



To help strengthen our democracy, news literacy skills should be taught to students of all ages, writes News Literacy Project President and CEO Charles Salter in a piece for the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
“If we expect students to become well-informed, engaged, and equal participants in our democracy, we need to teach media literacy, and we need to start now,” Salter argues.
Salter’s piece was included in a roundup of the best articles and columns in School Administrator Magazine’s recent “best of” 2022-2023 edition. The magazine is a publication of The American Association of School Administrators.
Among other tips for integrating news literacy into classrooms, Salter suggests that educators spend time cultivating trust in quality journalism, using real-world examples, and avoiding the introduction of conspiracy theories to students.
“Media literacy is essential to the functioning of a healthy democracy,” Salter writes. “America’s singular form of governance can’t survive if the public is uninformed, misinformed, or drowning in news and content of questionable credibility.”