This short film “How to Read a Newspaper” (1954) was created as an educational tool to teach the public how to read newspapers properly. It features an actor playing the role of a young college student named Bill Brant. It was created by Coronet Films; a prominent producer and distributor of educational films during the 1940’s through to the 1980’s. The film was apparently shot outside of Chicago, Illinois and the newspaper featured is the Waukegan News-Sun, which later became the Lake County News-Sun.
It opens with images of an ink press pummeling out sheets of newspaper (:15) at a busy news room (:19). A late night paper delivery is unloaded for distribution (:28) and sent up the conveyor belt (:48). Bill arrives homes scooping a rolled paper from his front lawn (:57). He opens the evening paper (1:11) casually dropping it after scanning the sports and comics section. He openly states his disinterest in the rest of the paper as the narrator prompts the boy to read further (2:13). Here Bill notices an article which directly affects him about a planned new stadium (2:19). Bill begins to read through the rest of the issue (2:48) scanning over broad headlines. The larger the headline the more important the news (2:59). Bill learns to scan across to the left and down and across to the left again (3:24). As he reads the rest of the story about the school board’s decision on a new stadium (4:38) he notices the headlines do not deliver the full story. The first paragraph; known as the lead, is designed to present the most important facts (4:58). It answers the questions of who, what, when, where, how and sometimes why. The lead is pointed out on the paper (5:55). The student decides to read the paper every day for a week (6:09). Bill scans the paper with ease (6:23) taking more interest in particular subjects and collecting newspaper clippings (6:30). By the end of the week Bill admits to getting better grades (7:03). He pulls out a second paper (7:20). Bill notes the opposing paper claims rising taxes will be too big of a burden on the community (8:07). Here he begins to explain the necessity of reading more than one paper; on comparing the issues as the stories are written by very human and very biased hands. Bill opens the paper to the editorials section explaining this is where opinions help to determine the facts of the news (8:35). A housewife uses a paper to shop with ease (8:44). A young man searches for employment in the wanted section (8:49). The film begins to wrap up with a reminder the news comes from often opinionated, potentially incorrect and constantly under deadline hands (9:35).
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
