NLP News

Paul Saltzman, the investigative news editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, has a simple answer when asked whether the public has a solid understanding of what “news judgment” means. “No,” said Saltzman, who has volunteered with the News Literacy Project since 2011 and is the host of the “What Is News?” lesson in NLP’s Checkology® virtual…

The growing contagion of online misinformation should serve as a national wake-up call: We need a new ethos of personal responsibility about the news and other information that we trust — and that we share.

Cristy Menor, a sophomore at the University of California, Riverside, is majoring in sociology and minoring in education, but you could say that she’s doing an unofficial minor in news literacy, too.

Rumormongers and perpetrators of hoaxes online work hard to deceive people, but they are no match for the journalism students at The Morgan School, a public high school in Clinton, Connecticut. Their teacher, Leslie Chausse, uses the News Literacy Project’s Checkology® virtual classroom to develop their critical-thinking skills and hone their journalism chops. “There is so…

I am extremely pleased to share some exciting news: Apple announced today that it has selected the News Literacy Project to play a central role in a new initiative supporting leading nonprofit organizations that provide nonpartisan news literacy programs in the United States and in Italy. Apple’s investment in our work represents the largest corporate…

Today, on International Women’s Day, we honor a pioneer in investigative journalism: Nellie Bly. Born Elizabeth Jane Cochran in western Pennsylvania in 1864, Bly began her newspaper career when she was only 20, covering women’s rights, child labor, dangerous conditions for factory workers and social justice reform for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. But when her articles…

Judy Bryson, the library media teacher at W.A. Carter High School in the Rialto (California) Unified School District, believes that news literacy skills are critical to student success — inside and outside the classroom.

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…

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…

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…

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…

When David Teeghman, a teacher at Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School in Chicago, first heard about the Checkology® virtual classroom, it was a no-brainer: “I was like, ‘YES, this is a resource that my students need to have access to.’” Navigating the information landscape these days is difficult enough for adults — and even more…

“Facts have to be the final measure of truth.”   That’s what fact-checker Jim Fingal (portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe) says in the play The Lifespan of a Fact. At the News Literacy Project, we believe that the lifespan of a fact is eternal.  The play, based on a 2012 book by Fingal and writer John D’Agata…

ProPublica Illinois (@ProPublicaIL) regularly uses Twitter to answer questions about journalism. Recently a reader asked: “How do you go about finding those new ideas? Is it by brainstorming? Or following on tips?” Here’s the response from ProPublica journalist Jodi Cohen: “Reporters are always on the lookout for ways to inform the public about the world…

For Nicole Finnesand, integrating current events into her lessons at a middle school in the southeast corner of South Dakota was daunting — until she encountered the News Literacy Project and its Checkology virtual classroom. She teaches in Colton, a tiny town (population 676, according to 2017 Census estimates) about 25 miles northwest of Sioux Falls.…

Misinformation spreads rapidly on social media following natural disasters, mass shootings, terrorist attacks and other dramatic news events. In addition to seeing doctored photos and patently false “breaking news,” we’re also likely to be bombarded with conspiracy theories — another subset of misinformation. Since many of these involve alleged actions by the government, we need…

Nov. 5-9 is Media Literacy Week — our favorite week of the year, when champions of news and media literacy raise awareness of the critical need and available tools to discern and create credible information as students, consumers and citizens. Here are some things you can do each day during Media Literacy Week to support…

Americans head to their polling places in less than two weeks — and in each election cycle, it’s becoming more and more difficult to make sure that we actually know what we need to know before casting our ballots. (Check out our “Double-Check Your Facts” PSA to see how people did on The Easiest Quiz…

Election Day is just two weeks away — and in each election cycle, it gets more and more difficult for us to make informed decisions before casting our ballots. As political rhetoric tips toward misinformation frenzy, it’s increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction and truth from outright falsehoods. Russian troll farms, bots and other…

We are diversifying our news literacy efforts in all sorts of new ways, and here’s one that’s truly exciting: One of the most popular lessons in our Checkology® virtual classroom is now available in Spanish! “Practicing Quality Journalism”/“Practicando el periodismo de calidad” is a game-like simulation in which students assume the role of rookie reporters…

As civics education is increasingly part of the national conversation, and as school districts and state legislatures increasingly call for more of it, we need to have a good understanding of what civic engagement looks like for young people in the 21st century. How many civic actions from previous generations remain unchanged? How many have…

I’m always pleased to announce new partners in news literacy, but this one is especially gratifying because it offers support in a distinctive way. The Samuel Hubbard Shoe Company has shown generosity matched by creativity in pledging to give $20 to the News Literacy Project for every pair of shoes bought online from its new…

On Sept. 5, the editors of The New York Times’ opinion page took what they called “the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay.” The action raises an important issue in journalism and an opportunity to teach students about evaluating unnamed sources in the news. By “unnamed sources,” I am referring to the people who…

Don’t automatically diss Wikipedia, says the News Literacy Project’s director of education

In a previous post, I discussed holding controversial conversations about current events in the classroom. As an extension of that topic, I’m sharing some ideas and resources about a challenge common in public debate, commentary and social media: the use of logical fallacies. Just what are logical fallacies? The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL,…

As the urgency grows for a more news-literate nation, so does demand grow for the News Literacy Project. And today we are more prepared than ever to meet that demand: I’m thrilled to announce the launch of version 2.0 of our Checkology virtual classroom, an expansion made possible thanks to a $1 million grant from…

The 2018 midterm elections are only three months away — and as political candidates ask people for their support, they will often feature the endorsements they receive from editorial boards, political organizations, unions and even celebrities. These endorsements can be a useful resource as voters decide how to cast their ballots, and they are often…

For his contributions to journalism in the public interest and to news literacy, Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post has earned the News Literacy Project’s John S. Carroll Journalist Fellow Award for 2018. A national correspondent covering law enforcement and justice, Lowery led the Post’s “Fatal Force” project, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for…

An essential part of civic education is teaching students to be informed about — and to discuss — current events. It’s not enough for them to simply recite what’s happening; they need to be able to have a respectful, meaningful conversation with someone who may not share the same point of view. This concept is…

“Checkology® taught me to seek news rather than receiving it, so I went out and investigated it myself,” Sophia Fiallo told a July 12 awards ceremony at which she and Paige Rodriguez, classmates at The Young Women Leadership School of Astoria, were presented with the News Literacy Project’s Gwen Ifill Student Journalist of the Year…

More than 70 educators from Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools kicked off their summer with an NLP NewsLitCamp® at National Public Radio’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. A signature NLP professional development program, NewsLitCamps are held in conjunction with a news organization. With guidance from NLP staff, educators and journalists come together to examine the importance of…

Knowing whom or what you’re voting for (or against) is a lot more complicated than young people realize. On the surface, voting is a remarkably simple act: Go to your polling place, get a ballot, put a mark by the name of the candidate of your choice and place the ballot in a box or…

When you watch news programs on CNN, Fox News or MSNBC, do you notice how often they switch between straight news reporting and commentary? Can you tell which person on screen is a journalist and which is a pundit? The ability to distinguish news from opinion is a foundational news literacy skill, and it’s an…

Tucker Eskew, a strategy and marketing executive, has joined the board of the News Literacy Project. “If we’re to have a healthy democracy, our society needs to build platforms for truth and context in a sea of information and misinformation,” he said. “I’m proud to join the News Literacy Project as you build those supports…