Unit One: Can Anything Be News? Reflection

Annotations:

• - compared and contrasted two news articles on the same topic, refugee numbers - analyzed the differences between news articles meant for different audiences - explored the importance of perspective in each article

1. Use existing works and ideas in new ways

   Annotations:

   • I think this assignment connects to one of the ATLs that falls under "creative thinking skills", the idea of using existing works in new ways, because in this assignment I had to compare two articles and analyze them and their ideas (i.e. using them in new ways).
2. Personal expression
3. Style

   Annotations:

   • I connected this assignment to the key concept of "style" because the two articles being compared were, while similar (both were on the subject of refugees), very different in their reporting method (i.e. their style). One of the articles — "Live from Kakuma" — was about a refugee camp and presented the views of many former and current refugees. The other article — "Refugee Numbers Reach Record High" — was about the statistics of refugees and the influx from African countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and Myanmar, and presented mostly statistics instead of the viewpoints of refugees.

Annotations:

• - observe a random scene - write a news article about the scene - use creativity to add details to the story

1. Show details

   Annotations:

   • I connected this assignment to the words "Show details" because in this assignment, I put a lot of emphasis on the details of the story — for instance, the 5 W's and H (who was involved, how it happened, why it happened, etc.), witness statements, and visual imagery. I believe that this helped me strengthen my news piece and made it more professional.
2. How can I take something that happens every day and turn it into a news story?

   Annotations:

   • This is the conceptual inquiry question for our unit. I think my observation newscast was connected to this question because in this assignment, I had to observe the street outside and pick a completely ordinary-looking motorcycle to write a news piece about. Thus I turned something everyday into something worthy of writing news about.
3. Use appropriate forms of writing

   Annotations:

   • I connected my observation newscast to this part of the Communication Skills ATL because in this assignment, I was technically writing a story (creative writing about people I saw on the street). However, my "story" had to be written professionally, including many quotes, descriptions, etc., so that it sounded more "appropriate" for a news story.

Annotations:

• - annotated different professional news stories using KAMI - analyzed the elements and format (TIEA) of each story - studied in detail what makes up a news story and how to make our own stories more professional

1. SOI: News stories can be communicated for multiple purposes with a specific style for journalism

   Annotations:

   • I connected my KAMI annotation to the SOI (Statement of Inquiry) of this unit because the two articles I annotated had many similarities in their topics and facts, but also many differences in their journalism style and purpose. As I stated above in the connections for "purpose", the two articles are very different in how and why they approach the same topic (one generates sympathy for refugees by using witness quotes, the other informs the audience about refugee statistics through usage of numbers). As for journalism style, I linked this to "purpose": the style of the first article is very warm, with many inspirational statements and quotes, and addresses the audience directly; the style of the second article is rather impersonal, stating the bare statistics and facts.
2. Gather and communicate information
3. Purpose

   Annotations:

   • I connected this assignment to the key concept of "purpose" because in both of the two articles I annotated in KAMI, I had to analyze the purpose of the article (to inform, generate sympathy, entertain, or something else?). For example, I underlined different elements of each news story which I thought gave clues to their purpose: quotes (which were mostly in the first story) gave the audience a better understanding of the topic from a few different perspectives, so it would generate sympathy; statistics (which were mostly in the second story) were very helpful in writing a report but not in helping the audience understand the situation, so the article had more of an informational purpose.
   • I connected this assignment to the key concept of "purpose" because in both of the two articles I annotated in KAMI, I had to analyze the purpose of the article (to inform, generate sympathy, or something else?). For example, I 

Annotations:

• - created our own video based on true events in community - explored the difference between written and spoken news - a more modern and extremely visual approach to news

1. Communication

   Annotations:

   • The video part of this assignment was very clearly related to the concept of "communication", I believe more so than all other assignments. This is because it uses both visual and audio details (visual: the images, footage, and newscaster; audio: the newscaster's speech and the interviews). Because of this, the newscast was able to communicate with the audience well and transmit information clearly.
2. Cultural Expression

   Annotations:

   • I connected my summative news story and newscast to cultural expression, because both of the stories we included in the newscast — Taiwan considering making English an official language, and Taiwanese badminton champion Tai Tzu-Ying's recent victory in the Asian Games 2018 — are about Taiwan. Therefore, our newscast connected to Taiwanese culture in many ways.
3. What constitutes a news story?

   Annotations:

   • This is the factual inquiry question for our unit. I connected the newscast part of our assignment to this because in my newscast, we had to piece together a lot of different elements to make the video seem professional. For example, we included images, interviews, a bit of footage, and my voiceovers. I was also able to connect my news article to this question, because I used many sources and websites in my article. I also used many quotes, both from the subject of the article and from the people I knew.