NLP News

If you teach civics or social studies, encourage your students to identify their elected officials — local, state and national — and to use social media to follow what those officials are doing. This connectedness presents several unique educational opportunities.

Information is a fundamental element of democracy. It is the basis for our understanding of the world around us: how we analyze social issues, assess challenges, determine political priorities, form opinions and evaluate our options. It is, in short, the raw material we use to make decisions and take action. Civic engagement in the 21st…

The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) issued a statement earlier this evening, and here is our response. See our previous post for further background. In contrast to the UNAOC statement, here is what happened: The event was planned for four months without any suggestion of a conflict. In multiple conversations on Tuesday, in which…

Update May 3, 12:00 p.m.: The presentation we had planned to make at the UNAOC event is now at the end of this blog post. Update May 3, 9:45 a.m: The second paragraph was revised to clarify that the remarks on restrictions in press freedom in certain countries were written by NLP and are not…

More than a dozen NLP students from several New York City public schools attended the event at Columbia University. Four students who have completed lessons in NLP’s Checkology® virtual classroom were among those who asked questions of Pulitzer Prize Administrator Dana Canedy. Tenzin Choezin, a ninth-grader at The Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria, was…

Another Virtual Visit is scheduled for Monday, April 16 (the day of the announcement of the 2018 prizes), with two Pulitzer Prize winners: Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, chair of the Pulitzer Prize board and the winner of the 2009 prize for commentary, and NLP founder and CEO Alan Miller, who won the 2003 national…

Kadzik’s association with NLP began with its creation in 2008, when he worked on its application for tax-exempt status as a nonprofit organization. He also was the founding chair of NLP’s D.C. advisory committee before resigning in 2013 to join the U.S. Department of Justice as principal deputy assistant attorney general for legislative affairs. From…

At the News Literacy Project, we know Flipboard as a strong supporter of our mission to make news literacy an integral part of the American educational experience. So we’re extremely proud — and humbled — to announce that Flipboard, a privately held company, has donated 0.1 percent of its stock to the News Literacy Project.…

The council will offer guidance on outreach and advocacy to NLP staff and board members and will support NLP financially and through introductions and appearances at events. Members will serve an initial term of four years. Camerota is the co-host of CNN’s morning program, New Day. She joined CNN in 2014 after 16 years at…

I had left my 21-year career at the Los Angeles Times with the idea of connecting journalists and educators to teach middle school and high school students how to know what to believe in the digital age. Little did I know that I would become recognized as a founder of the field of news literacy…

As news literacy has gained such an important seat at the table of civic discourse, we at NLP have seen a massive amount of new interest in our programs. Jeff’s generous gift underscores this in a major way and will help us expand the fight for facts. His support comes at a moment of enormous…

That’s even when those theories appear to confirm an individual’s political belief, a new study shows. “The greater one’s knowledge about the news media — from the kinds of news covered, to the commercial context in which news is produced, to the effects on public opinion news can have — the less likely one will…

In this video, three students — Conor McCormick, Uriel Reyes Morales and Sihin Yibrah — tell Pierre Thomas of ABC News how our lessons opened their eyes to the world of false news and misinformation online. The students — all seniors at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia — spoke candidly about their news and…

 In the six years since New York City’s 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation joined forces with a vision of a day focused on charitable contributions and social awareness, Giving Tuesday has enabled individuals to demonstrate their commitment — through donations of money and time — to nonprofits that provide solutions to our…

She served as an English teacher and as a research assistant at the Center for Applied NonViolent Actions & Strategies in Belgrade, Serbia, and as a project assistant for Sarajevo Open Centre in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Maze also was a deputy editor for Balkanist Magazine and has IT help desk experience. She speaks Spanish, Russian and…

By Amanda Muntz 2008: I was 10. I looked away from the television, where Fox News was broadcasting the election results. My father shook his head in disbelief. “Well, that’s it, folks. Barack Obama has just been elected the 44th president of the United States of America.” My father, who prides himself on being a…

Today, that time has come. We’re proud to announce that we will be working with NewsCo/Lab, an initiative launched yesterday by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University (ASU). This collaborative lab is aimed at helping the public find new ways of understanding and engaging with news and information.…

Welcome to NLP’s NewsLitCamp, where educators from some of the country’s biggest school districts, including Chicago, New York City and Miami, are getting a first-hand introduction to news literacy, along with tools they can use their classrooms. In these day-long professional development sessions, teachers and librarians at middle schools and high schools visit a news…

The hour-long sessions cover the basics of news literacy and delve into more complex topics, such as the connection between news literacy and civic involvement. You will come away with fresh ideas, new tools and top-of-the-line resources that will help you integrate news literacy into your lessons and empower your students to become active and…

Then, Mitchell recalled some lessons she had learned from the News Literacy Project in her U.S. government class at KIPP DC College Preparatory, and she decided to check the rumors out. What she discovered brought relief to her and her friends: The number of missing youths had actually declined, and most of the young women…

