Crimped by COVID-19 restrictions for two years, News Decoder is connecting in person again with donors, correspondents and schools. News Decoder donors, correspondents and staff join trustee Faith Abiodun at luncheon in London. With COVID-19 restrictions on the wane...
Kai Lengwiler of Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich examined Switzerland’s fight against drugs, winning News Decoder’s 11th Storytelling Contest. Winners of the 11th News Decoder Storytelling Contest A video report by a high school student in Zurich examining...
The world is awash in misinformation. But can we rein it in without eroding free speech? Our podcast explores this thorny issue facing our societies. News Decoder · Let's Talk About It We are all flooded with misinformation. But what can we do about it? We turned...
Many young people find it difficult to write. They can struggle to convey their thoughts and can get bogged down in convoluted sentences. Our recommendation is to write as though you are explaining an issue to your family over dinner – to keep it simple. That’s one reason a podcast can offer a more natural way to examine an issue, even one as thorny as free speech. In their engaging podcast, Chloe Patricof and Anabella Paige of The Hewitt School speak naturally about a tough topic – misinformation – and turn to the managing editor of a U.S. media company to explore whether government regulation is an answer. Such a conversation can be an alluring way to delve into a knotty issue.
Exercise: Have your students pair up and record a conversation about a polarizing issue in their community, making sure to try to convey the views of all legitimate sides.
The Taliban have barred girls from schools in Afghanistan. So some of them gather secretly in homes in Kabul, drawn together by a former teacher. Hassan Adib leads a discussion of “Memories of a translator” by Mohhamad Qazi in Kabul, April 2022. (Photo by...
The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan means millions of girls cannot attend school. Many young people outside of the country know this, but it is difficult for them to conceive just what this means for a young Afghan girl their age. In his story, Jalal Nazari, an Afghan now living in Canada where he is a Global Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, takes us inside Kabul homes, where about 30 teenage girls meet secretly twice a month to improve their reading and writing skills. To hear the girls and their teacher speak adds a highly personal dimension to a conflict that for many young people remains distant and abstract. The courage they show in the face of Taliban strictures is a reminder to young people everywhere that education is a privilege not to be taken lightly.
Exercise: Ask your students to interview their parents, asking them why education is important, and then to write an essay quoting their parents and adding their own thoughts.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent millions of refugees into neighboring nations. I live in Romania, where the war has stirred compassion and fear. A Ukrainian refugee on a bus at the Romanian-Ukrainian border in Siret, Romania, 8 March 2022 (AP Photo/Andreea...
War in Europe has awakened an entire generation in the West to the horrible realities of armed conflict. Octavian-Anton Ghisa lives in Romania, which borders Ukraine, and so he naturally takes a keen interest in the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have poured over the border since Russia invaded Ukraine. Ghisa, a student at Transylvania College, combines that interest with a knack for listening to others and produces a piece that captures a powerful mix of emotions: “fear, stress, compassion, panic and even ambivalence.” Listening carefully is a skill that does not come naturally to many young people but which underpins any solid reporting.
Exercise: Ask each student to interview a parent about a difficult moment in their youth and to write a short article based on quotes from the interview.