Journalism Lesson Plan

Overview:When talk show host Don Imus became the news, instead of reporting it, First Amendment were part of the discussion. Should his bosses have silenced him? Has he lost his right to free speech? Has he stepped over some invisible line and loses his right to use his voice? Is this a First Amendment issue, a question of pleasing the advertisers or something much more complicated than that? As senior scholar at the First Amendment Center Charles C. Haynes says, “The only thing worse than an uncivil society is a society where government legislates what is civil.”

Suggested time allotment: : One week to research and investigate what has happened in the story. One week to complete the assignment.

Objectives

Students will:

1. Read background about Don Imus and his comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team. (Be sure to use credible sources like those below.)
2. Explore current interpretation of the First Amendment, including that of commercial speech.
3. React to Jill Geisler’s bullet points of suggestions for true media leaders in this era of “shock jock” and television ratings from offensive materials. Present this in a commentary, a debate (Imus should not be on the air vs. Imus has a right to his speech).

Standards: National Council of Teachers of English and International Reading Association Standards for English Language Arts:

4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written and visual language (e.g.,conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
8. Students use a variety of technological and informational resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
12. Students use spoken, written and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion and the exchange of information).

Resources and materials:
Web sites with information:
• The Poynter Institute for Media Studies explores what happened and what this means about media leadership in a column by Leadership & Management Group leads Jill Geilser in “Forget Focusing on Imus. What about News Leaders?” April 13, 2007.
|view website |

• Not everyone agrees on the course of action with Imus. A Washington Post poll shows who is on one side and who is on the other: “Poll: Race, Gender Divide Americans on Imus’ Firing,” by Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta, April 16, 2007.
|view website |

• Read the CBS statement about why the network fired him, which ran April 12, 2007.
|view website |

• Before his firing, Imus tried to patch things up with Rev. Al Sharpton on his show, but that didn’t work either.
|view website |

• What about free speech? Charles C. Haynes, senior scholar at the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center, wriote, “Imus, coulter and the marketplace of offensive speech,” April 15, 2007.
|view website |