NLP News

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…

NLP CEO and founder Alan C. Miller takes a moment to celebrate some things that went indisputably right in our recent rite of democracy during this election period.

Mike Webb, NLP’s senior vice president of communications, discusses the role of disinformation in explaining Blacks’ support of Trump presidency in a Nov. 11 Los Angeles Times article. “As we discussed on our podcast interview with UNC’s Deen Freelon, during the 2016 campaign, agents from Russia’s Internet Research Agency attempted to disguise themselves as Black…

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), the San José Public Library and NBC Bay Area on Dec. 2 and 3 for a virtual, teacher-centered NewsLitCamp featuring breakout sessions with local journalists. This program is part of a…

Should schools require news literacy? NLP’s Peter Adams joined Jaclyn Siegel, New York State chapter leader for Media Literacy Now, and Mike Johansson, principal lecturer in the School of Communication at the Rochester Institute of Technology, to discuss that question in a pubic radio segment Should news and media literacy be required courses in schools?…

“We cannot afford to delay in providing young people with the ability and confidence to navigate our complex information landscape,” says California educator and NLP board member in the Nov. 7 op-ed for EdSurge, The U.S. Election Underscores the Need for Teaching News Literacy in Our Schools. “News literacy … is a fundamental life skill,…

NLP’s John Silva was interviewed by KGTV in San Diego  on Nov. 5 for the segment Election rumors permeating social networks underscores need for media literacy. “We don’t like this idea of being uncomfortable that there’s some big thing that we’re not aware of. In the discomfort and the anxiety of not knowing, we might…

“The voters have spoken, and now it’s up to our state election officials to fairly count all the votes. As key states methodically complete the process of tallying their ballots, it’s vital that we do not let misinformation fill the void while we await the final count. “We urge the news media, state officials and…

For a better understanding of how misinformation and disinformation have impacted this election, please join us for a live episode of our podcast Is that a fact? on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 5:30 p.m. ET. Host Darragh Worland will moderate a lively conversation featuring Enrique Acevedo of 60 in 6 (former anchor at Univision) and an NLP board…

On Nov. 2, the day before the historic 2020 election, NLP’s Peter Adams is quoted in the MIT Technology Review piece How to talk to kids and teens about misinformation and in the New York Times piece Stopping Online Vitriol at the Roots.  

WLRN TV in Miami devoted a Nov. 1 segment to covering the NewsLitCamp held for Miam-Dade area educators the previous week.  In ‘It’s A Necessity’: Miami-Dade Teachers Learn How To Spot Misinformation Online, participating educator Silvia Villacis says she looks forward to passing her new skills on to her students. She teaches civics at West…

In the Oct. 30 piece for Real Simple, How to Spot Fake News and Fact-Check the Internet, NLP’s Hannah Covington advises readers to look out for common red flags. First, ask yourself if this is a news report or something else, the article reads. “Be cautious of anything user-generated,” she tells readers, such as social…

NLP’s John Silva highlights some of the “red flag phrases” to look out for online in Jimmy Rhoades’ irreverent take on The List. The human need for togetherness and an “us vs. them” framework are triggers that allow red flags to enter our psyche and fuel the spread of misinformation, Silva says in the Oct 29 piece…

Ahead of the presidential election, NLP’s CEO and founder Alan C. Miller urges anchors, reporters, producers, editors and news executives to exercise restraint, precision and care with any results they project and races they call.

This Media Literacy Week activity created by NLP’s Peter Adams pushes students to ask such questions as, “Am I sure enough about this that I should share it?” “If everybody did that, we’d see a dramatic reduction of misinformation online,” Adams says It was included in the The New York Times Oct. 26 Tech Fix…

“Young people have a right to news literacy education,” NLP’s John Silva says in the piece  Can Your Students Tell the Difference Between Fact and Fiction? for EdSurge on Oct. 20. Reporter Kimberly Rues directs readers to NLP’s educator-focused digital material, saying “their website is a virtual treasure trove of resources.” She also recommends NLP’s…

Alan Miller addresses the threat from misinformation in the run-up to the presidential election on WPIX TV in New York City on Oct. 16. “Misinformation is not only a threat to our public life, but to our public health,” Miller says in the segment, Fact-checking the ‘tsunami’ of misinformation flooding the web before the election.…

NLP’s CEO and founder Alan C. Miller reflects on what he calls “a new golden age of investigative reporting,” even as newspapers fold and the number of journalists drops in the face of economic contraction.

When consuming news and other information, slow down and be skeptical. That’s the advice NLP’s Peter Adams shares with the New York Times in the Oct. 14 article. How to Deal With a Crisis of Misinformation. “The No. 1 rule is to slow down, pause and ask yourself, ‘Am I sure enough about this that…

This piece is part of a series, presented by our partner SAS, that explores the role of data in understanding the COVID-19 pandemic. SAS is a pioneer in the data management and analytics field. (Check out other posts in the series on our Get Smart About COVID-19 Misinformation page.) by Mary Osborne Are communities of…

NewsLitCamp helps teachers & librarians develop expertise in news literacy, demystifying what distinguishes quality journalism from misinformation About this event NewsLitCamp is now nationwide! Join the News Literacy Project (NLP) and The Texas Tribune on Thursday, Dec. 10, for our first nationwide — and virtual — teacher-centered NewsLitCamp featuring breakout sessions with Texas Tribune journalists. This…

