In this article, ND correspondent Tom Heneghan explains the tension between the immediate and the eventual in journalistic reporting. In this vein, what is “urgent incrementalism”? Help boost students’ media literacy skills with this text and accompanying classroom activity.

Exercise: Read the article and define “urgent incrementalism” as a class. Then, have students scan today’s headlines and each pick one story to read. Does their story lean “urgent” or “incremental”? How might that change the way a reader understands the issue at hand?