I was pleased to be among those participating in “Rebooting The News,” a three day event at Temple
University in Philadelphia. (read School Library Journal’s preview) Attendees came from journalism,
news, education and activism, just to name a few. Among the highlights (to me) was hearing
details of the newly developed News Literacy college course at Stony Brook University, New York.
The developer of that course, Howard Schneider, spoke at the event on Friday morning, and according
to what I saw/heard, what his students are going through is rigorous. This is not about journalism education,
but rather education for all. Working groups had lengthy discussions about what this might look like in
American schools and why all of this is critical. Details are available at the event’s wiki.
Another related initiative, dubbed The News Literacy Project, aimed at middle and high school students,
is the brainchild of former Los Angeles Times reporter Alan Miller, and has just gotten started: details here.
TNLP has posted its promotional video on YouTube and you can watch it here.As part of the continuing project to spread the word about “news literacy” and its importance in K-12 education,
I have volunteered to assist the RTN project’s co-directors, Renee Hobbs (Temple University) and Bill Densmore
(University of Massachusetts), correlate the program’s goals and objectives to current K-12 teaching standards.
In addition, I will use this space to provide links to news stories, previous research and surveys regarding young people,
civic engagement and news.
Frank Baker, (Media Literacy Clearinghouse) October 26, 2008
NOTE: Read the Connected Classroom Wiki blog post about this project; or Inkworthy’s post
NOTE: In March 2009, Stony Brook hosted a three day news literacy conference and has created this website. In 2011,
it held a follow-up conference: read more about it here.
What is news literacy?
A definition offered by Howard Schneider (Dean of Journalism, Stony Brook University):
“the ability to use critical thinking skills to judge the reliability and credibility of news reports, whether they come
via print, TV, on the Internet” (we don’t use the word truth) “reliable information is actionable information– it allows news
consumers to make a judgment, reach a conclusion, or take an action”
Rebooting The News conference participants’ definition:
“News surrounds us and as such news literacy is an essential life skill for everyone. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson:
Knowledge of current issues is essential to informed citizenship in a democracy. We are concerned about the effects
of media messages on children and others. Modern participatory culture makes every citizen a potential creator of
news in social media, blogs, email and the web. We believe a literate citizen understands the purposes, processes
and economics of news. Therefore, it is time for American education to include the acquisition of 21st-century,
critical-thinking skills for analyzing and judging the reliability of news, differentiating among facts, opinions and assertions
in the media we create and distribute. News literacy standards can be research based in multiple content areas.
It can be taught most effectively in cross-curricular, inquiry-based format at all grade levels. It is a necessary
component for literacy in contemporary society. ”
News Literacy & Media Literacy: What’s the difference?
Not much really. If you take the time to read NAMLE’s media literacy core principles and critical thinking questions,
you might agree that news literacy does not have to be invented: much of the work exists already.
K-12 Teaching Standards
When we think about the news and how young people are exposed to and think about news, a number of topics
arise, all of which can be used as teachable moments for educators. News comes in all forms (TV, newspapers,
magazines, Internet, cable TV and more). How do students use “critical thinking skills” (if at all) when they are
exposed to news/information? Why do they seemingly believe everything they, see, read and hear? What are the pressures
on news organizations today; how is news made and who makes it; what is the function of a gatekeeper of news;
how is news received and understood? Why do Comedy Central and cell phones get more attention than traditional
news sources? Who sets the news agenda; and who owns the media and why does it matter?
All of these topics are perfect opportunities for educators to meet state standards requirements- for example:
– critical thinking; critical viewing
– media codes & conventions;
– distinguishing fact vs. fiction;
– understanding techniques of persuasion;
– word choice;
– point-of-view (perspective); author bias;
– understanding informational texts and text features;
– information/media/visual literacy;
– economics and more.
See the many references to news in the NCSS Curriculum Standards for Social Studies Update-Draft (2008)
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– ELA: Information, Media and Technology Skills (page 1)
– Socal Studies: (Media Literacy: 12th Grade page 10)
“identify and analyze different ways that electronic news sources define and present an issue and raise significant questions about how the different points of view in the news source might affect how people define and act upon the issue” |
Read what the National Council of Teachers of English/International Reading Assn. say about media and media techniques
Recent news:
What does it mean to be news literate and who gets to decide?
News Literacy Is Not Optional If You Need to Be Well-Informed
Teaching students to assess the credibility of digital news
Half of Civics Teachers Devote Little Time to News Literacy, Study Finds (January 2014)
Pew: young readers’ appetite for news not growing (October 2013)
Newseum launches new module, cultivates news literacy (August 2013)
News Literacy Project helps students sort media fact from fiction (July 2013)
News-literacy lessons teach students how to find fact amid fiction (April 2013)
News literacy aims to teach teens to sort fact from fiction
How to be a skeptical news consumer, Skeptic (Summer 2012)
How to get smart: News literacy programs train readers to look beyond infotainment (July 2012)
News Literacy Expands to DC
Copps Calls for News Literacy Push
2011 News Literacy Conference Website
Game-based Civics and News Literacy Curriculum Expanded
Understanding News Literacy: A Youth Media Perspective
Fuzzy Logic: Why Students Need News and Information Literacy Skills
Can a Democracy Survive without Reliable Information?
News Literacy: A News Lens for Youth Media
News Literacy: How to teach students to search smart
Want Better Journalism: Boost News Literacy
A Program Teaches Teens What to Believe in the Digital World
The News Literacy Project: Bringing Accountability Into the Classroom
McCormick Foundation grants $5 million to news literacy
McCormick Foundation Invests More Than $5 Million to Promote News Literacy
News Literacy Project Unveils New Video
Former Idaho Falls editor Miller joins Stony Brook U.
