receiving feedback, greater levels of news analysis skills and increased intent to engage in civic action.

Authors

• Renee Hobbs, University of Rhode Island

• Katie Donnelly, U of Rhode Island