With a full schedule of classes, homework and even a part-time job, NIU students may not have time to pay attention to all of the latest goings-on in the world. There may not be much time to open a newspaper or turn on the news.

But is it important for students to stay up to date with the news? Should they be expected to know David Petraeus and not just David Letterman? How about Pervez Musharraf and not just Paris Hilton?

“Everyone should pay attention to what’s going on in the world,” said Sabryna Cornish, assistant professor of communication. “It’s very important.”

Jay Coplin, visiting assistant professor of communication, gives current events quizzes to students in his Basic News Writing classes and he talked about the results.

“Most students weren’t up to date and weren’t following the news,” he said.

But Coplin said this trait isn’t unique to just college students.

“The average citizen isn’t discussing most news stories,” he noted.

Cornish thinks that students do pay attention to the news, but what has changed is the way in which they get that news.

“More than anything, they probably read newspapers less,” she said. “Students look at a lot of blogs and online sites in general.”

She did note that students “need to be careful” to distinguish between news sites that are credible and those that are not.

Mark Skiba, a junior journalism major, thinks that students tend to pay more attention to the news the closer they get to graduation.

“As they move up through college, they start to care what’s going on in the real world,” he said.

Skiba also added that students’ habits have changed over time.

“I think over the past two to three years, college students have been paying attention to job markets and economics,” he said.

Coplin suggested a way for students to pay more attention to the news, while not changing their routine.

“It is possible to get news online,” Coplin said. “It’s possible to have anything for your homepage.”

He said that rather than Facebook or YouTube, students should select a news Web site as their homepage.

Students may have an excuse for not staying up to date with current events, but it may not take too much time to stay informed.

“College-age students have a lot more to distract them now – they’re busier.” Cornish said. “They have more technology to distract them. [But] Everybody has 10 minutes a day to go online and go look at newspapers.”

Click here for the answers to the quiz.