NLP News

When David Teeghman, a teacher at Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School in Chicago, first heard about the Checkology® virtual classroom, it was a no-brainer: “I was like, ‘YES, this is a resource that my students need to have access to.’” Navigating the information landscape these days is difficult enough for adults — and even more…

“Facts have to be the final measure of truth.”   That’s what fact-checker Jim Fingal (portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe) says in the play The Lifespan of a Fact. At the News Literacy Project, we believe that the lifespan of a fact is eternal.  The play, based on a 2012 book by Fingal and writer John D’Agata…

ProPublica Illinois (@ProPublicaIL) regularly uses Twitter to answer questions about journalism. Recently a reader asked: “How do you go about finding those new ideas? Is it by brainstorming? Or following on tips?” Here’s the response from ProPublica journalist Jodi Cohen: “Reporters are always on the lookout for ways to inform the public about the world…

For Nicole Finnesand, integrating current events into her lessons at a middle school in the southeast corner of South Dakota was daunting — until she encountered the News Literacy Project and its Checkology virtual classroom. She teaches in Colton, a tiny town (population 676, according to 2017 Census estimates) about 25 miles northwest of Sioux Falls.…

Teachers and librarians often find themselves standing for long periods, and School Library Journal has a solution for their fatigued feet: the “Freedom” line of women’s shoes from the Samuel Hubbard Shoe Company, featuring the First Amendment engraved on the sole. Even better, SLJ executive editor Kathy Ishizuka notes, each purchase benefits the News Literacy…

Once again, Washingtonian magazine has included the News Literacy Project as a local nonprofit that is “worthy of your money.” Adia H. Robinson writes that NLP is among “ten that we’re particularly enthusiastic about this year.”

Misinformation spreads rapidly on social media following natural disasters, mass shootings, terrorist attacks and other dramatic news events. In addition to seeing doctored photos and patently false “breaking news,” we’re also likely to be bombarded with conspiracy theories — another subset of misinformation. Since many of these involve alleged actions by the government, we need…

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, when family and friends gather around a festive table and reflect on what they’re grateful for. In a world where we are constantly buffeted by waves of information (some of it credible, much of it not), I’m grateful for the hard work of the team at the News Literacy Project…

Join the News Literacy Project (NLP), WBEZ and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) for a NewsLitCamp on Thursday, Nov. 29, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. WBEZ (91.5 FM) is Chicago’s NPR affiliate; it also produces This American Life and co-produces, with NPR, the popular current affairs quiz show Wait Wait … Don’t Tell…

Nov. 5-9 is Media Literacy Week — our favorite week of the year, when champions of news and media literacy raise awareness of the critical need and available tools to discern and create credible information as students, consumers and citizens. Here are some things you can do each day during Media Literacy Week to support…

Damaso Reyes, our director of partnerships, was interviewed for a report on media literacy that was published yesterday in El País, the largest national news outlet in Spain. The article explored the importance of ensuring that students learn to sort fact from fiction at a young age and cited our Checkology® virtual classroom as a…

NLP has long described the misinformation and disinformation epidemic as “a public health crisis.” Now it’s a topic of discussion at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting. Alan C. Miller, our founder and CEO, will be joined by experts from the RAND Corporation and the Center for Media Literacy to discuss “Facts Matter: Truth, Media…

Christine Nyirjesy Bragale, NLP’s senior vice president of communications, is taking the news literacy message to Brazil this week. Between Nov. 6 and Nov. 13 she will be leading discussions on media literacy and information disorder, open to the public, in Manaus, Brasília and Sāo Paulo; she will also meet with students, educators and journalists.…

Small Humans, a Mashable series about raising children, explored the skills children need to avoid being fooled by “fake news.” Among the experts interviewed was Peter Adams, our senior vice president of education, who said that equipping teens to deal with misinformation is a moral imperative. “Information is the basis of students’ civic literacy, civic…

Alan Miller, founder and CEO of the News Literacy Project, was a featured guest on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Tuesday morning. He discussed misinformation, the upcoming midterm elections and NLP’s “Double-Check Your Facts” campaign, featuring The Easiest Quiz of All Time, and took calls from viewers.

The political reporters at the Los Angeles Times wrap up their guide to the midterm elections with some timely advice: “And remember to do your homework ahead of time. As the educational nonprofit News Literacy Project reminds, double-check your facts before you vote.” They also feature the video of The Easiest Quiz of All Time.…

Americans head to their polling places in less than two weeks — and in each election cycle, it’s becoming more and more difficult to make sure that we actually know what we need to know before casting our ballots. (Check out our “Double-Check Your Facts” PSA to see how people did on The Easiest Quiz…

NBC4, the NBC station in Washington, D.C., broadcast a report on our Checkology virtual classroom and the students who use it at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. They said that they get most of their news from social media, but, as one noted, “half of it’s probably lies.” Checkology, said teacher Patricia Hunt, “helps…

Noel Achariam, a reporter for the online news portal The Malaysian Insight, talked with NLP’s Alan Miller during a recent visit to the United States (registration required). The rise in social media as a primary source for news has created a pathway for the spread of misinformation and disinformation, Miller said, because “there is no…

Election Day is just two weeks away — and in each election cycle, it gets more and more difficult for us to make informed decisions before casting our ballots. As political rhetoric tips toward misinformation frenzy, it’s increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction and truth from outright falsehoods. Russian troll farms, bots and other…