Beneath the News: Who's Doing What to Whom, and Who Cares?

Fake news. Alternative facts. Internet trolls. In an age of Newspeak, it's increasingly important to equip 21st century learners with the skills needed to determine the legitimacy of claims put forth on social media, in print, and in...

What actually happens at a press conference? Make sense of the mayhem with a mock press conference activity designed to promote media literacy. Individuals participate as either members of the press or the governor's office to examine...

Arm your class members with a weapon they can use to defend themselves against fake or misleading news. The ten steps outlined on the checklist provides investigators with ammunition they need to develop their information literacy skills.

Aspiring journalists learn about media literacy, journalism, and the press. Units come complete with handouts, assignment rubrics, notes, and extension suggestions. Each unit also comes with a list of vocabulary words and learning...

The news can be scary, but is it always accurate? Young journalists read about the necessary elements of evaluating a news story for accuracy, thoroughness, newsworthiness, and biased or balanced reporting. After reading a description of...

Ever wonder why the most controversial or dramatic news stories are the first ones in a newscast? Evaluate every part of a television newscast, including the anchor's posture and facial expressions, the time allotted to each news story,...

Step into the shoes of a newscast director with a media analysis activity. High schoolers look over vocabulary for news media before deciding which three of five stories they'd want to air on tonight's news, based on exclusivity, viewer...

Big news isn't necessarily newsworthy everywhere! How do journalists decide what to cover with so much happening around them? A instructional activity on media literacy examines the factors that affect the media's choice of stories to...

What media literacy skills do people need to evaluate a news source? Scholars listen to and discuss an NPR story about how fake headlines often dupe young people and adults alike. Next, they study news stories, using a fact-checking...

The framers of the United States Constitution felt a free press was so essential to a democracy that they granted the press the protection it needed to hold the powerful to account in the First Amendment. Today, digital natives need to...