Newspaper Theatre: Applying performance-based learning to journalism education

Bob Carr ' The Musical? George W Bush visits the Big Brother diary room? These are some of the scenarios devised by first-year communication students at Charles Sturt University as part of a 'Newspaper Theatre' exercise. This paper describes the application of Augusto Boal's theatre techniques, and Paulo Freire's cultural action perspectives, to critically engage communication students with media coverage of contemporary issues. Newspaper Theatre requires students to research news and advertising copy. They analyse the voice of the writer, the sources of information, the messages and the content. Working collaboratively in small groups, they then reframe the information using conventions from popular culture to reveal counterpoints, countervoices and alternative information. This paper outlines the principles and techniques of the Newspaper Theatre exercise in a way that educators from a non-drama background can apply to their classrooms.