NLP’s Senior Vice President of Education Peter Adams discusses the cynicism of Generation Z voters in an Oct. 11 POLITICO article. “Trust in institutions is down across the board, but teens experience even more cynicism about institutions just as a function of their time of life. That can easily lend itself into falling into conspiratorial…

When Shane Harris, an intelligence and national security reporter at The Washington Post, was in fourth grade in the mid-1980s, he received an informal introduction to news literacy. As part of his language arts and English class, Harris and his classmates spent a week learning how to read the newspaper. They started with the front…

NLP’s founder and CEO  Alan C. Miller addresses news literacy on the podcast The Playbook: David Meltzer on Oct. 6. In Meltzer & McCourt Get Out and Vote Show #2 , Miller discusses the difficulties of navigating today’s complicated information landscape and how news literacy can help.    

Darragh Worland, NLP’s vice president of creative services, speaks with Mark Simon, host of the podcast The Journalism Salute, about Becoming a Better News Consumer. In the Oct. 6 episode, Worland discusses NLP’s mission and work. She explains how students, educators and the public can use NLP’s Checkology® e-learning platform and other resources. She also…

In the N.Y. Daily News, NLP’s Darragh Worland writes on how social media use has been shown to skew news judgment. The commentary, Don’t let social media spoil your news judgment: A guide to navigating our information jungle,  ran on Sept. 30. The piece also addresses how news consumers may be falsely confident about the…

Education is the solution to combating misinformation, NLP’s Ebonee Rice says on the Arlington, Va., radio show Choose to Be Curious. Her interview, The News Literacy Project, with Ebonee Rice, aired on Sept. 30. Host Lynn Borton asks, “With so much coming at us, how are we to tell fact from fiction, truth from fabrication?”…

School Library Journal (SLJ) led its Sept. 29 news section with a write-up promoting NLP’s upcoming webinar series. Professional Development Course on News Literacy describes the free, four-part series as a way to “hone your skills in helping students make sense of news and other types of information. Essential concepts for students to be reliably…

NLP’s John Silva explains how misinformation exploits our emotions in the Sept. 29 article Fact or Fake? How to Help Kids & Adults Spot Misinformation Online on the website 30 Seconds. The media platform’s target audience is busy women, and particularly moms. “Misinformation manipulates our emotions into believing something is true,” Silva says. “If you…

Datanami, a news site that provides insight, analysis and information on big data, writes about the partnership between data firm SAS and NLP. The Sept. 29 article, Testing Data Literacy on Main Street,  focuses on data literacy quiz that NLP and SAS developed. The quiz allows the public to test their data literacy in news…

NLP’s CEO and founder Alan C. Miller provides advice on how to spot misinformation and avoid spreading it in his first “Upon Reflection” column, which was picked up and published by the Chicago Tribune on Sept. 28.

In this virtual edWebinar on Oct. 14, join subject matter expert Peter Adams of the News Literacy Project and former CIA officer and author Cindy Otis for a conversation about the difference between misinformation and disinformation. Register here for this free presentation at edWeb. Learn how to tell if a bot or a troll is…

Election misinformation is the topic of a Sept. 25 article in The Hill, Disinformation, QAnon efforts targeting Latino voters ramp up ahead of presidential election.  NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller weighs in on why NLP and the Open Mind Legacy Project joined forces on an election misinformation PSA campaign. “We know that in…

Miami-area educators, join the News Literacy Project for a virtual NewsLitCamp® event! About this Event Join the News Literacy Project (NLP), Univision News and Miami-Dade County Public Schools on Oct. 23 for a virtual teacher-centered NewsLitCamp featuring breakout sessions with Univision News journalists. This program is one in a national series of NewsLitCamps led by…

Join us on Oct. 8 for a Lunch and Learn with Peter Adams, NLP’s senior vice president of education. Register now on Zoom to attend. Peter will explore recent trends in viral misinformation and how to spot them. He will introduce resources for debunking falsehoods and strategies for talking with friends and family members who…

Since 2008, NLP has helped students across the U.S. and beyond learn to sort fact from fiction. Now, to meet the urgent need for news literacy among people of all ages, we are unveiling free tools and resources for the public. This includes a customized version of our signature e-learning platform, Checkology®. This expansion of…

The Sept. 13 edition of CNN”s Reliable Sources newsletter, by Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy, included a paragraph about NLP’s election misinformation PSA campaign, with a link to a USA Today op-ed about it. “The News Literacy Project and The Open Mind Legacy Project are distributing PSAs “to combat malicious fabrication, bots and online trolls…

NLP’s founder and CEO Alan C. Miller and Alexander Heffner, host of The Open Mind on PBS and president of The Open Mind Legacy Project, discuss how the two organizations joined forces to develop a national PSA campaign in a commentary for USA Today Sept. 13. The piece We’re launching an election-season ad campaign to…

NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller tells the The New York Times about NLP’s expanded mission, which includes addressing misinformation and older adults. “Our hope is that older adults will be major consumers of these resources and become part of the information solution, instead of the misinformation problem,” Miller says in the Sept. 11…

NLP and The Open Mind Legacy Project (OMLP) released public service announcements today to educate voters on how to avoid being misinformed about the November elections. Comcast, The E.W. Scripps Company and public media stations will air the video and audio PSAs, which also will be featured in a paid and organic digital ad campaign…