19 SEPT 2019, SEVERNA PARK, MD — Students of the upper school elective history course “The History of News,” after much thought and collaboration, have brought a new News Era to Severn School with the launching of “The Severn Current”, an online News source, designed to capture and showcase local and international news headline stories, in an effort to engage Severn students with the news around them.
Here is the course description:
In a unique style, A History of the News invites students to learn history from now back to then, or backwards, by examining current major US and world news stories and then tracing their historical roots. In this process, students will critically assess the role and power of journalists and media, both then and now. What gets covered? What doesn’t? Who covers it? How has the delivery of information changed over time? Why do “certain trumpets” get heard more than others?
Students will also wrestle with the challenging intersection historians and journalists face as they tell their stories, and seek to chronicle and make sense of human events, and to “get it right.”. How does journalism affect history? How does history affect journalism?
More traditionally, beginning with the development of the printing press in the 15th century, students will also trace a general history of news, journalism and media, touching on major milestones that brought us to today’s digitally-driven world along with the use of news, media and journalism for political purposes, from propaganda to “fake news.”
Finally, what’s next? Where do we go from here? Too much information? As digital news, algorithms, and AI continue to advance at a Moore’s Law pace, what is the collective future of global news media? Is it possible we have created a news media world that possesses, presents, and consumes too much information?
