Rationale for Using National Newspapers in the College Classroom

To forcus, I edited it

The Newspaper Proponent’s Dozen: A 12-Part Rationale for Using National Newspapers in the College Classroom
Why is the use of national newspapers particularly important for undergraduate students in the 21st century? Of the myriad reasons we could offer in response to this question, we have chosen 12 for further reflection and response.

National newspapers are a tool for educational and personal empowerment. At the risk of using an overworked phrase, we want to use it anyway: Information is power. At further risk of overusing another element of educational jargon, the use of national newspapers is a tool for “empowerment.” If college students constantly have to depend on someone else to give them the information they need, they will remain more dependent and thus weaker than others who are capable of retrieving their own information. Particularly vulnerable are new college students. Many of them arrive on a college campus expecting to be provided information by someone else, and hence they have a very dependent attitude toward this critical information-retrieval process. In order for students to become more independent and increase their active learning, they must be able to find, evaluate, and communicate information independently. National newspapers are an excellent source for the presentation of information and extensive commentary to assist in its evaluation. College-educated citizens in the 21st century have to become independent and self-reliant seekers, gatherers, and interpreters of information. National newspapers, therefore, can facilitate the development of these skills through both an intellectual and personal empowerment process.

College students need global information. To the extent that college students read newspapers at all, most of them have grown up reading local newspapers. Surely the trends and developments of the late 1990s have persuaded educators, and many of their students, that although necessary, local information is not, in and of itself, sufficient. Given the increasing global interdependence of the world economy as well as political and social infrastructures, there has been enormous growth in the need for timely national, and especially global, information. However, findings from over 50,000 responses to the 1996 College Student Experiences Questionnaire (Kuh, Vesper, Connolly, & Pace, 1997) report that more than 70% of undergraduates seldom or never have conversations on campus about international affairs. A forte of the national newspaper is to move the reader beyond localism and regionalism to a greater sense of international awareness.

National newspapers help students anticipate trends and understand rapidly changing events.Reading national newspapers enables student readers to anticipate in advance a host of trends which, for better or worse, originate in the major urban power centers of the United States where national newspapers are published (e.g., New York and Washington). College-educated citizens need to anticipate change before it reaches them in order to plan appropriately and perhaps learn from the mistakes of others. On a more materialistic level, as students plan for their financial future, they need to be able to anticipate trends to develop appropriate strategies for professional development, career selection, specific job opportunities, and financial planning and investment. They also need to be able to anticipate trends in order to be knowledgeable participants in the political process.

College students need comprehensive information. As information has become more and more critical for functioning in an information-based society and economy, sources for retrieval of information have become increasingly segmented and specialized. There is no way individual college students can read the enormous array of sources providing such segmented data. National newspapers play a critical role in combating this problem of specialization of information presentation because they are one of the few remaining sources of information that are comprehensive, interconnected, and offered in one format. What other kind of publication can you read at one time and in one context and find information on politics, international affairs, business, health, science, arts, entertainment, travel, and sports? There is no single educational source that matches the portability and comprehensiveness of national newspapers. This, of course, assumes that college students are reading newspapers at all, which is, in and of itself, a reason to consider the use of national newspapers as an important teaching pedagogy.

Reading national newspapers combats student political disengagement. One of the measures the UCLA researchers have been taking of college students over 33 years is their level of political engagement, or the alternative, their political disengagement. In 1997, the CIRP study found levels of political disengagement had reached an all-time high. A record 73.3% of entering college students expressed little to no interest in politics — whether national, local, or campus-based (Sax, et al., 1997). This finding also correlates with another finding in the same study: 36% of high school students reported “being bored in class” as they make the transition to college. We, therefore, argue that national newspapers are an important source of intellectual stimulation that document for college students the importance of political engagement.

Using national newspapers in the classroom promotes critical thinking (tư duy phê phán-cái này quan trọng). Critical thinking abilities can only be developed if students are exposed to stimulating information about which probing questions can and must be asked, and if they are provided examples of critical reasoning as manifested in the printed word. This skill is also developed by exposure to a blend and balance of widely differing opinions most likely to be found only in national newspapers. What better place to observe this practice than through the juxtaposition of factual presentations with op-ed pieces written by world-class thinkers representing various political and social constituencies?

National newspapers help students develop vocabulary. A significantly greater vocabulary is required to read with comprehension, let alone appreciation, a national newspaper like The New York Times than virtually any local paper published anywhere in the United States. The level of vocabulary used in national newspapers assumes a more intelligent, educated, professional, and influential readership than the level of writing and word choice used in many local newspapers. Certainly then, this is another important reason for using national newspapers in the college classroom.

Reading national newspapers enables students to connect with a source of national power. Finally, national newspapers are, in and of themselves, a source of enormous power. Regular reading by college students of national newspapers connects them to one of the major sources of power in our society. We could argue then that this is not only a critical form of information, but a critical survival skill as well. If only our students could have that rare opportunity to visit The New York Times world headquarters and walk down the Pulitzer Hallway, they would see hanging on the walls the many framed photographs of the Pulitzer Prizewinning Times reporters juxtaposed with framed copies of their prizewinning stories. It is this kind of writing as featured in national papers that moves individuals, and even governments, to reaction and action. This is the ultimate personification of the notion of information as power. Thus, to be empowered, students need their own direct access to and connection with a major source of national power, the American national newspaper.

source : http://www.nytimes.com/ref/college/f...mono_gard.html