NLP News

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’s Peter Adams explains how  Russian disinformation campaigns likely fuel U.S. racial divisions in a Sept. 2 segment on Newsy, False Information Escalates Anger At Protests Across The United States. “We know from the actions of the Internet Research Agency and Russian agents in 2016 that racial division in the U.S .was something they targeted…

Peter Adams explains digital trickery, including deepfakes and cheapfakes, in the Mozilla Foundation’s Aug. 31 installment of Misinfo Monday: Deepfakes and Other Trickery in Imagery. “Deepfakes are algorithmically-manipulated digital assets,” Adams says. “Deepfakes can be video or audio or even, nowadays, just an image.” While deepfakes are computer-generated, they are not the same as the …

NLP’s Peter Adams discusses COVID-19 misinformation causes and contributing factors in an Aug. 31 segment for Northern Public Radio, What Contributes to COVID-19 Misinformation? Some causes include a lack of understanding about the science involved in addressing a pandemic, the public’s inability to recognize the difference between fact-based journalism and opinion, the proliferation of news…

In the article What Really Happened? The Value of a Diverse Media Diet for the nonprofit organization The Field Foundation of Illinois, NLP’s Peter Adams discusses how having a varied news media diet helps news consumers stay reliably informed. “One mistake I think a lot of people make is to say flat out don’t get…

The Washington Post’s education reporter Valerie Strauss revisits a lesson from The Sift about the QAnon conspiracy theory. Her Aug. 25 column A lesson on QAnon for teachers to use in class includes updated information about QAnon’s resurgence in recent days. The next day blogger The Big Education Ape Blogspot  picked up the column.  …

The role of a free press in a democracy was the topic of discussion between NLP founder and CEO Alan Miller and former Library of Congress Publishing Office writer/editor Linda Barrett Osborne during a Poetry & Prose Live event Aug. 20. The virtual discussion, Guardians of Liberty: Freedom of the Press and the Nature of…

On Aug. 20 The School Library Journal included news of NLP expansion efforts: News Literacy Project Creating Educator Network and Offering Free Checkology.

Veteran tech reporter and NLP board member Walt Mossberg discusses whether social media platforms finally understand the dis/misinformation crisis, how guardianship of literacy could be enacted, and why users need to take more responsibility on the Aug. 20 episode of The Open Mind podcast It Didn’t (and Doesn’t) Have to Be This Way.  

In the piece Misinformation in MT Impacting November Election NLP’s Senior Vice President of Education Peter Adams discusses how misinformation can target elections, in this case in Montana, but in any state or nation. “Our religious faith, our patriotism, our care and concern for our community, our desire for justice – and weaponize those in…

John Silva, NLP’s senior director of education and training, talks about Navigating Misinformation in the Time of COVID-19 in Flipboard’s Aug. 19 educators blog. “What we don’t talk about enough is that while we are self-isolating and social distancing, we can’t maintain our social connections. So we are turning to social media to maintain those…

Ebonee Rice, vice president of NLP’s educator network, offers advice in the Mozilla Foundation’s Aug. 17 installment of the Instagram series, Misinfo Monday, on avoiding misinformation. The segment How to Tell Fact from Crap in the Newsfeed includes important tips, such as remembering to “search your feelings” because misinformation likes to prey on emotions. The piece asks: “Have you…

Kris Locker, recipient of NLP’s 2020 Gwen Ifill Student of the Year Award is featured in an article for Florida Gulf Coast University’s news site on Aug. 14. In the piece Journalism grad with knack for news literacy earns national award Locker describes the satisfaction applying what she learned in a news literacy class and…

The podcast Inside the Chrysalis, which examines social and psychological concepts through the context of the real world, featured NLP’s Peter Adams  in its Aug. 7 episode. In the segment These Kids Don’t Play: Anxiety About Bias in the Media, host Michelle Quist talks with Peter and mental health professional Maliha Khan.

NLP’s John Silva gave the presentation What It Means to be News-literate: Key Skills to be Reliably Informed for Long Beach Public Media on Aug. 5. The segment was part of its Citizens Media Series under the theme of Know Your Power: Know Your News.

Peter Adams, NLP’s senior vice president of education, presented a webinar on strategies for detecting misinformation for the School Library Journal on Aug. 5 that prompted more questions than Peter could answer during the segment.  SLJ asked him to address some of those in  a Q & A for its website, which he does in…

Gary Vaynerchuk speaks with NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller on the VaynerMedia show “VaynerX Presents: Marketing for the Now.” Miller brings a unique and welcome voice to the segment, speaking on how news literacy skills can help everyone stay reliably informed. “Check your emotions,” Miller says. “If it’s making you angry or fearful…

This Northern Public Radio segment Social Media Has Seen A Rise In Misinformation During COVID-19. How Can You Learn To Spot It? with NLP’s Peter Adams makes important points about the impacts of misinformation. Anyone can experience the negative effects even if they do not share or believe the false content Peter says in the…

The EdSurge Podcast’s July 7 episode Fighting Misinformation in the Age of COVID-19 featured Peter Adams, NLP’s senior vice president of education.  Adams stressed the real harm that health misinformation can do. He also shared simple steps anyone can take to stop the spread of falsehoods and hoaxes.

