Eva Ludwig
As a high school newspaper, the Aragon Outlook places a great emphasis on having healthy political discussions, but we acknowledge and understand the impediments that students may face when trying to reach this goal.
First, the rise of short-form content as the younger generation’s main media source has been detrimental to attention spans and the spread of accurate information. Fact-checking efforts are often outpaced by the sheer amount of content circulating these platforms, and many users do not take the time to verify information, allowing misinformation to spread unchecked.
Secondly, as the majority of our school is not yet of voting age, many students do not feel the need to become involved in politics. However, policy choices permeate through several aspects of everyone’s lives, whether it be the impending dangers of climate change that make it critical to address it properly, or immigration policies affecting students within our very own school. Becoming politically aware early on is vital for not only the furthering of our society as a whole, but the development of self-advocacy, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Of course, this is not entirely the fault of students — due to the convoluted nature of politics, it can be difficult to begin initial research — most news articles are not too young reader-friendly and headlines are too snappy to absorb the information you need to know. Especially as a monthly publication, we face limitations in covering important events as they unfold, and we recognize the need to adapt accordingly.
Thus, as part of our initiative to supply the Aragon community with relevant, accessible news, the Aragon Outlook has begun posting briefs on our Instagram page once a week, summarizing key local or national events in an engaging content form that is halfway between a full article and a headline.
Staying informed is only the first step, though; meaningful discussions are necessary to shape political understanding and foster community. To encourage such critical thinking skills, the Outlook would like to host a recorded discussion on a prompt related to one of these current events. This will feature five people with a spectrum of opinions gathering to discuss the merits of the prompt in a 15-minute YouTube video. We plan to have this conversation guided by moderating questions as well as having allotted time for everyone to speak in the beginning to ensure fairness, accuracy and accountability.
Besides being beneficial for the people involved, viewers will be able to understand these issues from a high school perspective and hear from their peers. By promoting the spread of this news, we can create a more informed Aragon school community and thus a more informed voter public.
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bit.ly/OutlookDiscussion25
