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…

Big Deal Media, which keeps track of the best educational resources available, featured NLP’s Checkology virtual classroom in the Oct. 15 issue of its K-12 Technology Newsletter, which is sent to an audience of more than 55,000 tech-savvy educators. The platform was described as “an immersive online learning hub where students in grades 6-12 can…

These days, communicating with young people about science is critical  — especially when the phrase “fake news” is often applied to scientific topics. Today’s tweens and teens are the next generation of voters; some could be casting their first ballots as soon as next month. To make good decisions, they will need both science literacy…

We are diversifying our news literacy efforts in all sorts of new ways, and here’s one that’s truly exciting: One of the most popular lessons in our Checkology® virtual classroom is now available in Spanish! “Practicing Quality Journalism”/“Practicando el periodismo de calidad” is a game-like simulation in which students assume the role of rookie reporters…

Nicholas Ibekwe was among 25 international journalists at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, D.C., last week, hearing from NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller. The group is on a two-week reporting tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department titled “Media Literacy and Combatting Misinformation.” Read Ibekwe’s report about how NLP is training future…

As civics education is increasingly part of the national conversation, and as school districts and state legislatures increasingly call for more of it, we need to have a good understanding of what civic engagement looks like for young people in the 21st century. How many civic actions from previous generations remain unchanged? How many have…

I’m always pleased to announce new partners in news literacy, but this one is especially gratifying because it offers support in a distinctive way. The Samuel Hubbard Shoe Company has shown generosity matched by creativity in pledging to give $20 to the News Literacy Project for every pair of shoes bought online from its new…

Join the News Literacy Project and the Los Angeles Times for a highly engaging (and free!) teacher-centered NewsLitCamp — a professional development event featuring breakout sessions with L.A. Times journalists. The Los Angeles Times has been covering the city, the region and the world for more than 136 years. It has won 44 Pulitzer Prizes in a variety of categories…

Join the News Literacy Project, the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Independent School District (HISD) on Friday, Nov. 9, for a highly engaging (and free!) teacher-centered NewsLitCamp — a professional development event featuring breakout sessions with Chronicle journalists. The Houston Chronicle, founded in 1901, is one of the largest newspapers in the United States. It was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in…

On Sept. 5, the editors of The New York Times’ opinion page took what they called “the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay.” The action raises an important issue in journalism and an opportunity to teach students about evaluating unnamed sources in the news. By “unnamed sources,” I am referring to the people who…

In an opinion piece for PCMag, veteran tech reporter Tim Bajarin says the News Literacy Project and its programs should “become a fundamental building block of our students’ educational process” because it offers “the proper tools to judge between fact and fiction”: “It does not tell students which news source to use but rather, teaches…

Our founder and CEO was the featured guest recently on the National Press Club’s podcast, Update-1. “We have students asking ‘What is news?’” said Alan C. Miller, explaining how our work tackles a great need for news literacy when credible news is mixed into social feeds already filled with rumors, ads and propaganda.

Don’t automatically diss Wikipedia, says the News Literacy Project’s director of education

“There is hope for your children to be critical thinkers and not merely test-takers,” says NLP board member Walt Mossberg during the “yup” part of This Week in Nope, a podcast that offers a droll review of the week’s news. Hosts Rachel Dodes and Brian Hecht asked Mossberg, the former executive editor of Recode, to appear…

John Silva, NBCT, our director of education, is presenting a session at the 2018 conference of the Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE), which describes itself as “the most valuable and comprehensive professional development opportunity in the world for any person working with students ages 10–15.” John’s topic: “Creating a Classroom Where Facts Prevail and Students Become…

In an article published today in Fast Company — a magazine that reports on innovations in technology, leadership, ideas and design — Mark Sullivan and Tim Bajarin write about NLP and our decade of work, first in individual classrooms and now online. Their conclusion: “The News Literacy Project has emerged as one of the most…

Would you like to empower your students by providing them with the news literacy skills they need to become active and engaged participants in civic life? Our online professional development sessions are for you! Teaching News Literacy is an affordable series of four online workshops that meet these needs. Led by Peter Adams, NLP’s senior vice president…

Join the News Literacy Project (NLP), Bloomberg BNA and Arlington (Virginia) Public Schools on Tuesday, Aug. 28, for a highly engaging, teacher-centered NewsLitCamp featuring breakout sessions with Bloomberg BNA journalists. This professional development event will be held at Bloomberg BNA’s headquarters in Crystal City (1801 S. Bell St., Arlington, VA 22202) from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. NLP empowers educators to provide students with the skills…

In a previous post, I discussed holding controversial conversations about current events in the classroom. As an extension of that topic, I’m sharing some ideas and resources about a challenge common in public debate, commentary and social media: the use of logical fallacies. Just what are logical fallacies? The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL,…

As the urgency grows for a more news-literate nation, so does demand grow for the News Literacy Project. And today we are more prepared than ever to meet that demand: I’m thrilled to announce the launch of version 2.0 of our Checkology virtual classroom, an expansion made possible thanks to a $1 million grant from…

Mother Jones is offering readers some practical tips for identifying disinformation online — including guidance from Peter Adams, NLP’s senior vice president of education, and Claire Wardle of First Draft, the host of our Checkology® lesson on misinformation. It’s part of the magazine’s new disinformation beat, which includes asking readers to keep an eye out for…