Think about the last news story that really stuck in your mind this week. Maybe it was on the radio, on a news site, or shared in a WhatsApp group.

Now ask yourself: where did the story actually come from? Who was quoted in it? Was anyone left out? Did the headline match what the story actually said?

Most of us read the headline, skim the first few lines, and move on. In this lesson you will slow down and look at how a single news story is built, and how the same facts can look very different depending on who is telling them.

Here are the four ideas you will use in this lesson. Each one is a tool for reading a news story more carefully.

This activity has two parts. First, you will break one news story down into its parts using the Story Anatomy tool. Then you will read the same story across three Irish news outlets and notice how each one tells it differently.

You do not need any special knowledge. The tool will guide you line by line.

Take a moment to sit with what you noticed. You do not need to type anything here.

If you would like to push this a little further, here are three optional next steps. Pick whichever one fits the time you have.

• Find a primary source. Pick one figure or quote from the story you compared. Try to track it back to where it actually came from. For example, if a story quotes a CSO statistic, search for the original CSO release. Notice how often the original says something slightly more cautious than the headline.
• Read the same story from outside Ireland. If your story has an international angle, look it up on a public broadcaster from another country. Notice what an outsider's view foregrounds or leaves out.
• Spot the missing voice. Re-read the story and ask: whose perspective is not in this article at all? Tenants? Carers? Older people? Small business owners? Migrants? A missing voice is sometimes the loudest signal of how a story is framed.