In a time of increased global conflict, North students have a variety of ways of staying up to date on current events occurring both within and outside of their community.
Information reaches students through a constant stream of formal and informal sources, including student-run publications, full-class discussions, and quick scrolls through Instagram.
According to senior Alara Bhatia, like many students, she takes a traditional approach to finding news.
“I think most people I know who try to make an effort to stay updated with politics and news on a bigger scale read articles and online newspapers,” she said.
While Bhatia said that this source of finding the news is ideal for her, she added that there are downsides. “There’s a lot of bias everywhere. Just because an article has no lies doesn’t mean it’s the complete truth,” she said.
However, according to freshman Sofia Khoory, like many of her peers, she discovers news through social media. For instance, she said that North’s athletic page and other sports accounts keep her updated on games and scores.
According to Khoory, students frequently follow national-level events by tuning in to social media posts from official news outlets, rather than reading the full articles.
“I see both national and more local types of news on Instagram,” Khoory said. “If I see a post from a big newspaper, it’s usually just the headline, and that’s where people get the information from.”
Khoory added that her feed has recently shown coverage of the conflict in Iran, though she noticed a consistent focus on national stories regarding immigration and tariffs.
Meanwhile, other students stay updated on the news through their history and civics-related classes.
According to sophomore Hanna Balis, while she actively makes an effort to stay informed with national news, her elective civics class, Close Up: Seminar in Government, also allows her to explore more current events.
Close Up is a semester-long course that examines the foundations of American government while incorporating current events, projects, discussions, debates, and more.
History teacher Kathryn Codd, who teaches Close Up, added that the curriculum has the freedom and flexibility to include any recent news.
According to Balis, Close Up focuses on national-level political news. “I feel like every class there is going to be something about the news. We’ll have big class discussions about issues every class and most of the time our assignments or projects have to do with these same topics,” she said.
Codd added that she integrates current events into her history classes by connecting the present to the past to help students understand the importance of history.
“One of the big goals of studying history is helping you understand and give you context for what’s going on in the world today,” Codd said.
Codd noted that elected representatives have a duty to uphold the Constitution but also to act in the best interest of all the people that they represent, including non-voters.
“Whether you are voting or not, there are people making decisions based on what you think so that is why we need to understand how the system works, how to contact people, and how to make decisions,” Codd said.
Although Close Up presents most news in the form of articles or podcasts by well-known American outlets, Codd said that most of her students’ primary source of news is social media.
She added that while social media can expose students to a wider variety of perspectives, the algorithm often promotes content that reflects the viewpoint of the consumer.
“What is most important is that when you are consuming biased media that you are aware and conscious of the bias,” Codd said.
In addition to large-scale politics and national news, according to freshman Alyssa Jarry, student-run publications at North help her learn about what is going on locally, including The Update and The Newtonite.
According to senior Micah Klein, a producer on The Update, “We create feature stories about the things in our community, often profiles of students or teachers, events, and more pressing matters.” Recently, The Update covered the student-led walkouts at North in protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Jarry added that she also reads The Newtonite, the student-run newspaper and website.
“As a student, I’ll read The Newtonite because it’s nice to know on such a local level what’s happening around me,” she said.
According to junior Shonali Sen, a co-editor-in-chief of The Newtonite, the newspaper strives to provide students with consistent access to accurate news.
