The News Literacy Project (NLP) made dramatic progress in 2012 in its mission to create a new generation of smarter and more engaged consumers and creators of credible news and information.
NLP is now working with 35 teachers in 21 middle schools and high schools in New York City, Chicago, Washington and Bethesda, Md., to reach well over 2,000 students this school year. This included expansion into the District of Columbia in September. Six schools in New York, four in Chicago, two in Washington and one in Bethesda joined the project in 2011.
Not only is the News Literacy Project bringing journalists to students in schools, it’s increasingly bringing students to the journalists in their newsrooms.
Students participating in the project visited four newsrooms in New York and Chicago in the past two months, bringing the total number of such field trips in the two cities to 10 for 2011.
A group of 14 high school seniors from Cristo Rey New York High School visited “60 Minutes” in New York on Dec. 13. The students met with Jeff Fager, the chairman of CBS News and executive producer of “60 Minutes.” He discussed the news...
The News Literacy Project’s growing program to give students the tools to know what to believe in a digital age was the subject of a seven-minute report on "PBS NewsHour" on Dec. 13.
The report, titled “News Literacy Project Trains Young People to be Skeptical Media Consumers,” featured NLP’s work with 8th-grade students at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., and students at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md. It showed teachers using the curriculum at Whitman, a journalist’s presentation at E.L. Haynes, and student projects.
For the second consecutive year, a News Literacy Project student from the Reavis School in Chicago has been featured on PBS’s “NewsHour Extra” website. Rashad Thomas-Bland, now in 7th grade at Reavis, was interviewed about his experience producing and narrating a broadcast report on the impact of video games on youth. The interview, along with an excerpt of the Reavis students’ report, can be found in the Student Voices section of the NewsHour Extra site at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/speakout/arts/july-dec11/nlp_11-14.html.
The Wall Street Journal has joined the News Literacy Project as a participating news organization, becoming the 21st newspaper, broadcast outlet or online publication to enlist in the effort to help middle school and high school students become smarter and more frequent consumers and creators of credible information.
"Today’s readers need to understand that not all digital information is created equal," said Alan Murray, the Journal’s deputy managing editor. "The Journal supports the News Literacy Project’s efforts to help the next generation become discerning consumers of news. It’s critical...
What do actor Humphrey Bogart and news literacy have in common? Plenty, according to a commentary in America, a Jesuit weekly that looks at political, economic and social issues from a Catholic perspective.
In “Bring Back Bogart,” published in the Nov. 7, 2011, issue, Ray Schroth, S.J., an associate editor of the weekly, cleverly ties the 1952 film “Deadline — U.S.A.” to the News Literacy Project’s mission. One of NLP’s partner schools is the Jesuit-founded Cristo Rey New York High School in East Harlem.
In the film, an immigrant woman brings evidence about her daughter’s murder to the local...
The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) supervises the High School Journalism Initiative, the largest online host of teen journalism. The site displays students’ reports, photos, podcasts and video journalism and offers training and teaching materials.
Student Reporting Labs connect students with a network of public broadcasting mentors, an innovative journalism curriculum and an online collaborative space to develop digital media, critical thinking and communication skills while producing original news reports for PBS NewsHour Extra.
The Poynter Institute’s News University is an online journalism training program that offers 65 courses as diverse as writing and reporting techniques, multimedia story-telling and ethics. The site also provides access to the Newseum’s “Be a Reporter” and “Be an Editor” games.
The foundation's High School Broadcast Journalism Project helps students become broadcast journalists by offering programs and activities that fund, support and advocate electronic journalism education nationwide.
The network produces a daily 10-minute commercial-free newscast available to teachers and students throughout the school day. It also provides news quizzes, learning activities, fact sheets and commercial-free editions of in-depth reports by CNN’s Special Investigations Unit.
The Newseum, in Washington, D.C., is an interactive museum that combines information about the history of journalism with the latest digital technology and games, allowing visitors to experience what it’s like to be a reporter or make challenging ethical decisions.
Media Literacy Clearinghouse is a website developed by Frank W. Baker, a former broadcast journalist and media literacy instructor. It provides tools and information for educators who want to learn more about media literacy and integrate the topic into the classroom.
Investigative Reporters and Editors, or IRE, was founded more than 30 years ago by a small group of reporters who wanted to share reporting and writing tips. Now based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, it is dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting. It has created a forum in which journalists worldwide share story ideas, newsgathering techniques and sources
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, non-profit organization based in New York City that promotes press freedom worldwide and defends the rights of journalists. Its site includes detailed information and case studies about journalists and media workers who have been abducted, attacked, imprisoned or killed.
The Committee of Concerned Journalists is a consortium of journalists, publishers, newspaper owners and academics. One of its aims is to create a national conversation about the principles that distinguish journalism.
The Columbia Journalism Review’s mission is “to encourage and stimulate excellence in journalism in the service of a free society.” Founded in 1961 under the auspices of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, the magazine examines the news media’s performance. Its website delivers timely criticism and reporting.
FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, monitors the factual accuracy of statements by major U.S. political figures in television ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.
The New York Times' Learning Network is a free site for teachers, students and parents and includes content for grades 3-12. Each weekday the Learning Network offers new interactive activities, such as lesson plans, news summaries and quizzes, based on the reports in that week's New York Times.
The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect was written by former journalists Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. It is taught in journalism schools nationwide and has been published in 38 languages.
Newsthinking, by Bob Baker, a writing consultant and former Los Angeles Times reporter and editor, focuses on mental organization for journalists. Baker is also the proprietor of the website Newsthinking.com.
