A disengagement with current affairs is a depressing theme of our times.

Quality journalism underpins democracy. Newspapers have a duty to hold politicians to account and disclose information vested interests would rather keep secret. Good journalism must also inform and entertain.


Investigative and campaigning journalism makes those in authority take notice and introduces change for the better.

Falling sales might suggest newspapers no longer have such a vital role to fulfill, but that is not the case, as a new collaboration between The Herald and Times Group and curriculum body Learning and Teaching Scotland demonstrates.

Under the initiative, schools across Scotland will have access to a variety of news stories written by journalists from The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times.

The stories, re-written for a younger audience, will appear on a website called the Daily What News, which will provide a wealth of additional background information on the articles, as well as lesson plans and interactive quizzes.

As an up-to-date resource for pupils taking modern studies courses, the resource has obvious benefits.

But what will be really interesting is whether access to it, which is through the schools intranet Glow, will spark a wider, more long-lasting interest in current affairs.

If the project helps to makes lessons more interesting and creates a new resource for teachers to draw on, then it will have been a success.

But if it can also begin a process where greater numbers of pupils grow up understanding the work of the media in our society, as well as questioning its role, then it will truly have been worthwhile.

Andrew Denholm, Herald Education Correspondent