In an op-ed published by the Poynter Institute on July 6, Alan Miller wrote about the distressing loss of hundreds of newspapers across the nation and the impact those losses have on local communities. His piece Give local journalism a fighting chance by creating a demand for it, makes the case that we need to…

NLP’s 2020 Educator of the Year Patricia Hunt is featured in the June 25 article, Wakefield High School Teacher Honored for News Literacy Efforts, on ARLNow. The news website covering Arlington, Va., quotes Hunt, a local educator, and NLP CEO and founder Alan C. Miller. It also links to the video of the award presentation,

The nonprofit Connect Safely’s June 16 webcast, hosted by journalist Larry Magid and author Kerry Gallagher, features NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller. The discussion centers on why media literacy is more important than ever, as well as misinformation on social media in general and particularly regarding COVID19. The live segment was recorded on…

NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller discusses our  confusing digital information age on The Pew Charitable Trusts’ podcast After the Fact. During the June 12 segment, The Infodemic, Miller tells listeners: “We’re living in the most complex information landscape in human history.” He then shares ideas on how we can navigate an overwhelming stream…

Peter Adams, NLP’s senior vice president of education, bridges a 13-hour time difference to take questions from children in Australia on the podcast Real Kids Real Questions. Children host the program, which addresses topics kids in the listening audience suggest. During the June 7 episode Why ‘fake news’ is bad news, Peter answers questions about…

NLP’s Senior Vice President of Education Peter Adams and Jane Lytvynenko, senior reporter covering disinformation and security for BuzzFeed News discuss misinformation related to racial injustice protests on the WAMU program 1A. In the June 4 segment, How To Identify Misinformation About The Protests, they address conspiracy theories, disinformation and the role of social media.…

In a June 1 USA Today article, Peter Adams, NLP’s senior vice president of education, discusses the hoaxes, fabrications, manipulated content and other protest misinformation proliferating on social media about widespread demonstrations against racial injustice. The protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25.…

In a May 21 segment for Newsy, QAnon Conspiracy Movement Gains Followers In Uncertain Times, NLP’s Darragh Worland discusses the rise of the far-right QAnon claims. The movement is based around the theory that President Donald Trump is bringing about a “great awakening” and will expose prominent political figures — the Deep State — for…

Peter Adams, senior vice president of education at NLP, took part in the May 14 webinar Critical Thinking in the Age of Fake News hosted by the School Library Journal (SLJ) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). He was joined by panelists Renee DiResta, research manager at Stanford University Internet Observatory, and…

Damaso Reyes, a former NLP staff member now working as a consultant from Barcelona, Spain, discusses the current misinformation landscape in the May 19 segment of Here and There with Dave Marsh on KFSR, Santa Fe’s public radio station. It was Reyes’ fourth appearance on the program discussing news literacy issues.

The viral conspiracy theory video Plandemic led to a wider discussion of how to identify credible news stories during a May 15 segment of Metrofocus, a program on WNET/New York Public Media. In an interview with reporter Jenna Flanagan, NLP’s John Silva explains how false stories gain traction and offered advice on how parents can…

The Netherlands-based Coachability Foundation invited Darragh Worland, NLP’s senior vice president of creative services, to present a webinar on “The Role of News Literacy at the Entrepreneurial Journey” May 8. This event was part of Coachability Foundation’s mission to empower female entrepreneurs in the Netherlands and abroad.

South Carolina Public Radio’s May 7 program, An Rx for BS: A Look at Media Literacy in Crisis Mode, focuses on the hazards of encountering  COVID-19 pandemic misinformation and disinformation —much of it dangerous. The program includes tips from the News Literacy Project for identifying potential red flags when scrolling social media, or anywhere a person…

An educator on the EdTech Round Robin episode of Wizards of EdTech Podcast promotes (11:48) the value of Informable as a news literacy resource for all ages as well as the Checkology® virtual classroom.

In Newsy’s April 30 segment on the coronavirus and misinformation, COVID-19 Limiting Press Freedoms, NLP’s Darragh Worland notes that the pandemic has empowered some governments to censor information or crack down on reporters trying to cover the crisis.

Under the heading, Tried-and-true tactics to help spot bogus claims, no matter the subject, Apple News Spotlight includes NLP’s easy-to-follow guidelines, How to Know What to Trust, in its comprehensive guide to COVID-19 misinformation.

NLP resources and initiatives are included in an April 24 Newsy piece regarding COVID-19 and kids. The segment, Kid-Centered News Shows Aim To Help Children Understand COVID-19, also quotes NLP’s Peter Adams.

COVID-19 and Bill Gates conspiracy theories are the topic of the second installment in a weekly series for Newsy featuring the News Literacy Project. Darragh Worland, NLP’s vice president for creative services, discusses how conspiracy theories linking the COVID-19 pandemic and Bill Gates have gained traction and become wildly popular across social media despite having been widely debunked.  “Public…

John Silva, NLP’s director of education, offers advice and tips for Well+Good’s audience as they navigate misinformation swirling around the coronavirus. The April 22 piece  Why social media has helped turn COVID-19 into an ‘infodemic’ includes interviews with public health and media literacy experts.

COVID-19 and 5G conspiracy theories are the topic of the first installment in a weekly series for Newsy featuring the News Literacy Project. Darragh Worland, NLP’s vice president for creative services, discusses how conspiracy theories linking the COVID-19 pandemic and 5G wireless technology are circulating widely on social media despite having been debunked by scientists.…