News Literacy Training

About this Lesson

Katherine Reed
Associate Professor,
Print and Digital Journalism,
Missouri School of Journalism,
University of Missouri

“News media literacy” isn’t just about being able to read and understand the news; the term also refers to the ability to analyze the news for reliability and accuracy and distinguish between fact, opinions and assertions. This task — for the journalist and the citizen in a democratic society — grows increasingly difficult in the digital age as the number of news generators proliferates and the process of creating content becomes less uniform.

What you will learn

After completing this unit, you should be able to:

Understand the fundamental role of a free press
Discern the difference between what appears on an editorial page and in the news sections — and begin to appreciate the challenge of identifying “news” that doesn’t announce itself as belonging to either of those two categories
Understand how news organizations practice transparency and what forms it may take
Appreciate the importance of journalists reaching out to all stakeholders in reporting the news

How the lesson works

First of all, this is an asynchronous lesson unit, which means no live events are scheduled for this lesson. You can complete learning activities at your own pace whenever is convenient for you. Despite the asynchronous nature, the learning tasks are organized to help you succeed.

To be successful in this unit, please complete the following tasks:

• Watch the lecture.
• Take the quiz to test your own understanding. This will help you to strengthen the concepts you just learned.
• Optional: Due to the amount of content to be covered in a single unit, we encourage you read these additional resources. Some of the quiz questions might come from the readings in Additional Resources section.