When it comes to the question of what journalism actually is, things get lively in the classroom. The children are divided into two groups. One half of the students goes into the corridor outside the classroom, while the other remains inside to observe the scene outside the window.
Each group is given the same task: spend approximately five minutes noting what they see and what stands out to them. One group documents the world beyond the window – activities in the schoolyard, the weather, passersby. The other records the happenings in the corridor. The groups then swap places and repeat the exercise.
The children’s observations are compiled on the board, revealing two distinctly different accounts of the same school environment. This quickly leads to a pivotal question in the ensuing discussion: Which version is correct? The answer, as the students discover, is more nuanced than a simple binary. Both groups are reporting the truth, yet each narrative is incomplete, missing the details observed by the other.
This exercise serves to illustrate a core challenge in journalism. Every journalist operates from a specific point of view. Constraints such as time, editorial focus, and judgments about relevance mean that any single story cannot capture every facet of an event. An aspect might be omitted not out of malice, but as a necessary editorial decision.
The lesson makes a crucial distinction clear for the students: an incomplete story is not automatically “fake news.” Often, reality itself is multifaceted. Through this interactive method, the children learn how quickly a narrative is formed and why seeking multiple perspectives is essential before drawing a definitive conclusion.
