NLP News

On Feb. 3 the website Simplemost shared 6 Tips For Talking To Friends And Family About Sharing Falsehoods Online, by NLP’s Shaelynn Farnsworth. The universal advice begins with “Be Civil” and goes on to advise patience, persistence, sensitivity and the search for common ground.

The School Library Journal spoke with Ebonee Rice on Feb. 3 about NLP’s new educator network. “We really understand that educators are the experts and educators are really on the front lines in the fight against misinformation, so we wanted to create a community where educators who are doing this work can talk to each…

In a Feb. 2 commentary for the multi-cultural news site Blavity, Ebonee Rice, vice president of NLP’s educator network, discusses how misinformation targets minorities. In Misinformation Is Harming Our Black Communities. We Must Become News-Literate To Stop It. – Blavity, she writes: “Last year, America confronted its legacy of racial injustice and endured the most…

Students in Lisa Ruehlow’s Media Literacy class at Amery High School in Wisconsin combined creativity and their Checkology® lessons to create public service announcements about the importance of news literacy for young people. And two of them took top honors for the national PSA contest sponsored by the News Literacy Project (NLP) and The E.W.…

Enrique Acevedo es periodista en Estados Unidos. Es el primer corresponsal latino en la historia del programa ’60 Minutes’ y miembro del consejo directivo de The News Literacy Project. Unas semanas antes de la elección presidencial de noviembre pasado aquí en Estados Unidos, comenzaron a circular mensajes con información falsa en Facebook y WhatsApp sobre…

In Texas, an air conditioning repairman is run off the road and assaulted by a former police captain trying to find forged presidential election ballots. Closer to home, you learn your cousin is convinced of widespread voter fraud. A suicide bomber detonates a massive explosion in downtown Nashville, possibly targeting the AT&T building over 5G…

In this week’s column, NLP CEO and founder Alan C. Miller marks the organization’s 13-year anniversary by sharing a lesson he learned about running a successful non-profit for each year of NLP’s history.

The Jan. 27 editorial in the Hutchinson Leader of Minnesota, This National News Literacy Week, pledge to be a more discerning consumer of media, makes the case for news literacy and offers readers advice on how to become more news-literate. The editors write: “Do you know how to read the news? “We don’t just mean…

Now is no time to let down our guard on fact-checking, Darragh Worland, NLP’s vice president of creative services, tells Bob Oswald of The Daily Herald, a newspaper outside of Chicago. “It would be a mistake to go too easy on Biden because (fact checkers) are fatigued from Trump fact checking,” she says in the…

Darragh Worland lays out the urgent need for news literacy education to readers of The San Francisco Chronicle in the Jan. 27 piece We need news literacy education in our schools — now! (Please note: Article is behind a paywall.) She opens the piece by noting the role of conspiracy theories and misinformation in the…

During a news literacy unit, seventh-graders in Jeff Rosen’s history class learned about different categories of information and the dangers of misinformation. They also learned about themselves and their place in the information ecosystem. “They began to identify some of the harmful things they were seeing,” says Rosen, a social studies teacher at The Joseph…

Michigan students tell FOX 17 how they are committed to fact-checking and getting the whole story in the segment Rockford High School students showcase news literacy skills, which aired on Jan. 25. The students produce their own broadcast program Beyond the Rock.

KATC participates in second annual News Literacy Week, the television station based in Lafayette, Louisiana, reports on Jan. 25. The station will premiere stories related to the topic of news literacy on-air and online at katc.com.

The Long Beach Post helps spread the word about National News Literacy Week in the Jan. 25 piece It’s News Literacy Week. Here’s 5 ways you can be a better news consumer. The article offers readers simple and actionable tips for becoming more news-literate, quotes NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller and advises the…

Participate in a live Twitter chat with Ebonee Rice, NLP’s vice president, Educator Network, and several of our NewsLit Nation ambassadors on at #NewsLiteracyWeek. Educators, join us to learn more about how to bring news literacy to your classrooms, to feel part of a community and to hear from reporters about how news literacy fits into…

NLP is teaming up with Senior Planet to present a webinar titled “What It Means to be News Literate?” The event will serve as an introduction to news literacy for members of the Older Adults Technology Services’ organization and will give their members a better understanding of the basic concepts and skills needed to be…

NewsLitCamp helps teachers & librarians develop expertise in news literacy, demystifying what distinguishes quality journalism from misinfo. About this Event Join the News Literacy Project (NLP) and CNN Worldwide on Jan. 26 for a national, virtual, teacher-centered NewsLitCamp featuring breakout sessions with CNN television and digital journalists. This program is one in a national series of NewsLitCamps…

In this virtual edWebinar on Jan. 27, join subject matter expert John Silva and Shaelynn Farnsworth of the News Literacy Project for a conversation about conspiracy theories. Register here for this free presentation at edWeb. Conspiracy theories are rampant on social media, particularly related to hyperpartisan political beliefs as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. More…

When the Houston Independent School District started the 2020-21 school year with 100% remote learning, journalism educator David Fanucchi needed to find an engaging way to teach news literacy to his students at Margaret Long Wisdom High School. A colleague at Houston’s Bellaire High School, Andrea Negri, suggested NLP’s Checkology® virtual classroom. The browser based,…

