News Engagement Day is Tuesday, October 1
Join Florida Tech’s communication programs in celebrating News Engagement Day
The first Tuesday in October is News Engagement Day – a day set aside to remind us how important it is to participate in knowing what is happening in the world around us.
Faculty in the Florida Tech communication programs are encouraging students and colleagues to engage – to read, listen, respond to news. News Engagement Day is a call to action for all of us to join the discussion and re-establish our partnership in the news process.
Last year I wrote about our role in holding journalists and newsmakers accountable. That message remains as relevant this year as it was a year ago. As I wrote in this blog in 2018, “While we lambast or ignore the news, we miss the opportunity to gain understanding about policies, events and decisions that impact our lives – and we sidestep our responsibility to be informed citizens.”
I understand the desire to avoid news when reports are often overwhelmingly negative stories about the world around us. But, ignoring the news makes those stories no less relevant.
As with last year, I urge you to participate in the news process. Engage. Pay attention and hold the newsmakers – those reporting and making the news (leaders, policymakers, demonstrators, etc.) – accountable for their words and actions. Check the facts from one of the growing number of fact-checking sites. Learn to distinguish the news from entertainment posing as news – sometimes within the same program/media outlet.
Join us on October 1 and every day. Make news engagement a habit throughout the year.
#NewsEngagementDay is sponsored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). For more information and resources, go to www.newsengagement.org.
Heidi Hatfield Edwards is professor of communication, and chair of communication programs in the School of Arts and Communication at Florida Institute of Technology and a member of AEJMC. On Twitter @DrHeidiHat.
Florida Tech’s Communication Programs include undergraduate degrees in Multiplatform Journalism and Strategic Communication and a master’s degree in Global Strategic Communication.
