After months of studying and practicing the craft of journalism and analyzing dozens of articles to learn how it is done well, the student reporters at Different Directions are excited to launch their newspaper, the DD Compass Monthly! As the title suggests, this will be a monthly publication covering current events, entertainment, food, travel, opinion, pop culture, and other topics our journalists believe will resonate with readers in our NYC homeschool community.
During the fall session, students learned the history, purpose, and basics of journalism. We analyzed a variety of news articles and practiced researching, interviewing, and writing our own pieces. We especially focused on the journalist’s obligation to report truth and verify facts. As bias is a crucial topic in both media consumption and media production, we discussed how no reporter can be truly unbiased or objective. But the method can be. That method involves gathering and reporting multiple perspectives on our stories, so readers can draw their own conclusions.
To that end, our reporters are keen on connecting with as many sources in our community as possible while producing their pieces. Given that almost all of our contact these days is virtual, this presents a bit of a challenge, so we invite parents and students to be on the lookout for emails from Tinamarie and posts on the NYCHEA discussion board reaching out for students to interview for the paper. Our range of topics is very broad. There’s bound to be something for everyone to comment on.
The first issue of the DD Compass Monthly will be published (here on the DD website) on February 15 and will include articles on Chinese New Year, street art, pandemic food trends, book and restaurant reviews, and more! We look forward to feedback from our readers, because we sincerely want our publication to be relevant and useful to our homeschool community. See you on the other side of the press!
