News Literacy
Course
Producers and Consumers [6:08]
- Learn the ways that news delivery and news consumption has changed.
- Learn why the 24/7 news cycle affects the kind of information we receive.
- Learn how news we receive is filtered through our social media.
Michelle: Hi Jackie, how are you?
Jackie: I'm good.
Michelle: Back on November 26th, 2016, which was Thanksgiving weekend. I opened my computer to discover a game changer of a post that Joyce Valenza put up on her fabulous blog NeverEnding Search. It really changed my world in a lot of ways and it was a toolkit for educators to consider how to approach the world of news media today called "Truth, Truthiness, Triangulation: A News Literacy Toolkit for a Post-Truth World" and it's in School Library Journal, and it was a really outstanding toolkit. It was so packed it took me literally weeks and weeks and weeks to unpack it and I finally ended up having to interview her about it because I just wanted even more; but it was really dense.
Jackie: So much of what she said continues, even though, it was 2016, continues to inform how I approach instruction with students. Really it was the attention to the ways in which news delivery and news consumption have changed that really was, as you said, the game changer for me. Our students live in a world very different than the world that we grew up in, and we know then and now. They only know now. I think that helping them have that longer perspective on how news delivery has changed, has evolved, is a big step towards helping them be more savvy and more critical in their consumption of media.
Michelle: We have so many factors at play. There's citizen journalism, there's Twitter, there's micro-blogging -- just the instancy of it all. What do you think is the most powerful driver?
Jackie: I think the fact that news is breaking constantly on this 24/7 cycle. I think that that's a huge element affecting the kind of information that we're receiving. That it's constantly evolving. That we have to recognize that when we are receiving information, it is the best information a reputable journalist has at that moment. That information can change in 30 minutes, in four hours, or in a day. We have to say that this is journalistic truth. This is what's verifiable and what's true in the moment, and we must stay open to the facts changing as stories continue to evolve and unfold and break.
Michelle: We used to get news from weekly magazines and newspapers and dailies and it seems to me that at least when I was growing up, we had faith in those mediums. It seems to be that that's waning on some level.
Jackie: I think that the fact that news is available on so many platforms, also means that news is constantly and quite literally in our pockets. We don't set aside a time of day to turn on the television and watch the news and in an hour the broadcast is over and we turn the television off and we go about our day. Our day is constantly interrupted by buzzing and vibrating and binging devices that are poking us with information. That's a huge change and it means that with anybody with a device is on the receiving end of news; but anybody with a device is also on the creating side of news and that's where we need to discern what is created by a journalist--a credentialed journalist--from what is a hoax. Also, then begin to distinguish between a professional journalist and a citizen journalist.
Michelle: The fact that we used to be able to change the channel or choose a different newspaper was powerful. How is our filter selected now and how is the way our filter works now different, and how does that change the way we consume news?
Jackie: When we used to have to change the channel to see or listen to a different point of view, we were conscious of the fact that our news was coming from one perspective or one news outlet. Now, because of our likes on social media when we are giving these companies and we're giving these smart machine-learning algorithms information about what appeals to us, they're sending us more of what we like and less of what we don't like; and we're inadvertently filtering our own access to information. Just as decades ago, we had to be conscious of changing the channel to hear a different perspective, now, we have to be conscious of going out and seeking perspectives that are different than what comes through our feeds.
Michelle: Good point.
Jackie: That leads us to a call to action, I think, that we've just done this really quick examination of the insights that Joyce provided us with, what would you say to people participating in this seminar right now?
Jackie: If you haven't seen it yet, obviously, you should go take a look at Joyce's blog post. Calling it a blog post is an understatement it really is an extraordinary toolkit. Also, you could try a news experiment and have your students or your colleagues compare new stories from the same source delivered over different media. For example, how does information change if you read the print New York Times versus the online edition? Does that change the content or the context or the interpretation of the stories that they're reading and then maybe turn to their social media feed and see if it feels different there.
Michelle: Absolutely that's a great suggestion. Everything that we've mentioned, you can find in the learning support materials that go with this episode.
Think about how the same news story can be reported in different ways, based on the source. Have your students compare a news story from a recent print version of a newspaper, perhaps Washington Post or The New York Times, with the same article on the online edition of that newspaper, as well as the social media page of that newspaper. Ask them to record the differences by listing 3-5 main points for each source.
Analyze how well the students pick up the differences in how a news story can be reported based on its source. Are there more opportunities to help students realize that the source of the information is almost as important as the information itself? Are there ways that you can incorporate news literacy in other ways into your lessons?
MLA Citation
"News Literacy: Evaluating Different Sources." School Library Connection, January 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2256623?learningModuleId=2256568&topicCenterId=2247903.
Entry ID: 2259989
This lesson focuses on the changes in news delivery and news consumption and how these changes affect the information we receive. Read Joyce Valenza's article, "Truth, Truthiness, Triangulation: A News Literacy Toolkit for a 'Post-Truth' World," described as a "game changer" in how to approach news literacy and then complete the Reflect & Practice activity below.
"Truth, Truthiness, Triangulation: A News Literacy Toolkit for a 'Post-Truth' World." NeverEnding Search (blog). School Library Journal. November 26, 2016. http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2016/11/26/truth-truthiness-triangulation-and-the-librarian-way-a-news-literacy-toolkit-for-a-post-truth-world/
In the article, Valenza discusses some of the 'don'ts' in teaching news literacy, as well as some "Rules of Thumb." Reflect on the lessons you may already be using to teach students how to evaluate the credibility of what they are reading. How can you adapt or build on them to "teach the important lessons of everyday civics for new consumption and production landscape"?
MLA Citation
"News Literacy: Teaching News Literacy." School Library Connection, January 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2256623?learningModuleId=2256568&topicCenterId=2247903.
Entry ID: 2260536
Additional Resources
About the Authors
MLA Citation
Luhtala, Michelle, and Jacquelyn Whiting. "News Literacy. Producers and Consumers [6:08]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, January 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2256623?learningModuleId=2256568&topicCenterId=2247903.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2256623?learningModuleId=2256568&topicCenterId=2247903
Entry ID: 2256623