Scott Zwierzchowski teaches civics to students in grades 11 and 12 at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. In September 2020, he and his colleagues implemented a short news literacy unit. Their goal is to prepare students to evaluate sources and sort fact from fiction throughout the year. NLP recently checked in with Scott to…

As recent events have demonstrated, false conspiracy theories online can fuel dangerous actions in real life.  In this context, NLP is introducing a new lesson to educate students and the public about how conspiratorial thinking develops and its effects. The comprehensive “Conspiratorial Thinking” lesson, included with NLP’s free Checkology® e-learning platform, seeks to help people…

In the piece Facts over PACs: How corporate America can fight political misinformation for Fortune magazine on Jan. 19, NLP board member Tucker Eskew calls on executives to take a stand against misinformation. He cites NLP’s work and urges business leaders to use their voices to promote facts over fiction during National News Literacy Week…

In his latest column, which was picked up by Poynter, NLP CEO and founder Alan C. Miller argues that the news media needs to be discerning in how it reports on the COVID-19 vaccines and above all, it must avoid any sensational coverage.

With information – and misinformation – surging around recent national events, the News Literacy Project and The E.W. Scripps Company are teaming up for National News Literacy Week 2021, which begins with a national public awareness campaign to promote news literacy and the role of a free press in American democracy. This second annual National…

NewsLitCamp helps teachers & librarians develop expertise in news literacy, demystifying what distinguishes quality journalism from misinfo. Join the News Literacy Project (NLP) and Chicago Public School Libraries on Feb. 5 for a virtual teacher-centered NewsLitCamp featuring breakout sessions with journalists from Chicago Defender, ProPublica Illinois, Better Government Association, Rockford Register Star and Block Club…

We deplore the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol today by a lawless mob. While we support the right to peaceful assembly and free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment, this was an anti-democratic attempt to prevent the culmination of a free and fair election. The attack on the Congress — and the post-election events…

Ken Wood, a former journalist and director of communications for Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio, writes about the importance of NLP’s work in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Dec. 20. In Empower yourself to stop the spread of false information, he tells of learning about NLP after meeting Director of Communications Carol McCarthy…

On C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” today, NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller called on the public, the nation’s education system and news media outlets to step up and help combat the virulent spread of misinformation threatening American democracy. John McArdle, host of the call-in show, spoke with Miller about his recent commentary on how misinformation…

Every year, Washingtonian magazine chooses a handful of local residents “who give their time and talents to make this a better place” and names them “Washingtonians of the Year.” NLP is proud to announce that Alan C. Miller, our founder and CEO, is a 2020 Washingtonian of the Year honoree. Below is an excerpt from…

NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller argues that despite several high profile instances of outright fabrications, quality journalists and news outlets do not make things up, and when standards are violated, corrections and consequences follow.

KXLY-TV, serving the Spokane, Washington, and Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, region built a segment around NLP’s infographic Seven Steps for Staying Sharp Online. The Dec. 14 segment, Is this true? Here are some tips to fight off misinformation you see online, featured the full graphic and described its contents. “The tips include not letting feelings getting…

Can your students separate fact from fiction? Young people today are dealing with the most challenging information landscape in human history. Digital tools, combined with social media, make it easy for anyone to create and spread misinformation and disinformation. Truth, evidence and facts compete for attention alongside rumors, conspiracy theories and false information. The News…

The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan quotes Alan Miller’s column on how the U.S. can restore its global standing as a leader in press freedoms. “Bring back the daily press briefings. Make Biden available through periodic news conferences and interviews with a wide range of outlets. Tell the truth,” Miller is quoted in Sullivan’s Dec. 6…

in his latest column, NLP CEO and founder Alan C. Miller identifies eight things we must do to help secure a future founded on facts.

“There is a solution, and it’s a matter of restoring something we chose to abandon not very long ago: comprehensive, robust civics education,” NLP’s President and Chief Operations Officer Charles Salter says of the public’s lack of understanding and distrust in American institutions. His commentary piece, We Americans Risk Losing the Ability to Govern Ourselves.…

NLP’s Darragh Worland was a guest on a segment of the show Causepods. “I think it’s a fundamental life skill,” Worland says of news literacy. “It’s essential that all schools be teaching some form of news literacy.” The segment Misinformation with Darragh Worland of the Is That a Fact Podcast  aired on Nov. 23.

The misinformation generation gap closes, NLP’s Carol McCarthy writes in a Nov. 20 commentary for the Florida Sun-Sentinel.  “While we may never know which generation is best at recognizing fact from fiction, it’s pretty clear to me that no age group is immune to misinformation, she writes. “Adopted early in life, the skills and mindset…

If 2020 has made anything clear, it’s that the future of our democracy depends on our collective ability to sort fact from fiction — and teaching students news literacy skills is crucial to this. To build our local footprint through community organizing efforts in the fight against misinformation, we have launched a News Literacy Ambassador…

By Greg McCaffery and Alan C. Miller Our world has been shaken and transformed since we shared our first annual report with you. In fact, it often feels like last fall was a decade ago. Read the report here. We’re proud to say that NLP has responded to the myriad challenges wrought by COVID-19 with…

Misinformation and conspiracy theories thrive when curiosity and controversy are widespread and conclusive information is scarce or unavailable. The deeply polarized 2020 presidential election not only produced these conditions, it sustained them as ballots in a number of swing states with narrow vote margins were adjudicated and carefully counted. To be sure, viral rumors swirled…