“I am so honored,” she said after being presented with the award at an NLP dinner in June. “To be selected from among well-deserving colleagues by a respected group of journalists and journalism educators makes this beautiful plaque quite valuable to me.” Named for one of the most revered newspaper editors of his generation, the…

“Paul has been one of NLP’s most engaged and effective journalist fellows since he first volunteered in 2011,” said NLP President Alan C. Miller. “His remarkable dedication to our mission has earned him our heartfelt appreciation and this well-deserved recognition.” The award — named after the revered editor of three U.S. newspapers and the former…

And because of NLP’s latest resource, the Checkology® virtual classroom, Alexander now looks at what she reads a lot more skeptically. She acknowledged that she hadn’t really cared about the news before she participated in the virtual classroom as part of her government class at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But now, she said, she…

“How ‘News Literacy’ Gets Web Misinformation Wrong” was published last month on Caulfield’s own website and earlier this month on Medium and Observer.com. In it, Caulfield specifically cites our Checkology® virtual classroom, a web-based e-learning platform for educators and students in middle school and high school. We thank Caulfield for his interest in our work and…

Can you read the headline on the right? No? Good. That’s what we’re hoping. We’d like you to pause for a moment to think — and then dig a little deeper to decipher the meaning of what you’re seeing, just as you should do when determining whether the news you’re reading is real or fake.…

This is, no doubt, welcome news to fighters against fake news. It certainly is to us, and we’re excited to be part of this global effort. Starting today, people in 14 countries (including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan) will see an “educational tool” at the…

We’re honored to be a founding participant in the News Integrity Initiative, a global consortium “focused on helping people make informed judgments about the news they read and share online.” Based at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in New York, the Initiative is launching with $14 million in funding from tech industry leaders, academic…

More than 80 percent of the students who responded to the survey said that the unit: Improved the way they gathered, used and produced credible information. Improved their ability to distinguish quality journalism from other types of news and information. Increased their ability to use news to become knowledgeable about their communities, the nation and…

We’re just three months into 2017, and we have already enrolled 6,200 educators who teach 775,000 students in urban, suburban and rural areas throughout the United States and in at least 46 countries around the globe, from China to Turkey to South Africa to Brazil to Australia. Interest surged following the presidential election and the…

The new position is the result of the explosion of interest in the virtual classroom, which was introduced in May 2016. In its first 10 months, 4,500 educators who teach 550,000 students throughout the United States and in at least 38 other countries have registered to use the platform. “As a teacher, I saw firsthand…

Those of us who have focused for years on the challenges to consumers created by digital media are no longer a voice in the wilderness. Recent events (especially the furor over the primacy and definition of “fake news”) have thrust our mission into the middle of myriad conversations — and have established news literacy education…

No matter how many times she urged them to check their sources, the students would say, “But it’s on the internet,” “There is no author” or “It looks like a real source.” Pushing them to delve deeper proved challenging until Burek discovered the News Literacy Project’s Checkology™ virtual classroom while researching curriculum for an upcoming…

I left her middle school that day thinking that if a lot of journalists brought their expertise and experience to bear in this way, it could have a significant impact on education and on the future of journalism. Two years later, after 21 years as a reporter, I left the Los Angeles Times and started…

“As Facebook seeks to support journalism, we will also be working on new ways to help give people information so they can make smart choices about the news they read — and have meaningful conversations about what they care about,” Fidji Simo, Facebook’s director of product, wrote in a blog post. This effort is part…

“Steve brings distinctive experience and expertise to the NLP board,” board chairman Greg McCaffery said. “His impressive skills as a public affairs and political strategist will serve us well as we seek to create the next generation of informed and engaged citizens.” Schmidt is vice chairman for public affairs at Edelman, the world’s largest public…

Hoffecker, a former editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Los Angeles Times, Congressional Quarterly and Bloomberg, had served as NLP’s pro bono editor and Keeper of Standards since the project’s founding in February 2008. She will be the first employee to serve in the newly created staff position. “Leslie has been an invaluable asset to…

As we reflect on 2016, we look back at some of our social media posts that you liked most. We’re sharing your top five favorites for one more read: Our guide to spotting fake news Facebook taking steps to combat misinformation Our new Checkology™ virtual classroom “In Jest” Biggest publishers of hoaxes and fake news

A survey released by the Pew Research Center today shows that fabricated news stories are causing members of the public to be confused about basic facts. About two in three U.S. adults say that fake news has caused “a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current events,” while roughly another quarter say it causes…

Peter Adams, NLP’s senior vice president for education programs, led a workshop on how educators can use authentic examples of viral rumors to drive civic learning and engagement. The session couldn’t have come at a better time. With little regulation or controls, social media platforms occupy a greater and greater space in the public attention…

Appearing this week as the featured speaker at a News Literacy Project breakfast in Washington, Chris Wallace, the anchor of Fox News Sunday, called NLP “a terrific program.” The 52-year veteran of the broadcast industry added, “News literacy in the 21st century is literacy.” And, he continued, “Knowing how to consume and judge the news is…