Unit 1
What is News (media) Literacy and Why Does it Matter?
What is News (media) Literacy and Why Does it Matter?
Unit 1 covers the first 4 lessons of the News Literacy course and introduces participants to issues that prompted the development of the course. The lessons should be followed in sequence.
Each of the lessons are described below:
An introduction and overview of the course, highlighted by an outline of the role of a free press in a democratic society. We'll take a look at examples of print and broadcast stories that illustrate why news (media) literacy matters. We highlight the modern challenges for the news consumer, and put the course in the context of the accelerating communications revolution, ranging from Gutenberg to Zuckerberg, and others who have impacted the way we communicate with one another.
You should finish this lesson with an understanding of the purpose of the First Amendment in our society and the core definition of news literacy: The ability to judge the credibility and reliability of news reports–and why you should take a more active role in your own news consumption.
We explore the universal need to receive and share information and the function that news has played in every recorded society: to alert, to divert, and to connect. Paying attention to disaster and celebrity stories – even stories about the dog who saved its owner – are embedded deeply in the human condition. We then examine specific cases in the United States that highlight the role technology has played in amplifying information and how this also has enabled the sender to control the news.
You should finish this lesson with an understanding of why there is a need for a free flow of information in American and other cultures and why some people are willing to kill (and journalists are willing to die) in the battle to control information.
The first rule for a smart news consumer is this: always know what information “neighborhood” you’re in. This lesson explores the differences between news, propaganda, publicity, advertising, entertainment and raw information.
You will be given an information grid that defines each of these “neighborhoods.”
You should finish this lesson with a new tool in which to identify whether or not something is news, by determining if it has the three key values: verification, independence and accountability. You'll also learn that the lines that determine different categories on the grid are blurring, often by design, and it’s easy to be deceived as to what journalism is and who is a journalist.
What makes a piece of information news?
This lesson examines news drivers, news values and how the news process works.
Some of the questions that are addressed in this lesson include: What is the decision-making process that determines whether a story gets published or broadcast? Who decides? How do editors balance the interesting and the important? Are news decisions driven by the profit motive or social responsibility or some combination of the two? Is there just too much bad news?
You should finish this lesson with an understanding of the characteristics of information that make it newsworthy, and the thinking processes that help editors determine what to publish.