Speakers Corner
Media Literacy Assignment
GRADEsix
Speakers Corner?
Speakers Corner is a television series that aired weekly on Citytv from 1990 to 2008, featuring numerous
short segments on a variety of topics as recorded by members of the general public in the form of rants,
big-ups, shout-outs, jokes, music performances, etc. After the video was complete, it was edited for
television. The show was an example of Citytv founder Moses Znaimer's philosophy of interactive
broadcasting, and essentially created what some 21st-century media outlets would retroactively label as a
precursor to YouTube.
Speakers' Corner began in 1990 with a video booth outside the Citytv studios in Toronto. The booth's
original intent was for viewers to record news commentary and "letter to the editor" segments for
broadcast on CityPulse, but the booth soon proved so popular, with many segments being recorded that fell
far outside the initial concept, that the decision was soon made to create a full half-hour weekly series.
Samples
(a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmDc0B1pyAs
(b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iiIYd2cEtU
Your Task
{1} Find one other student to work with.
{2} Search for an article in www.teachingkidsnews.com that you have an 'issue' with.
{3} Create a script for a 2-minute 'rant' about an article/issue/current event found in teachingkidsnews.com
web-site
{4} Record your video in the booth set-up in the classroom.
{5} Time allowed for your speakers corner rant: 1:45min - 2:00min.
Grading
Appropriate topic selected from www.teachingkidsnews.com
Volume and Tone
Free-Flowing or does it sound like you read a script?
Script (organization, spelling & grammatical errors)
overall impression
5 marks
10 marks
10 marks
10 marks
15 marks
Total ---- 50 marks