The attempts of journalists to verify the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown take center stage as individuals analyze three of the initial newspaper accounts of the story. The whole class discussion then focuses on the question of why people often ignore updated, verified reports that challenge their initial opinions about a story.

Concepts

racism, broadcast journalism, investigative journalism, journalism, social issues

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Due to the challenging aspect of the day's discussion, consider reshowing the DJ Jay Smooth video and revisiting the class contract for safe and respectful classroom discussions

Classroom Considerations

• Requires individual copies of the three newspaper articles
• The fifth in an 11 resource journalism case study of the shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer

Pros

• The lesson encourages individuals to carefully question events as reported on social media
• The included video details the process journalists use to verify events

Cons

• None

Common Core

RI.9-10.7 RI.11-12.7