Who's the Guest? Learning About Interest Group Politics
By Jamie Morris, Fairfax County, VA

Grade Level: 9-12

Objective:
Students will learn to identify major interest groups and think tanks and better evaluate the viewpoints of guests on the News Hour.

Estimated Time of Completion: Part of one class period, a research assignment for homework (or to be completed in school computer lab), and part of one class period to report findings.

Standards:
This lesson addresses the following national content standards found at http://www.mcrel.org

Language Arts

Standard 9: Viewing
Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media
Uses strategies to analyze stereotypes in visual media (e.g., recognizes stereotypes that serve the interests of some groups in society at the expense of others; identifies techniques used in visual media that perpetuate stereotypes) (#5)

Government

Standard 19: How Does the Government Established by the Constitution Embody the Purposes, Values, and Principles of American Democracy?
Understands what is meant by "the public agenda," how it is set, and how it is influenced by public opinion and the media
Knows how the public agenda is shaped by political leaders, interest groups, and state and federal courts; and understands how individual citizens can help shape the public agenda (e.g., by joining interest groups or political parties, making presentations at public meetings, writing letters to government officials and to newspapers) (#2)

Standard 21: Understands the formation and implementation of public policy
1. Knows a public policy issue at the local, state, or national level well enough to identify the major groups interested in that issue and explain their respective positions

Procedures:

1. Explain to students that the NewsHour often invites experts on the program to participate in discussions on topics in the news. The program often selects guests with varied points of view. Often these guests are drawn from public interest groups (an organization of people with shared policy goals) or think tanks (research organizations that produce policy proposals). Learning about these organizations make one a more informed viewer.

2. Identify for the students how the goals of the NewsHour and interest groups converge.

3. Select several Web-based transcripts of interviews with representatives of interest groups or think tanks from the NewsHour Web site (I WOULD POST SEVERAL TYPICAL APPEARANCES) or select a portion of a recent show to have students watch in class.

Some examples are below. Search here for others: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/newshour_index.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/july-dec02/security_9-20.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec02/cleangrowth_8-26.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec02/fires_8-22.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec02/privacy_8-12.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec02/election_8-07.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/latin_america/july-dec02/worries_8-5.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june02/vouchers_6-27.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june02/pledge_6-27.html


4. Assign the students to manageable groups (4-5 each). Distribute work sheets and selected transcripts.

5. Here is a set of reproducible directions. After students complete the review of the transcripts and complete the worksheets, assign them to complete the following Web-based research using the links on this site: (http://www.pbs.org/now/resources/politics.html).

A) Name of organization
B) Mission statement
C) Brief description of history
D) Source of funding

6. Have the students share their findings with the class when they have completed their assignment. The teacher should organize the findings on the blackboard.

7. Using the assembled data the teacher should push the students to make links between the organization's mission statement, its funding, and other attributes, and the positions the representative took in the interview. For example, if the NewsHour had an interview with someone from the Healthcare Leadership Council, an industry group whose mission is to promote a market-based health care system, were the idea advocated by the guest consistent with the mission of the organization? Some possible discussion questions might be:

A) Why might it be considered bad to have a discussion on television among people who all have the same ideology?
B) Why does it matter who funds an organization?
C) How can you tell if a person is a Democrat, Republican, or Centrist by what they say?
D) Why might someone represeting an organization want to appear on a news program?
E) Why should an organization be allowed to promote their agenda on a news show? Is there anything wrong with that? Why or why not?