Classroom Resources

Using Democracy Now! video clips
Teaching Materials
Democracy Now! en español for bilingual education
Get students involved
Invite Democracy Now! to your institution
Reuse Democracy Now! content

Using Democracy Now! video clips

Democracy Now! clips lend themselves well to exploring academic subjects and connecting them to current events. The following step-by-step outline is one way to introduce Democracy Now! to your students.

Find a clip or reading

Browse our extensive topics listing or search our archive to find a relevant clip. Links to related reading materials are often available with Democracy Now! clips and are found on the left sidebar.

Identify goal

What is the purpose of the lesson? What will students learn?

Contextualize Information

Before beginning a conversation around a Democracy Now! clip, put the information into historical context;

Preview

Watch DN! clip ahead of time to determine which part(s) best fit your education goals. Utilize a short clip to introduce an event or prompt students to begin thinking about a topic. Or show a full episode with in-depth interviews to foster a debate among students. All DN! clips can be found at our indexed archive, or searched by topic or by date and most segments are accompanied by printable transcripts.

Should your classroom have no internet connection, podcasts are available to download audio and video files onto computer desktops.

Media Literacy, Framing and Deconstruction

Offer students a specific lens with which to analyze the news clip. Keeping your objective in mind, assign students questions to consider while viewing the clip. Or compare the Democracy Now! clip to a corporate news clip on the same event. Introduce the concept of framing to indicate how different media outlets focus on different aspects of the same story to frame their own narrative. For a worksheet on framing, please contact us.

To view episodes fostering debate, simply type “vs.” in the search tool on our website to locate past debates on Democracy Now!

Consider the following questions with your students as you compare a Democracy Now! clip to a commercial media clip on the same event:

• Whose voice drives the story? Who interprets the story for you?
• Which actors involved in the story are represented or excluded? (Note race, gender identity, age, ethnicity, class, occupation, etc.)
• Who might benefit or be harmed by the news clip?
• What effect does the framing of the story have on your perception of the topic/story?

Democracy Now! en español for bilingual education

Titulares de Hoy

Our Democracy Now! en español program translates each day’s headlines into Spanish in transcript and audio form.

Destacados

The Destacados section features Democracy Now! interviews and reports that have been translated to Spanish in transcript and video plus subtitle form.

Resumen Semanal

The Resumen Semanal is a round of top headlines from the week published on Friday afternoons in transcript and audio form.

Get students involved

There are many ways to engage your students with Democracy Now! content. Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Encourage your students to follow Democracy Now! using our Daily Digest email, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or iPhone app.
• List Democracy Now! as a resource in your syllabus.
• For extra credit, have students organize screenings followed by debates/discussion on campus.
• Encourage students to attend or volunteer at local Democracy Now! events.
• Have your students send us a story idea. Make sure they include as much background information as possible and some ideas and contact information for guests who could appear.

Teaching Materials

The Teach Democracy Now! team has developed teaching materials that you can put to use in your classroom. Contact us if you’d like to sample some of the teaching materials and make sure to include the academic subjects that you’re interested in.

The Zinn Education Project provides teaching materials that incorporate Democracy Now! content. Browse their resources for inspiration.

Invite Democracy Now! to your institution

Democracy Now! Host and Executive Producer Amy Goodman gives speaking events across the country. Invite her to speak at your institution.

The Teach Democracy Now! team may be available to come to your NYC Metro Area institution for a round table discussion or news literacy workshop. To inquire, please contact us.

Reuse Democracy Now! content

Our Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License allows you or your students to republish Democracy Now! content in your non-commercial blog, website or student newspaper as long as you clearly credit democracynow.org.