Study reveals teens don’t like dumbed-down news
The News: What’s True?
Standards of news literacy: “What’s at stake here, isn’t the newspaper-it’s the nation”. (syllabus)
Leap of Faith: inside the movement to build an audience of citizens (CJR, July/Aug 09)
Crap Detection 101
Media Literacy: What is News?
It’s important to teach kids how to navigate the information highway
News You Can Use: media literacy initiative aims to connect students/journalists
‘News literacy critical to democracy’
Journalism Giants Push For News Literacy
News Literacy in the Digital Age
Preparing for The New Media Literacies (Multimedia & Internet @ Schools)
Poynter Receives $125,000 Grant for Sense-Making Project
Proposal unveiled to hire 50 laid-off journalists to teach “news literacy”
LSU Creates First ‘News Literacy’ Endowed Chair
March 11-13 Stony Brook Hosts News Literacy: Setting A National Agenda; Highlights; photos
TV news outlets seeking out youthful eyes and ears
WPIX gives cameras to students, tells them to submit stories
What Young People Don’t Like About the Web—And News On It
Apply for Stony Brook Univ. Summer News Literacy HS Teacher Institute
New Program Teaches Students to Evaluate News
The News Literacy Project Kicks Off in NYC (Feb 2009)
Enhancing News Literacy (School Library Journal, Jan. 2009)
Internet Overtakes Newspapers As News Source (Pew Study, Dec. 2008)
What makes news?
Online news more trusted than television, blogs
A Scenario for news (blog post)
Overload: too much information? (Nov/Dec 08 Columbia Journalism Review)
VCR/TIVO/DVR Alert: The IFC Media Project (Premieres Nov. 18)
The Future of Journalism (National Press Club Forum)
Where Do The Youth Get Their News? (November 2008)
Are Media Students Ignorant and cynical about Free Press ? (November 2008)
Iowa State U Study Finds New Media Not Replacing Traditional Media; Newspapers, Magazines, Radio, TV See Slight Increase In Use
News Blues (Vanity Fair)
The rumor mill that won’t stop running (October 2008)
NewsTrust.net Helps Americans Separate Fact from Fiction (October 2008)
Encouraging Kids to Dig Deeper in the Digital Age (October 2008)
The Responsibilities of Citizenship: A Bundle of Literacies (October 2008)
Link TV: News literacy tools available/Link TV Lets Students Edit TV News Online
knowthenews.tv: A Media Literacy Teaching Tool
Turning Pages: High School Journalism in Transition
Journalism And That Whole ‘Citizenship’ Thing (Sept. 2008)
The News Literacy Project Launches Website and Plans Pilot (Sept. 2008)
Key News Audiences Now Blend Online and Traditional Sources Pew Study (August 2008)
Global News Literacy (CSpan Video, May 2008)
Newspapers Have Lost Their Future To Internet Media (March 2008)
Supply and Demand: Journalism Must Invest In Educated Consumers (Jan/Feb 2008)
State of the News Media– 2008
Stony Brook University Announces Nation’s First Center For News Literacy (Sept. 2007)
Teaching Journalism In The Digital Age: Nieman Reports (Fall 2007)
Young People and News (July 2007)
Telling Bogus From True: A Class in Reading News (May 2007)
Mandatory Testing and News in the Schools.(January 2007)
Kids get news from weird places. Not. (August 2006)
Survey: Slowing growth of online news users (July 2006)
What’s News? (Educational Leadership, 2005)
NCTE Resolution on Teaching of Journalism In English (2004)
Reading Between The Lines (American Journalism Review, March 2003)
Media Use Among Young People (2003)
News Literacy Classes Graduate Media-Savvy Students (2000)
Teaching resources:
NEW: 2014 NIE Week Curriculum/Lesson Plans (API/Newseum)
Check Out The News (LAMP)
Straight from The Source (Factcheck)
NAA Foundations HIGH FIVE curriculum
Newstrust’s News Literacy Guide
links to middle-high school news lesson plans
Lesson Plan Voter Fraud: Spot the Point Of View
Lesson Plans Global Media Literacy: A New Curriculum (registration required)
Curriculum/lesson plans: Media Moments (media literacy & news curriculum)
Newseum: Lesson Plans/ Learning Center/Test Your News IQ
Research: Lifelong Readers: Driving Civic Engagement
What is News ? (YouTube)
Teens Blog The News (ppt)
Decoding Visual News Content
News War (PBS 4 part series) teacher guide
Newspapers In The Classroom (NCTE recommended resources)
Using Newspapers in the Classroom
Using The Newspaper In Your Classroom (USA Today)
Using the Newspaper to Teach Curriculum Standards for the Social Studies (NIE)
Journalism Kids Still Do Better (Updated research)
A Teacher’s Guide to Using Newspapers to Enhance Language Arts Skills
Is Seeing Believing? (Visual literacy: Media Literacy Clearinghouse)
News/Journalism teaching resources (Media Literacy Clearinghouse)
Social studies/media literacy resources (Media Literacy Clearinghouse)
Big Media/Media Ownership (Media Literacy Clearinghouse)
Teaching The News/Current Events (Education World)
How to Use Newspapers to Promote Standards
News bias explored: the art of reading the news
Recommended Texts:
The Future of the First Amendment: The Digital Media, Civic Education, and Free Expression Rights in America’s High Schools
Young Citizens In A Digital Age: Political Engagement, Young People and New Media
Applying NCTE/IRA Standards In Classroom Journalism Projects Activities & Scenarios
How to Watch TV News (revised edition)
Using Newspapers in The Classroom
Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News
A History of News
The Sociology of News/ The Power of News |
