Insider Spotlight: Amy Pelman
Welcome to the Insider Spotlight, where we feature real questions from our team and answers from educators who are making a difference teaching news literacy. This month, our featured educator is Amy Pelman, a high school librarian in California.
Q: This fall, we’re focusing on the role of news literacy skills in helping students make confident, informed decisions about their personal lives, like their health and wellness. How do you see news literacy education applying to real-world challenges faced by teens?
A: We all know that teens have so much going on — from their mental and physical development to the huge role that socialization plays in their lives, and the pressures of school, work, family and college. It’s a lot. Add in the endless firehose of information they come across while scrolling, and you’ve got a recipe for all kinds of mishaps, including falling for news, products, or ideas that may not be accurate or in their best interest. News literacy education provides crucial practice for teens to use specific critical thinking skills when they are not in the classroom. The idea is that, after learning and practicing with an instructor at school, they will remember to pause and verify before simply accepting or indiscriminately sharing information when they are out there on their own scrolling or interacting online.
Q: What are some of the biggest roadblocks students face when trying to distinguish credible information from misinformation?
A: One that jumps to mind is the ever-growing sophistication of certain information campaigns, such as pink-slime journalism, targeted advertising inundation and AI deepfakes. It takes know-how, energy and willingness to think critically when encountering them.
Q: When you’re working with students on research skills, how do you help them understand the influence of algorithms behind the information they encounter?
A: One way is to have two students conduct the same search side-by-side. Often, it is eye-opening for them to see that they will each have considerably different results. We can then begin to discuss why that is, what it means for our access to information and what we can do about it.
Q: What news literacy skills do you think students will rely on most after they graduate from high school?
A: I think there are several things they may tap into, including flow of information, journalistic intent, lateral reading and verification techniques. But most of all, I hope they will carry a discerning mindset that prompts them to remember what they practiced during their high school research endeavors!
Q: How do you approach conversations with students who strongly believe a claim that is false or misleading?
A: I understand that this is a complicated topic and difficult to broach, especially because there may be influence coming from family or friends. I try to remind students that all information presented as factual can and should be held to the same standard, and all claims deserve to be verified using proven methods. If the willingness is there, I’d ask them to consider who is behind the information, what is the evidence, and to compare various sources and claims.
Q: What advice would you give to another librarian who wants to incorporate more news literacy into their programming?
A: Find your best instructional partners. For us, it’s our journalism and history teachers. In terms of class time, start small and simply. I like to ask students how they heard about [insert some recent, widely known event or piece of information]? This is a great way to get them thinking about their own “information diet,” and provides a perfect segue into other news literacy topics.
