For the past three years, I have show the movie Newsies to my class. It is a good event to use while groups are out of the room 10-15 minutes at a time filming their video news segment. But beyond that, I have always felt it was helpful for several reasons. One, it gave a visual representation of the power of newspapers at the turn of the century. It also shows in context terms we have discussed such as gatekeeper, bias, and objective. Further, it dovetails with the unit that students are learning in Social Studies currently.
This year when I watched it, I realized that if need be, I could write a justification essay on this movie. As I explained to the students, we could have spent classes taking notes and learning the history of newspapers in their heyday. However, seeing the actor portraying Joseph Pulitzer claim to run New York and tell citizens how to think was much more powerful.
Any tinge of uncertainty I had about using this movie in an educational setting has been removed. I see even more the value of alternative lesson building activities. In addition, after they view the movie, I have set up a forum discussion allowing students to share their insights on how the movie shows the concept of gatekeeping.
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