XQ Magazine
a commitment to inclusive journalism
The XQ Magazine (Por Qué?) is an initiative of the Plural Journalism Foundation that aims to provide students with the keys and the reasons behind the news. It is designed to be a pedagogical tool for teachers, but also to reach adolescents through their families. In both form and content, it aims to offer teachers and parents an effective tool for explaining current affairs to their students or children.
Through journalism, Revista XQ aims to contribute to pupils’ knowledge, to encourage reading among teenagers, to awaken the pleasure of understanding through print. The magazine is especially aimed at adolescent students, but also at all those who, for whatever reason, need more accessible information that is easier to understand.
Revista XQ was also born with the vocation of contributing to lifelong learning. To the need for lifelong learning. Therefore, although the main objective is to reach the youngest, we want to be a useful tool for all those who see journalism as a gateway to new knowledge. In this sense, XQ Magazine offers ideas, proposals, readings and activities to go deeper into the subjects it deals with.
It aims to be an ‘island of credibility’ for students, because the more information there is, the more necessary the journalist’s mediating function becomes. The function of verifying. The function of interpreting and analysing this immense flow of information in order to give it a meaning, which serves to know and understand reality. To find the ‘why’. And, above all, to discover, among the oceans of information, what is really important, relevant, transcendent.
The purpose is to complement the training of adolescent students so that they are able to understand the avalanche of information under the guidance of a team of experts in journalism and pedagogy. The aim is to provide students with tools to understand current affairs and the world they live in; to improve reading comprehension, with content for all levels; to help teachers and families in education. And to transmit values of citizenship, community and solidarity through a careful and responsible interpretation of the news.
It is a fully inclusive project. The contents of Revista XQ are adapted to the level of understanding of the students, who are accompanied by the appropriate context and other tools that allow easy assimilation. The news items have a toolbar where the user can choose the level at which they wish to read the article – A (advanced) and B (basic). Each piece of content is accompanied by a series of multiple-choice questions to evaluate the comprehension of each news item.
The Revista XQ is designed for boys and girls aged 12 to 16, but also for anyone who, for whatever reason, needs more accessible information that is easier to understand.
Features of Revista XQ is born in the context of so-called ‘e-learning’, which encompasses a huge diversity of educational and learning practices that involve the use of the Internet or some kind of networked technology. It can be used as a supplement to (and even a substitute for) classroom teaching, as well as assisting parents in their children’s education. Since the Internet began to be assimilated into teaching in the late 1990s, the use of the Internet for activities such as online discussion, conducting online research and creating websites to accompany textbooks has become widespread in the countries around us.
Objective: The Revista XQ was created with the aim of complementing the training of adolescent students so that they are able to understand current affairs and the avalanche of information to which they have access every day, under the guidance of a team of experts in journalism and pedagogy.
Among the positive aspects proposed by Revista XQ: To provide students with tools to understand current affairs and the world in which they live. Improve reading comprehension, with content for all levels. To help teachers and parents in education. To transmit values of citizenship, community and solidarity through a guided interpretation of the news. Concept and profiles: Revista XQ is a digital informative publication that aims to present current journalistic content with a pedagogical and informative approach. The aim is to provide young people with the tools to understand the most important news of today, for which a broad cultural and experiential background is required. In the pedagogical field, it is framed within the mixed techniques of face-to-face and online education, in the sense that in order to take advantage of the maximum potential of the digital publication XQ it is necessary that an educator or facilitator (teachers, mothers or fathers…) participate. The Revista XQ is aimed primarily at mothers, fathers and teachers of young students. To all people who, for whatever reason, need information that is more accessible, easier to understand.
How it works
Revista XQ is built around a mobile-optimised website in blog format. The website is articulated as the primary channel through which the community interacts and offers spaces for participation. News is categorised in the most appropriate way so that both facilitators or educators (teachers, parents) and students can access the content that most interests them.
The contents of the Revista XQ are news of general interest, written in a way that is adapted to the level of understanding of the students, accompanied by the appropriate context and other tools that allow for easy assimilation.
Two reading levels
Each news item has a toolbar where the user can choose the level at which they wish to read the article: ‘A’ (advanced) or ‘B’ (basic). By default, level ‘A’ appears. From here, XQ gives a second chance to read the text in an even more comprehensible way. And this choice can be made ‘discreetly’ (in the case of classroom work, for example) and only for those articles that are more difficult for the student to understand.
Reading comprehension tests
Most of the content is accompanied by a series of multiple-choice questions to assess comprehension of each news item. A question is posed with four possible answers and allows for immediate automatic correction.
Complementary activities
Revista XQ offers ideas, proposals, readings and activities to go deeper into the topics it deals with. These are the complementary activities that can turn a news item into the first step of an educational project.
Organisation of the contents
The contents of Revista XQ are organised on two levels. On the front page, according to criteria of topicality and hierarchy of information. And, secondly, thematically based on what we call Trending. Here, in a very visible way, the contents are grouped according to their affinity based on very broad and open concepts.
Paper version
The contents of XQ are also published in PDF format (optimised for printing on A4 paper). Once a month, XQ is published as a paper magazine in case you want to print it. In this way, it can become school material in order to contribute, through journalism, to promote reading among children and to awaken the pleasure of understanding through print.
Newsletter version
News sent weekly by email to all subscribers to the newsletter, to share and work on with pupils or children.
Community and participation
Participatory learning involves young people as active participants in the whole learning cycle, from designing problems to evaluating solutions. The tools that Revista XQ will make available to students and educators will allow:
Registered users will be able to submit news items of interest through an editorial mailbox, which can be included on the website.
Actively participate in the XQ team’s choice of topics of interest.
Comment on the news in a pedagogical environment moderated by the XQ team.
Use tools to assess current affairs knowledge and understanding.
Add-on’ content for media.
The Revista XQ can be integrated into other existing media in two ways:
The block can be incorporated as a section, using a graphical format that integrates into the media system. Media outlets that have an XQ version can incorporate a button or link to consult it online, as well as a button to print the news directly in ‘for young people’ format.
A project of the Plural Journalism Foundation
Revista XQ is published by the Fundació Periodisme Plural. Founded in February 2013 by a group of journalists and intellectuals, the Foundation publishes several digital newspapers, including El Diario de la Educación. Together they constitute a project with the aim of contributing to the quality of democracy through the practice of journalism. As the Foundation’s statutes state, the aim is to vindicate “independent, critical and free journalism, and the promotion of information and public debate as vital elements of citizenship”.
The Fundació Periodisme Plural has been declared of social interest and is one of the first non-profit organisations created in the field of journalism. The Foundation has its own view of reality and explains it with total transparency. A view that can be summed up in the defence of human rights, including the “right to truthful and plural information”. The right to know.
