NLP News

A series of Presidents Day tweets by our founder and CEO, Alan C. Miller, featured the words of several U.S. presidents — from Thomas Jefferson to George W. Bush — about the role of the press. The tweet thread caught the eye of Dave Mowery, managing editor of the Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle, who wrote about…

Give Facts a Fighting Chance: A Global Playbook for Teaching News Literacy is designed to help organizations worldwide begin or expand news literacy programs to help counter the relentless spread of misinformation and disinformation.

The poem “Invocation” by Elizabeth Alexander — engraved on a granite slab in the sculpture garden of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama — includes this line: “There is such a thing as the truth.” Even as we celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans during Black History Month, the…

Following the announcement of Knight Foundation’s $5 million support for NLP’s work, NLP founder and CEO Alan Miller spoke to EdSurge, a news site focusing on educational technology. “This is enormously validating for us, and gratifying, because it says they see what we’re doing as credible,” he told reporter Emily Tate.

Liz Ramos, a history and social studies teacher at Alta Loma High School in Rancho Cucamonga, California, features NLP resources in her roundup of news and media literacy tools (PDF download) for Social Studies Review, published by the California Council for the Social Studies.

I have some deeply gratifying news to share: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded NLP $5 million in support to expand our news literacy education programs in the United States. This generous support is part of a five-year, $300 million initiative that Knight Foundation announced today.   The imperative for this bold…

Join the News Literacy Project (NLP), Univision News and Miami-Dade County Public Schools for a highly engaging, teacher-centered NewsLitCamp featuring breakout sessions with Univision News journalists. Register today at this link (it’s FREE!) to reserve your seat: http://bit.ly/registermiamiNLC. Space is limited. Details Educators will meet at Univision for a full day of free workshops and conversations…

Join the News Literacy Project (NLP), The Charlotte Observer and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools for a highly engaging, teacher-centered NewsLitCamp featuring breakout sessions with Charlotte Observer journalists. Details Educators will meet at The Charlotte Observer for a full day of free workshops, conversations and maker sessions with NLP staff and Observer reporters and editors. Breakfast and…

No, we’re not talking about the nominees for a Razzie — a parody award “celebrating” the worst in film. In the world of misinformation, a “bad actor” is a type of social media account that spreads misinformation and often causes confrontation. Examples of these accounts include trolls, bots and sockpuppets, and all of them can…

As we celebrate Black History Month, we at the News Literacy Project have been reflecting on the important role that Black journalists have played as watchdogs of democracy, shining a light on wrongs and injustices throughout the course of our history. One of the first was Ida B. Wells, featured in the “Democracy’s Watchdog” lesson…

 Last Sunday’s Super Bowl LIII may have disappointed fans who anticipated a high-scoring game. But those of us who value the role of a free press in our democracy were glad we were watching when an advertisement sponsored by The Washington Post aired late in the game. It immediately got our attention. Actor Tom…

John Cannon, a middle school teacher in Damariscotta, Maine, has a unique — and enviable — student engagement issue. When he teaches news literacy using NLP’s Checkology®  virtual classroom, his students become so absorbed in the material that they often keep working past the day’s assignment. “Students are immediately drawn in by the engaging format,” said…

NLP is thrilled to offer heartiest congratulations to Liz Ramos, a high school teacher and a member of our board of directors, on being named Outstanding Secondary Level Social Studies Teacher of the Year by the California Council for the Social Studies (CCSS). The Constitutional Rights Foundation of Los Angeles nominated Liz for the award,…

In a previous post I described how debunking misinformation is a meaningful civic action. When we discuss misinformation, we often focus on the types that elicit strong emotional responses and are trying to influence political, social or cultural views. There is another common type of misinformation that we should be paying closer attention to: It’s…

During an interview broadcast Jan. 19 on C-SPAN, Walt Mossberg, the noted technology journalist and an NLP board member, spoke at length about NLP’s work and his feeling that our mission is “very important at this juncture to save democracy.”

Messages and images that appear online, in print and on television strongly influence how people think about issues such as migration, according to Peter Adams, NLP’s senior vice president of education. “People see different things in the way stories are reported, or in photos that are used to represent a situation or person,” Adams told…

We share three resolutions for a news-literate 2019.