Journalists from AOL and NBC visited the auditorium during fifth and sixth periods May 24 to discuss their careers and the importance of distinguishing between fact and fiction.
Three journalists spoke to students during lunch: Tracie Potts, a NBC reporter who covers national and international news focusing on health; Andrea Stone, AOL News’ senior Washington correspondent and Bill Gentile, an independent journalist and documentary filmmaker.
After a brief overview of their careers, the three explained the challenges facing modern news consumers.
“Our job as news consumers is to try and decide who is giving us real information,” Gentile said. “Here in Washington D.C., we have access to hundreds of sources right at our fingertips, but many have ulterior motives.”
Potts explained the importance of thorough reporting and relying only on valid sources.
“When I cover NBC’s morning news, I often only get a minute to a minute and a half to cover an issue,” Potts said. “With such little time to cover complex issues like the healthcare vote, we as journalists can’t waste a single second on invalid information.”
The journalists came as part of the News Literacy Project that was founded in 2008 by Alan Miller.
According to the website, the project seeks to “teach students the critical thinking skills they need to be smarter and more frequent consumers and creators of credible information across all media and platforms.”
Gentile, who shared his experiences covering conflicts such as the Contra War in Nicaragua, the Salvadoran Civil War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, emphasized the importance of journalism during wartime.
“There is so much at stake during times of conflict — hundreds of thousands of innocent lives,” Gentile said. “Asking the right questions during these times would have really helped us progress as a nation.”