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Making Teenagers Read Newspapers. A Nationwide Experiment in French High Schools

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Re: Making Teenagers Read Newspapers. A Nationwide Experiment in French High Schools

#31

Post by iamacyborg »

tgv wrote: post #12
SoftTalker wrote: post #3

Major newspapers and even local ones (if they still exist) have been so dumbed down in the past few decades. I would estimate that many are now written to target a less-than-high-school literacy level. Worse, news often seems to be written to elicit outrage or fear (probably because "engagement").

Yeah, it's really sad, but it's a nail in the coffin of democracy. And prosperity. The news papers here seem to be written for 30/40 yr old, middle class women with just enough spare time to feel guilty about other people's behavior.

I’m not sure the misogyny is warranted.

Re: Making Teenagers Read Newspapers. A Nationwide Experiment in French High Schools

#33

Post by Terr_ »

KellyCriterion wrote: post #16
SoftTalker wrote: post #3

Major newspapers and even local ones (if they still exist) have been so dumbed down in the past few decades. I would estimate that many are now written to target a less-than-high-school literacy level. Worse, news often seems to be written to elicit outrage or fear (probably because "engagement").

In Germany, there was a survey around 2009/2010, depicting that more than 60% of the audience of the major national daily newsshow do not understand the words used by the moderators (it was about "Tagesschau", a major news outlet by the public broadcasting system)

> more than 60% of the audience of the major national daily newsshow do not understand the words used by the moderators

I don't want to deny a modern problem may exist based on additional signals, but this statistic isn't necessarily bad: News ought to be consistently exposing viewers to vocabulary they don't know.

Not just as a way to help people naturally grow their vocabulary by seeing it used in context, but also because the news should cover topics and specialties that are outside any individual's usual work and leisure.

Re: Making Teenagers Read Newspapers. A Nationwide Experiment in French High Schools

#34

Post by sam_lowry_ »

Georgelemental wrote: post #21
phtrivier wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't access the article, so I don't know which newspaper they were subscribed to. But, given the wording of "the leading national newspaper", I can assume it would be "Le Monde". The audience for the written paper is not less-than-high-school educated. Do you think the wording is at this level ? Eg: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/09/08/pisa-202...

In terms of the actual ideas being promulgated, Le Monde is approximately CP-level.

CP stands for child porn?

Re: Making Teenagers Read Newspapers. A Nationwide Experiment in French High Schools

#35

Post by bluGill »

TheMatten wrote: post #29
jll29 wrote: post #18

In Europe, The Economist and The Guardian are about the only serious in-depth sources left, at least for those that can read English.

That feels a little bit reductive, at least given that non-English news is precisely what big part of population is going to consume. There isn't even an unified market for news content given the language boundaries. Not to say there aren't many shallow, clickbait sources, but there're good ones as well.

The better educated somebody is, the more likely they are to have reasonably fluency in English. There are some great non-English sources out there, but English is the most read language by well educated people.

Not saying there are not great news content in other languages. However English should be expected to dominate over the whole world.

Re: Making Teenagers Read Newspapers. A Nationwide Experiment in French High Schools

#37

Post by KPGv2 »

econ wrote: post #36

At work I have access to all newspapers big and small, I use to read all of them but I haven't touched one in a decade. Not one article that isn't infantile nonsense or outright propaganda of a quality that falls appart in the first sentence.

The fact you can't find a quality newspaper to read says more about you than the state of journalism.

The Guardian, AP, Reuters, NPR, etc. Hell, the New York Review of Books is crazy good, although their world news coverage usually is slipped into book reviews.

Re: Making Teenagers Read Newspapers. A Nationwide Experiment in French High Schools

#38

Post by theokrueger »

sam_lowry_ wrote: post #34
Georgelemental wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of the actual ideas being promulgated, Le Monde is approximately CP-level.

CP stands for child porn?

hopefully 'college prep' or the like. so highschool-level (low bar)

Re: Making Teenagers Read Newspapers. A Nationwide Experiment in French High Schools

#40

Post by cjs_ac »

jll29 wrote: post #18

In Europe, The Economist and The Guardian are about the only serious in-depth sources left, at least for those that can read English.

I used to read the Grauniad, but I've become distrustful of it over the past few years because of how aggressively it panders to my sensibilities and biases. Also, it doesn't pursue any story more than any other broadsheet would; it's just a matter of what stories it chooses to pursue.
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