Take-home: Press releases and journalism

Objective:

At the end of completing the homework, students will:

• Discover and learn where to find press releases
• Critically analyze the information in the news by comparing it with press releases
• Identify how problematic it could be to rely on self-interested sources 
• Understand what journalistic “verification” entails

Steps:

• As a preparation, find a press release and a news article published by a known news outlet on the same topic/event. Compare the two and discuss the differences and similarities in front of the students. This itself can be a discussion activity.
• Tell students that they also need to find a similar example by themselves as homework.
• Ask them to summarise similarities and differences after comparing the two in one page.

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Teacher’s note

• Your student may ask where they can find press releases. Most companies and governmental offices list their major press releases on their official websites. 
• If needed, you can show a few examples in class. This section is often titled something like “ What’s New,” “ Latest News,” “ Press Room,” and so on. For example, Apple calls it “ Newsroom” on its website. The U.S. White House has a page simply titled “ News.” PRNewswire's website has an archive of many press releases, too.

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