How to read the New York Times for How We Know What We Know Spring, 2018

The purpose of your daily reading of the New York Times is three-fold: 1. To help you become a more informed citizen of the world. 2. To open up your mind to the viewpoints of people across the globe. 3. To help you pass quizzes that will contribute to a high grade in the course.

Regardless of the weight you assign to any of these reasons, you should, by the end of the semester, be a much better consumer of information and a much more capable lifelong learner, a goal we often forget when we cram a whole bunch of information into a few weeks of “just add water” instruction.

So, as we get started this semester, your professors would like to give you some hints and suggestions about how to read The Times and what to expect when you are asked to account for your readings. First, there is no magic to either the digital editions of The Times (www.nytimes.com and the smart phone apps) or the paper version. Both contain the same information, but the ordering and emphasis of the material often appears to be different. The top story on the Web may not correspond to the “lead” story on the printed version, but the “lead” story on the printed version will, in fact, still be very near the top of the Web edition. Don’t be fooled: This IS an important story, one that is more likely to be part of a quiz than a story that appears deep inside the paper or deep inside the digital digest.

To show you what we mean by how stories are ordered in each format, we’ve illustrated an example on the last pages of this memo. The print and web versions are closely correlated. In the print edition, the “lead” story – the top right-hand story – is the hiring pick, which is the No. 1 story on the Web, and El Chapo – the top left-hand story – is the “off-lead” on the front page and the No. 3 story on the Web. .

So, when you read the paper, you should focus on the stories that Times editors deem to be the most important of the day – but not just the two on the top right and left. The whole front page is important on the print edition and all the stories featured as blurbs on the Web page are as important as well. Again, most of these are the same stories, but the presentation may not look much the same.

Remember, too, that news includes important international, entertainment, sports, business and lifestyle stories. Generally, the signal of their extreme importance is when editors elevate those stories to the front page or to the top section of the Web page. At that point, the “agenda-setting function” has pushed that story into the circle of events or issues that comprise our daily national conversation. The Super Bowl is an example. How the NFL deals with CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) is another.

Do you need to memorize the spelling of President Bashar al-Assad, the ruler of Syria? Yes. But you should also know he is the head of the Syrian Ba’ath Party, an ally of Iran, and that his fate may well affect the Middle East and the American and global economies. Should you know the name of the current Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson? Yes. Should you be able to spell his name? Yes. Do you need to know his hometown? No. Dates are important only as they relate to seismic change – July 4, September 11, December 7 (Pearl Harbor day), November 22 (JFK assassination) – not because those dates appear in predictable sequence on the calendar each year.

Finally, if you are going to use The Times on the Web, we encourage you to read the National Edition, plus the International Edition, which you can reach by clicking on the link at the top left of the regular Web page or by going to http://international.nytimes.com/. Again, many of the stories will be repeats, but the global stuff is gathered here in one place.

Thanks to the Office of Global Learning at FIU, students can obtain an annual subscription to the digital version of the New York Times at no charge through the following link:

https://goglobal.fiu.edu/accessnyt.

Know the world. Discuss the world. Enjoy the world.