MEDIA SKILLS FOR ADULTS

Navigating Migration News

Knowledge and self-learning materials

These assignments will help you to identify the most common biases in migration news coverage and provide you with the knowledge and practical news navigation tools. Materials will also help you to understand why responsible coverage and fair migration narratives matter. These self-learning materials are primarily made to support the English teachers and teachers working with migrants, to better navigate the migration news and to support their adult pupils to do the same. These assignments can be used in the class with pupils, but we recommend you to do them first yourself.

  • Adults

    The primary target group of these self-learning materials are the English teachers, teachers working with migrants, and adult learners in the higher education and non-formal learning organizations.

  • Individual assigments

    The material is designed for self-learning. Some of the assignments can be adapted to small-group assignments, if used in the class.

  • Level B1-B2

    The content is not academic and uses mainly general expressions, but also specific vocabulary and concepts that are commonly used in English language media when covering migration.

  • Duration 10-90 minutes

    The duration depends a lot on how much time you have to use for different tasks. If you just wish to do the quiz and watch the video, you can do it in less than 10 minutes, but we highly recommend taking some time for answering to the questions, analysis, and self-reflection.

Let’s start with a small content analysis assignment. Do a Google search to find English mainstream news using for example the following search words:

  • BBC migration News

  • Guardian migration news

  • CNN migration news

Take a closer look at all the news that appear on the first result page. If you have more time in use, explore also the thematic content listings offered by these medias on their website.

It is recommended to use pen and paper or a digital whiteboard to create a mind map or a visual list of your findings.

Analyse the news headlines: List down themes and words that appear in the migration news headlines. Is there some words or phrases that are repeated? What kind of themes or topics are missing?

Analyse images: List down any recurring themes or objects in the images. Which themes are the most common in news images? What is missing from the images?

1. Analyse news content

When you are done with the basic analysis you can continue seeing if there are any differences between the media companies?

3.Watch the video

Watch the following video made by the Guiti News, a French media focusing on making accurate, more complex and more coherent reporting about migration. The video will give you a good overview about the challenges in migration news as well as some tips what to do about them, with less than 3 minutes. While watching, keep your analysis findings at hand, to see if your results match with the information provided in the video.

3. Test and reflect

4. Learn how to put
the tips in practice

○ Challenge hate by using the counterspeech approach

Counterspeech has been proposed as a more effective approach to challenging online hate compared to blocking or removing content, or for example trying to explain why aggressive talk is wrong or harmful. Counterspeech directly presents an alternative, polite and non-aggressive response to whatever has been posted. Take a closer look for example the Dangerous Speech Project’s one-pager providing examples of successful counterspeech in Twitter (currently X).

○ Use fact-checking and verification tools

Migration is a good theme or topic for creating and spreading disinformation. Luckily, there are many free resources available to use for verifying content. You can get started by checking our short guide for using different resources for verifying images and videos. We also recommend taking a look at the Fact-checking Network’s list of actors who monitor media content around the globe. It’s also good to acknowledge that facts being from correct sources doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t be used for influencing. If the story is very one-sided, even if the facts are correct, you have a reason to be cautious with the content.

○ Learn how to identify and challenge your own biases

We all have biases, prejudice or inclination for or against someone or something, and some of these biases are so deep in our thinking and behaviour, that we may be blind to them. When we speak about these”unconscious” biases, we talk about implicit bias. Identifying biases requires honest self-reflection, practice and openness towards learning new, but offers also a great opportunity for personal development. How to get started? There are plenty of resources for identifying implicit bias, and this Harvard Business Review article by Carmen Acton can be a good starting point.

○ Practice empathy and find the human angle in the story

Empathy is considered one of the fundamental resources of emotional and social intelligence. In simple terms empathy is our attempt and ability to understand others. In the context of stories, which journalism also consist of, the reader or viewer needs to be able to put themselves in the various peoples’ shoes and understand what they’re experiencing on a personal level. Good journalism requires empathetic understanding alongside ethical and pragmatic considerations. The same applies to the audience. When reading or listening to the news, try to focus on understanding the people in the story, even if you disagree with their action or opinions.

These materials were produced by Cooperative 3E and Guiti News with the support of the Erasmus+ program funded by the European Union, and the Stiftelsen 7:nde Mars Fonde. Neither the European Union nor the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) is responsible for the content of the materials.