Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: U.S. Jobs Going Overseas Becomes Election Issue, 3/10/04
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june04/outsource_3-10.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Take a look at your shoes. Where were they made?

2. Why are many shoes worn in the United States manufactured in Asian countries such as China or South American countries such as Brazil?

3. Do American clothing companies have a responsibility to manufacture their products in the United States? Why or why not?

4. What kinds of jobs do people in your community have? Who are the big employers in the area? Have these jobs changed in your lifetime?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What is outsourcing and what are some of the causes?

Outsourcing is the movement of jobs from the United States to other countries, where wages are lower.

While cheap labor is the primary cause for outsourcing, low shipping and communication costs contribute; companies can produce goods overseas and then ship them back to the United States without significant tax.

2. What kinds of jobs are going overseas now?

Recent trends have shown that manufacturing jobs are not the only jobs being outsourced.

"Any worker whose job does not require daily face-to-face interaction is now in jeopardy of being replaced by a lower-paid, equally skilled worker thousands of miles away," said Paul Craig Roberts, an economist with the Institute for Political Economy who worked for President Reagan in the 1980s.

This means that high paying jobs once thought safe, such as software engineers, data processors, phone bankers and software designers, are now at risk of being outsourced.

3. Where are many outsourced jobs going? Why are they going there?

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman told The NewsHour that India is the most popular destination for outsourced high-tech jobs because there is a "huge amount of educated people who speak English."

The Internet makes transferring technical data easier and cost effective, and by locating workers in different time zones around the world, the company can have 24-hour service.

4. According to columnist Thomas Friedman, what are the benefits of outsourcing for Americans?

Friedman argues that outsourcing works for U.S. businesses, not only because it provides cheaper labor, but because those new workers create a middle class that can then purchase more from American companies (if Americas stay creative enough to come up with innovative products that these new consumers will want).

5. What are some of the political responses in Congress to the issue of outsourcing?

Politicians are beginning to respond to pressure to do something about the movement of jobs to other countries. Congress is currently debating a proposed law that would stop the government from buying goods and services from companies that outsource. Another proposal would require workers at telephone call centers to disclose their physical locations at the beginning of each call.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. If you were the head of a company that made cell phones, how would you make the decision whether to move your factories to a country where you could pay workers much less than you do in the United States? If you worked in a company that was going to close its U.S. factories and move to India, what would you do?

2. If outsourcing is inevitable, as some economists and politicians argue, what should the U.S. government do, if anything, to help those Americans who are losing jobs to companies overseas?

3. Research the proposals that are being debated in Congress. Will they help or hurt the American economy? Why or why not?

4. What role do you think the upcoming presidential election will have on the issue of outsourcing? Explain your reasoning.

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org]. Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.