With the advent of hybrid work and increasing remote work, there’s less of a distinction between a worker’s professional and personal lives. This means there’s a greater need for organizations to address current events that affect workers and their families. Traditionally, companies may have avoided discussing any events that weren’t work-related but times are changing.

A current event speech is a type of informative speech that discusses recent developments or significant issues that are relevant to the audience. Speakers in this arena often research up-to-date information and share different viewpoints with the audience to stimulate discussion. They also use engaging visuals and practice clear articulation to keep the audience’s attention and encourage participation in discussions after the speech.

This paper presents a select number of hypotheses about potential short-term and long term consequences of these Big Events, including those that impact people’s health-related beliefs, attitudes, social networks, and coping behaviors. It also considers how pre-existing societal conditions and changing “pathway variables” might influence their impact; and suggests some innovative questionnaire-based measures that could be used to measure these pathways.

A good place to start your research into current events is to check out the links below for a variety of teaching resources. For example, Resilient Educator has collected four ways teachers can relate news to students, while Facing History and Ourselves provides teaching resources on COVID-19 as well as collections for other topics such as global immigration, democracy and civic engagement, violence and injustice and the economy.