It's been a dizzying few weeks in politics, and these are truly unprecedented times. We've been speaking with Connecticut educators about this moment in history.
David Fink is a journalist and college professor. He's taught journalism and American government at UConn and Central Connecticut State University for more than 20 years. He was also a reporter and editor for several newspapers, including the Hartford Courant, where he covered state government and politics.
Fink spoke with Connecticut Public’s “Morning Edition” about his thoughts on the upcoming November election and the importance of teaching media literacy.
Where students typically get their information
David Fink: Lately, it's been social media. But they don't read the newspaper very much. I should say at the start; these kids are great. They are most often the first generation in their family going to college.
The classroom, and I had 35 students in each class, didn't exactly look like the United Nations, but it was pretty diverse. There were people of all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds, and, unlike my family, and I'm sure, maybe yours and others, they haven't had the newspaper in their house, and they haven't talked around the dinner table about government. So they are sometimes kind of easy fodder for people who say, "Well, you can't trust the government, and the government doesn't do much, and all politicians are alike." And so we'll start off at the beginning of the semester talking about how the government works and what it is.
Teaching a diverse class of freshmen and sophomores
David Fink: I taught American government and the whole point of "We the People" is having an informed electorate. And to be informed, you have to get your information from places that are producing information that you can trust. And so during the semester, we would do a two-week unit on press and government. For a while, I showed them “All the President's Men,” and I showed them “Spotlight,” which is about how The Boston Globe looked at child sexual abuse in Boston. To show them how reporters worked, I had them read the ethics codes of The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and a bunch of papers to see that reputable news organizations have reporters conduct themselves in an ethical, unbiased way and that they are trained. And then they read newspapers. I gave them a list of 30 newspapers. They could choose whichever ones they wanted, and each day for a week, they had to read three news stories and two opinion pieces and log them — write down the headline and a two or three-sentence summary of each, and I didn't tell them what to read. They could read politics or sports or fashion or food or music or art or theater or whatever, but invariably, they came back after a week and said, "You know, professor, there's a lot of interesting stuff in the newspaper."
How educators can help students navigate misinformation and develop media literacy
David Fink: My class wasn't a current events class; it was an American government class. But you can't ignore current events, so you need to devote some time to what students are hearing and try to do it in a way that's relevant to their lives. So if the discussion in the media is about whether or not to forgive college debt, well, do college students care about college debt, you bet. So we can have a discussion about the arguments pro and con. And what I have always tried to do is not tell them what I think. And, again, this is my background as a reporter and an editor. It was my job in every story or even an opinion piece to recognize all sides of an argument. So that's what I think you need to do today; you need to recognize events in the news that you know relate to their lives, but make sure that students understand the arguments on each side.
On everything that's going on right now
David Fink: This is a kind of campaign, at least by degrees, that the press has not covered. I read about how Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is not giving interviews. I'm sure every news organization in the country has asked to interview her. Some of her supporters are criticizing her for not doing interviews and others are saying, "Well, that's a good strategy." I think the press needs to question her, if it possibly can, and look for every opportunity. Because while she has been vice president for three-and-a-half years, I'm not sure a lot of people know a lot about her. Obviously, her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is also new. People need to know about him. In the same way, former President Trump has been pretty much on everybody's radar screen for the last decade and people know a lot about him. They don't know a lot about his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio. So there's a lot people need to know that can get confused by people distorting the other side's record — and they are doing that already.
Learn more
A Connecticut high school teacher shares how he's preparing to help students learn the basics of the election process, while also helping them navigate the extremely full news cycle.
