Assignment: The World; 1997-09-11

Item Information

Title:
Assignment: The World; 1997-09-11
Description:
This is Episode No. 3900. It focuses on the importance of media literacy for young people as they critically engage with the huge mass of information they take in every day from the media and the Internet. Begins with an interview with Mary Lopacaro, Associate professor of communications at St. John Fisher College. The next segment profiles 9th grade students Richard White, Nicole Obaid, Nora Graham-Smith, part of the YouthNews team at WORK-TV in Rochester, N.Y.; interview with Rachel Burg, executive producer of YouthNews team and Chuck Samuels, news director of WOKR-TV. Claire Dempsey, marketing director of General Mills, talks about using focus groups of children to develop a marketing campaign for a sugary cereal and Jonathan Keeton talks about producing the commercial; footage of the set where the commercial is filmed is shown. Jennifer Fox, New Media Designer from WXXI-TV talks about the internet, including child-friendly sites and the assumption that everything online is correct. Ginnie Bacheler closes the episode with a list of new words and phrases viewers can look up in the dictionary. "In 1959, a social studies teacher from Rochester, New York approached the newly formed Rochester Area Educational Television Association (RAETA). She expressed the need for a current event series to be used in the classroom to help make her students aware of the world around them. From this simple request Assignment: The World was born. Initially available to students only in upstate New York, today ATW is used by millions of students across the United States. It is a fast-paced, interactive and close-captioned newscast designed to be used in the classroom. In addition to the top stories of the week from around the world, each program includes interesting facts, pop quizzes, issue questions and entertaining and educational features that capture student attention. "Assignment: The World is worthy of Peabody recognition not only for its quality production and educational success but also for its forty years of service to viewers. Designed for use in fourth through sixth grade, ATW is aired on more than one hundred and twenty stations across the country and receives nearly two thousand inquiries from students each week in addition to numerous hits on the Assignment: The World website (www.wxxi.org/atw). Each week the top stories from around the world are presented along with pop quizzes, issue questions and a glossary/vocabulary segment. In addition, ATW routinely produces special editions on topics such as media literacy, recycling, youth violence just to name a few. "Attached you will find testimonials from users attesting to the educational value of Assignment: The World. The longest running program of its type, ATW will be celebrating its fortieth season in the school year 1998-99. It is one example of the utilization of television in a constructive, educational manner to bring the world into the classrooms of America."--1997 Peabody Awards entry form.
Production company:
WXXI (Television station : Rochester, N.Y.)
Date:
September 11, 1997
Format:
Film/Video
Location:
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia
Collection (local):
American Archive of Public Broadcasting Collection
Series:
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia > Assignment: The World
Extent:
00:15:46.713
Link to Item:
https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-n00zp3x434
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Notes:
Episode Number: No. 3900