Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Part A: What Is Controversy?

25 minutes

Part B: Caught Out: Controversial Claims

20 minutes

Part C: Stakeholder Considerations

10 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students understand...

the relationship between the media and controversy
the nature of controversy
why the media may engage with controversy.

Students can...

define controversy and explain its relationship to the media
identify claims and the evidence used to support them
work collaboratively to solve the problem of how to best cover a controversy
consider the motivations of a character and how they might respond to a situation
reflect on their ideas and their skills as a collaborator.

Part A: What is controversy?

Step 1

Display the question “What is controversy?”

Invite students to independently, or in pairs, write words, definitions or examples that come to mind. If students are struggling you may wish to prompt them with some, e.g. Israel Folau’s comments about bushfires, Donald Trump’s administration, cheating in Australian cricket, Cronulla riots.

Step 2

Circulate and find students with accurate/interesting definitions or examples to share with the class. Write these examples on the board, or invite students to do so.

Step 3

Hand out the Student Worksheet and ask students to ‘think, pair and share’ at least three ways the media is connected with controversy.

Think Pair Share
Think pair share is a collaborative learning strategy in which students work together to solve a problem or answer a question.
Think - students independently think about an issue or question and record their thoughts.
Pair - students work in pairs to discuss their ideas and record new thoughts.
Share - students share their thoughts with the whole group or with other pairs to reach consensus.

Step 4

Write ‘Media’ and ‘Controversy’ on the board. Then draw lines between the two words, labelling each with the relationships mentioned by students.

Suggested answers:

The media ---covers---> controversy (when controversy happens)
The media ---starts---> controversy (when media personalities say controversial things)
The media ---emphasises---> controversy (by having panels of people who disagree)
The media ---can benefit from---> controversy (because it can help sell papers/subscriptions).

Part B: Caught out - controversial claims

Step 1

Explain to students that they will be viewing some short clips from the documentary The Final Quarter, about AFL star Adam Goodes.

Note: It is strongly recommended that students have participated in The Final Quarter - Responding to the Film - Years 7 & 8 lesson beforehand, in which case, they will already be familiar with Adam Goodes and the film.

Invite students to arrange themselves so that they are seated where they can see the screen and remind students that these clips are only a small piece of the Adam Goodes story.

Step 2

Show students this clip from The Final Quarter:

Twitter War (https://vimeo.com/369740611/1a2ee29beb)

Step 3

Ask students - How does this clip demonstrate the media’s role in creating, contributing to or escalating controversy?

Step 4

Show students this Media Watch clip on the coverage of the booing (opens in webpage). Explain that a lot of controversy in the media can come from people making claims that are not evidence-based.

Adam Goodes and the race debate (https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/adam-goodes-and-the-race-debate/9973178)

Step 5

Ask students to work in pairs to identify if the speakers gave evidence, and what evidence against their claims was provided.

Claim - and who it was made by	Evidence given (write none if so)	Fact check - is there evidence against this claim? What is it?
Alan Jones - The football star has brought this wave of hatred on himself
Alan Jones - The man (Adam Goodes) is always a victim
Andrew Bolt - Adam Goodes bullied and publicly humiliated the thirteen-year-old girl
Rita Panahi - Goodes has used ‘divisive’ and ‘troublesome’ tactics

Step 6

Ask students to circle which claims they think were amplified by the media, based on what they saw in the clips. Have students justify their choices to a peer - what did they see in the clips that amplified or heightened those claims (encourage them to refer to examples of repetition, tone of voice, imagery, emotive language).

Step 7

Ask students to return to the mind map on the board showing the relationship between ‘controversy’ and the ‘media’. How was this relationship shown in the Adam Goodes case? Invite students to write a quick reflection, or make an Adam Goodes-specific mind map about the relationship between the media and the controversy.

Part C: Stakeholder considerations

Step 1

Tell students that there are many different people involved in decisions made in the media. There are different motivations and opinions about how to cover controversies. Today they will take part in a pretend meeting with a range of stakeholders who are gathering to discuss how their show should cover the Adam Goodes booing controversy. Divide students into groups of six. Give each student a profile.

Stakeholder	Your job
The first co-presenter	You are one of the faces of the show. You are known for being a kind and empathetic (caring) person. Your profile is important to you because you are a very public face. You are a very popular newsreader.
The second co-presenter	You are the other main face of the show. You are known for taking the ‘unpopular’ side and creating interesting conversations. You like to make comments that will be repeated by other media organisations.
The ratings advisor	You look at how many people are watching the show. Your show has recently been losing viewers. Your job is to improve how many people watch the show. You have recently read that ‘negativity bias’ means that people are more likely to read bad news.
The producer	You help pull together what information is covered and who is invited onto the show. You are able to bring on panel members - whoever you think would be interested in the topic and interesting to your audience.
The manager	Your job is to make sure this meeting runs smoothly and effectively. You need to make sure that everyone comes to a decision and that the show can go to air tomorrow.
The researcher	You help find information to give to the co-presenters. You research the facts. You have recently finished university and are passionate about journalism being factual, not all about opinions.

Step 2

Have students read their profile and independently complete the following. They may wish to temporarily team up with others with the same profile, to brainstorm their answers.

My motivations are (My character’s goal is):	I would want the show to:	I can convince the others by arguing:

Step 3

Tell students they have 20 minutes to come up with some key decisions and complete the below questions/tasks on the Student Worksheet:

How do you want to cover the controversy?
1. Take a side
2. Remain neutral
3. Create a debate
How will you engage your audience?
What kind of people will you invite on the show?
List three questions or ideas you would have the panel discuss.

Step 4

Invite students to first share what their stakeholder wants to do. Then they can begin discussing the case. The manager should be responsible for keeping the conversation on task or alerting the teacher if the discussion is not productive.

Step 5

Circulate and support groups to have productive discussions.

Step 6

Invite students to share the decisions their group made with the class and discuss their reasoning.

Step 7

After the discussion, ask students to write independently in response to these questions:

What was frustrating or difficult about your conversation with your group?
What was good or bad about the decisions your group ended up making?
What did you prioritise? What did you have to compromise on?

Reflection

Step 1

Show students the clip from The Final Quarter:

Listen to the Answer (https://vimeo.com/350234994/766b409317)

Invite students to respond to these questions in a class discussion:

Is the media covering controversy a good thing?
What impacts were felt because of the way the controversy was covered?
What were the benefits of the controversy for Australian society?
What was the damage caused?

Differentiated Learning

Extension

To extend students, have them write a short description of their show to send to invitees. It should include the intentions of the show.

Provisions for Learning Support

Select only a few of the stakeholders for the discussion (perhaps the manager, a presenter and a ratings advisor). This will minimise the number of opinions to consider and is also a good idea for classes that tend towards being disruptive or off task.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

The Final Quarter - Media Controversy

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Summary

Lesson guides and printables

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