A brief overview

1. WE ’ V E B E E N T E A C H I N G I T A L L A L O N G
NEWS LITERACY

2. WHAT IS IT?
• News Literacy courses challenge students by
immersing them in the act of news consumption
themselves — allowing them to realize their personal
experience and the climate of today’s news with a
hands-on approach. Center for News Literacy,
Stony Brook University
• Verification and Transparency Needed: Journalists
need to reveal not only who their sources are, but
what their connections and biases are. Stony Brook

3. WHAT IS IT?
• News literacy is the ability to use critical thinking skills
to judge the reliability and credibility of news reports
and information sources. —The News Literacy
project
• This group also encourages students to produce
news.
• NLP volunteer journalists drop in to classes
• Part of another course
• Now in Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C. areas

4. WHAT IS IT?
• “To be news literate is to build knowledge, think
critically, act civilly and participate in the
democratic process.” —Robert R. McCormick
Foundation
• News is what somebody somewhere wants to
suppress. — Lord Northcliffe, British newspaper
publisher

5. WHAT IS IT?
• News literacy is doing dirty laundry. —Dr. Megan
Fromm, JEA professional support director
• “To be news literate is to build knowledge about
how media work – and how not to be a jerk.”
• Students need to develop a process to discern fact
from fiction and assess materials.
• “What we call the news.” (Perhaps not PG rated)

6. NEWS LITERACY
• One of the 11 areas of the Journalism Education
Association’s curriculum
• Developed by Megan Fromm
• 7-week, 4-week and 2-week models
• Foundations of News Literacy
• Information-gathering and fact-checking
• Bias and credibility
• The Business of Media
• News Literacy in hybrid platforms
• News Literacy for the publications staff