National Community and News Literacy Roundtables Project launches

ASNE Staff

September 22, 2014

Filed under News & Media Literacy Corner

A national project to help communities around the country build a robust news literacy capacity at the local level was announced today by the American Society of News Editors. "With Americans getting more news from Twitter, Facebook and other social media, it's important that we all learn the tools...

Lesson plans and activities available for teaching the Constitution year-round

September 9, 2014

Filed under News & Media Literacy Corner

In case you missed Constitution Day on Sept. 17, Free Speech Week to be held Oct. 20-26 will give you yet another opportunity to incorporate the Constitution and the First Amendment into your curriculum. Several organizations are offering free resources that teachers can use in their classrooms to...

Upcoming News Literacy Summit has four ‘key issues’

September 8, 2014

Filed under News & Media Literacy Corner

Because News Matters: A News Literacy Summit will take place Sept. 14-15 in Chicago and will focus on the importance of teaching young people to differentiate fact from fiction in the news. About 100 students, journalists, scholars and teachers will share their ideas and concerns about the news, misinformation...

Seeking teachers to help develop model news-literacy lesson plans

August 18, 2014

Filed under News & Media Literacy Corner

Teachers interested in helping develop model news-literacy lesson plans for English, social studies, science, math, health and technology should contact Le Anne Wiseman at [email protected] Teachers selected for the project will be compensated $3,000 each from a grant funded by the Robert R. McCormick...

Could debunking become the newest social media trend?

April 10, 2014

Filed under News & Media Literacy Corner

Recent studies show that young people have difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction on the Internet, but this lack of media literacy extends beyond high schoolers. Two bloggers recognize that the reflex to share photoshopped images and other misinformation could have a solution. Adrienne LaFrance and...

Teaching news literacy to students important in the digital era

March 13, 2014

Filed under News & Media Literacy Corner

The News Literacy Project posted a piece titled “News Literacy: Critical Thinking Skills for the 21st Century,” which touches on the importance of teaching news literacy to students of the digital era. Students, according to the author, are both digital natives and victims of digital naiveté. ...

Video explores importance of transparency and credibility

March 3, 2014

Filed under News & Media Literacy Corner

Alicia Shepard, former NPR ombudsman, recently discussed journalism transparency and credibility for the News Literacy Project. The independent journalist used the fallout from “60 Minutes’” mishandling of a Benghazi-related story from 2012. Through the 15-minute video, Shepard laid out the impor...

A Q&A with the experts

January 30, 2014

Filed under News & Media Literacy Corner

News and media literacy aren’t the easiest of topics to wrap your head around. To help you ease your way into the field, we’ve asked the experts some questions that might make the topic a bit simpler to grasp. We also wish to thank them now for their thoughtful responses. Clark Bell, Journalism Program...

New video gives tips for evaluating a report’s credibility

January 23, 2014

Filed under News & Media Literacy Corner

The News Literacy Project has posted a new video lesson on its Learn Channel, "A Consumer's Guide to Sourcing in News Reports." In this lesson, Paul Saltzman, assistant managing editor for projects at the Chicago Sun-Times, discusses the various kinds of sourcing and offers helpful guidance for evaluat...

Verification lacking in several recent stories popular on the Web

December 18, 2013

Filed under News & Media Literacy Corner

The Center for News Literacy's lesson of the week delves into the topic of verification for online content. Several recent stories that were popular on the Internet turned out to be hoaxes. This resource includes questions to spark discussion in the classroom....