CBC Archives

Have students discuss how current events are covered in the media. Stimulate thinking by asking questions such as the following:

What big stories have been covered in the news in the last few weeks?

What do you know about these stories? Where did you learn that?

What style of reporting do you find on the front page of a newspaper? What is the tone of the lead news stories on a television or radio news program?

What is a “feature” story? What is a “human interest” story?

Why do reporters use different styles of reporting?

Tell students that the discovery of insulin made international heroes of Frederick Banting, Charles Best, John James Macleod, and James Collip. Direct students to the topic Chasing a Cure for Diabetes on the CBC Radio and Television Archives Web site. Have them view Clips #1, 2, 3, and 6, as well as Additional Clips “Brawls and bust-ups in the Banting and Best lab,” “The biography of Frederick Banting,” “Scientist, national hero, father - Frederick Banting,” and “The crash site of Sir Frederick Banting.” Assign half the class to write hard news stories and half the class to write human-interest stories on this great 20th century Canadian achievement. Have them decide on topics and gather information. They should write their stories as if they were alive at the time, as if the stories were current, and as if their audience were following the story as it unfolds.

Have students meet in small groups to read one another’s stories. Ask pairs of students who wrote about similar topics but in different styles to read their stories aloud to the class. Invite comment on the different styles, challenging students to explain why readers need and enjoy different perspectives on a single event. Ask students to describe how their own understanding of the discovery of insulin would be different if they had had access to only one kind of reporting.

Students can revisit the Additional Clips “Brawls and bust-ups in the Banting and Best lab,” “The biography of Frederick Banting,” and “Scientist, national hero, father - Frederick Banting.” Discuss how historian Michael Bliss has used research and analysis to write the story of the discovery of insulin in a way that it was not told at the time of the events. Have students compare the roles of reporters and historians in helping us to understand important events and then ask them to comment on their own role in thinking critically about the coverage of current and historical events.