## Step 1 - Speaking

Speaking & Writing: Define the media
What is The Media? What does it include? Make a list with your partner.

With your partner, answer these questions.

1. Have you read any news stories today? Why did you read those particular items?
   (interesting headline/photo.. other?)
2. What were they were about?
3. Where did you read them?
4. Can you name any large news agencies?
5. If you commented on them, how did you do it? (e.g. repost on social media/comment to friend?)
6. How many of those news items will actually matter in the next 50 years or so?

You’re going to watch a TED talk video about news. Before you watch, read these sentences and decide if they are True (T) or False (F).

| True | False
A Reuters reports on over 3.5 million news stories a year. | ... | ...
B Some stories will not matter in the future. | ... | ...
C The top story from the past year was about the economy. | ... | ...
D The speaker says that stories about the economy will always be important news. | ... | ...
E There are over 2 billion hungry people in the world. | ... | ...
F GMO crops are essential for some developed countries to survive. | ... | ...
G The USA is the world’s biggest car market. | ... | ...
H A microbe can wake up after 120,000 years. | ... | ...

Now watch the video and check your answers.
To what extent do you agree with the speaker’s concluding sentence, ‘In the long run, some news stories are more important than others’? Consider the following points:
- What is the story about?
- Who is involved in the story?
- Which country is involved?
- Is the story about science? Does that make a difference? Why/why not?