Advocacy Through The Media And Nonprofits
To help students understand how to use their voices to advocate for causes about which they care.
Students will hear the story of someone who advocates for a cause.
PowerPoint presentation(s) of guest speaker(s).
Teacher identifies and invites outside speaker(s) with personal experience in the media and nonprofit organizations that advocate for a cause; the speaker(s) create and make a presentation to students.
Nonprofit organization, advocacy, media, social injustice, civil rights, social change
Discussion provides the best reflection. Students are also asked to do a written reflection about what they learned.
Instructions
PowerPoint presentations are delivered by advocacy and media representatives, followed by class discussion with the students. Summaries of the presentations follow.
“What can you do to help?” Nobel Project representative Joy DiBenedetto of Friendship Force speaks to the students about her previous experience as a CNN reporter and now as a founder of the Friendship Force, an international advocacy organization.
“How do you get your voice heard in a noisy world?” Georgia Public Broadcasting reporter Martha Dalton provides advice to students about this question and addresses the following:
- Why does the media pick up certain stories and not others? Who chooses what to cover and stories are chosen?
- What is the role of the media in exposing social injustice?
- Why is it important for the media not to advocate one way or the other for particular causes? What does it look like when the media advocates for a cause?
- What are examples of issues and stories to which the media has brought attention that were then acted upon by advocates of social change?
- How can the media help make a difference and affect change?
- How can youth have a voice in the media and make a difference?