The start of the semester means the start of weekly news quizzes I give to my journalism students. I tell them on the first day that I give these quizzes, not to torture them as some may think, but to prepare them to enter the world of media. Yes, they should know what's going on in the world as future media professionals, however, there is a much more practical reason.
Often times when they are applying for jobs, potential employers will give them a news quiz. I've had colleagues who have moved to the middle of nowhere and took a news quiz about local government, politics, the educational system, etc. as part of the application process. Also, when I toured CNN in Atlanta last year with my students, they told us that people applying for internships and entry-level positions must take and perform well on a news quiz. AND, they keep giving those quizzes in order for folks to move up the promotion ladder at CNN.
Here's the first quiz I gave today. I think it's fairly easy, and most quizzes will probably be a bit harder than this one throughout the semester. What would your score be? No cheating! :)
1. What’s the status of the rescue efforts in Haiti?
2. Who is UT’s new football coach?
3. The U.S. celebrated the birthday of who yesterday?
4. What’s the latest on Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien on NBC?
5. According to an article on tnjn.com, is there a feral cat problem in Knoxville?
6. What's the capital of Tennessee?
7. Name one thing you want to learn this semester in this class. Be as specific as possible since this helps me plan your assignments and activities.
2 comments:
This reminds me of the quizzes I had as an undergrad in a news editing class. The professor called them "Fabulous Prizes" quizzes. We had one on acronyms, etc. They were a lot of fun :)
Wow, I don't think I did very well. More importantly, you grade these things every week? How many students do you have? Hope all is well!
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