News Literacy
“News literacy is the acquisition of 21st-century, critical-thinking skills for analyzing and judging the reliability of news and information, differentiating among facts, opinions and assertions in the media we consume, create and distribute. … It is a necessary component for literacy in contemporary society.
What is news literacy?
Media literacy is defined by the Media Literacy Project as “the ability to access, analyze,
evaluate, and create media” (“What Is Media Literacy?”). Source: Information Disorder and the need for News literacy in the digital era.
The Digital Age poses four information literacy challenges for civil society:
- The overwhelming amount of information that floods over us each day makes it difficult to sort out reliable from fabricated information.
- New technologies to create and widely share information make it possible to spread misinformation that looks like it’s from an authoritative source.
- The conflict between speed and accuracy has escalated. We all want information as quickly as possible, but accelerating the distribution of information in the Digital Era has also increased the chances that the information will be wrong.
- The Internet and Social Media make it much easier to select only the information that supports our preexisting beliefs, reinforcing rather than challenging them. Source: Center for Newsliteracy.
Lesson plan
Watch the video below and discuss with your class the following topics:
- What is news literacy?
- Why is it important?
- Look at the rest of the lessons here.