The full News Literacy course is taught to undergraduate students at Stony Brook University, and at many other institutes around the U.S. It is also taught in K-12 school settings and can be easily modified to fit into almost any course. The full course focuses on a few major objectives that students should be able to master:
- Analyze key elements of news reports -- weighing evidence, evaluating sources, noting context and transparency -- to judge their reliability.
- Distinguish between news reports, opinion journalism and unsupported bloviation.
- Identify and distinguish between news media bias and audience bias.
- Blend personal scholarship and course materials to write forcefully about journalism standards and practices, fairness and bias, First Amendment issues and their individual Fourth Estate rights and responsibilities.
- Use examples from each day’s news to demonstrate critical thinking and civic engagement.
- Place the impact of social media and digital technologies into their historical context.
One of our major goals is to see News Literacy implemented as full-fledged courses at the secondary and collegiate level, and integrated into core curricula throughout the country. Here's a wide range of resources from our partners and the Center for News Literacy to help in your quest to make News Literacy a crucial part of the education of your students.
Course Documents
- Course Proposal - A sample from Janis Schachter, who teaches News Literacy at Northport High School on Long Island, New York.
- Model Syllabus - A model News Literacy syllabus.
- News Literacy Glossary - The vocabulary of News Literacy.
- Lesson Plan Format- Use this template to create your lesson plans.
Data sets
- News Literacy Assessment - An examination of the effects of the News Literacy curriculum.