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News Literacy Mini-course

Introduction

The intent of the News Literacy mini-course is to develop critical thinking skills in college freshmen that allow them to evaluate news stories. Critical thinking skills will be developed by guiding students in an exploration of important concepts in news literacy. Students will be encouraged to continue building upon their understanding of the issues discussed once the course is over.

Topics covered include:

What is news.
How to differentiate between news and other types of information.
What drives the news.
How to recognize bias and opinion.
How to identify quality journalism.
The importance of news literacy.

Needs Assessment

Problem

College students often lack to the ability to differentiate sources when doing research, especially when using the Internet. This leads to problems with the quality of sources used for assignments and the quality of the assignments themselves. This course will help students understand what is considered news, how news differs from other available information, the characteristics of good journalism, and how to evaluate a news item. This mini-course is designed for students who do not take a semester long news literacy course.

The Learners

Male and female college freshmen, typically 18-19 years old, recent high school graduates. The motivation of these students may be low. The students may have prejudices or a cynical attitude towards the news, assuming that all news is subject to political, corporate or personal bias.

According to various studies teenagers are either disinterested in, have a cynical attitude towards or distrust the news (Miller, 2010b; Quinn, 2009). Many assume that all news is subject to personal, political or corporate bias (Miller, 2010a; Miller, 2010b). The students do not understand how to differentiate between news, advertising, and entertainment (Miller, 2010b).

Learner characteristics are based on personal observation, anecdotal evidence from other instructors, and a literature review covering News Literacy programs in colleges and high schools, as well as broader learner characteristics and learning styles of first year students and other college students.

What is to Be Learned?

Students will learn how to use critical thinking skills to evaluate sources by exploring different sources of information and understanding what makes journalism stand apart from other sources. Students will explore the tasks that journalists undertake on a daily basis in order to reinforce the importance of verification and objectivity in the news. A discussion of the factors that drive the news will be used to provide students an opportunity to look at the news from different perspectives. This will help them understand media and audience bias. The difference between reporting and opinion will be discussed so that students can recognize when information is being presented as opinion rather than fact, especially in today’s news environment where the lines between the two are often blurred. The importance of being news literate will also be examined.

Instructional Context

This mini-course is designed to be delivered either online or face-to-face in a traditional classroom setting. The intent is to maximize opportunities for group discussion, collaboration, feedback and reflection. Spiral sequencing is used to ensure that each lesson links back to the previous lesson and forward to the next lesson, reinforcing what the students have learned while supplementing their understanding with new information to facilitate deeper understanding.

Performance Objectives

The student can define, orally or in writing, the meaning of the word "news."
The student can define, orally or in writing, the meaning of the term "news literacy."
The student can explain, orally or in writing, the importance of news literacy.
Given an article, the student identifies, orally or in writing, whether or not it a piece of quality journalism.
The student chooses to keep up with current events, evidenced by reading news.
The student chooses to read quality journalism, evidenced by reading quality news sources.
The student chooses to evaluate all sources critically, evidenced by selecting appropriate material for assignments.

Task Analysis

Prerequisite Skills

The target audience for this course is college freshmen and no prerequisite skills are needed.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

Define what is meant by the term “news.”
Recognize quality journalism.
Evaluate information critically.
Appreciate the importance of news literacy.

Course Outline and Unit Objectives

Lesson 1: Information Neighborhoods - Knowing Where You Are

Identify the different information neighborhoods and their characteristics.
Develop a basic definition of the term “news.”
Evaluate various information sources, identifying those that are news.

Lesson 2: Who Makes The News? What Makes the News?

Define the term journalist.
Explain the tasks in which a journalist is regularly engaged.
List the various factors that drive the news and provide an explanation of each factor.

Lesson 3: Identifying Quality Journalism

Differentiate news from commentary or opinion.
Recognize bias.
Explain what makes journalism different from other information neighborhoods using the VIA mneumonic.
Explain the factors used to evaluate the reliability of news using the IMVAIN mneumonic.
Appreciate the role of opinion in journalism.
Differentiate true opinion journalism from counterfeit opinion journalism.

Lesson 4: News Literacy - What Has It Done For Me Lately?

Develop a more sophisticated definition of the term “news.”
Differentiate quality journalism from non-quality journalism.
Define news literacy and explain its importance.

Instructional Map

News Literacy Instructional Curriculum Map

References

Chen, L. (2010). Critical thinking about journalism: A high school student’s view. Nieman Reports, 64(2), 35.
Cheney, D. (2010). Fuzzy logic: Why students need news and information literacy skills. Youth Media Reporter, 4, 45-47.
Garber, M. (2009). Leap of faith. Columbia Journalism Review, 48(2), 41-45.
Jones, B. (2011). Is the line between librarianship and journalism blurring? American Libraries, (Vol. 42, p. 18). Presented at the American Libraries, American Library Association.
Miller, A. C. (2010a). Can a democracy survive without reliable information? Youth Media Reporter, 4, 41-44.
Miller, A. C. (2010b). News Literacy Project: Students figure out what news and information to trust. Nieman Reports, 64(2), 34-36.
Paron, K. (2010). News literacy: A news lens for youth media. Youth Media Reporter, 4, 53-56.
Partnow, J. (2010). Media and news literacy in Seattle. Youth Media Reporter, 4, 60-61.
Quinn, L. C. (2009). Breaking news. School Library Journal, 55(1), 40-42.
Shultz, S. A. (2010). News literacy in high school and middle grades: Why we need it now more than ever before. Youth Media Reporter, 4, 62-63.
Waters, J. K. (2010). Dream on. T H E Journal, 37(9), 20-24.

Reflection

Initially as a result of doing research in a subject area that I am not that familiar with, I diverted my focus from letting the needs of the learners drive my design of the course. So I needed to circle back and refocus. I dropped some of the original learning outcomes and tried to focus on what I thought it would be most important for the students to understand.

Since I don't currently have to define objectives for my teaching, I struggled with the different types or levels of outcomes and ended up having to change them frequently throughout the project. I didn't add any new objectives but I did remove some. I also move them around, for example, from course objective to lesson or unit objective. I do think going through this process helped clarify the differences for me.

In hindsight, I would have made the lesson shorter. The learners are freshmen and there really is a lot of material packed in each lesson. Probably enough for eight lessons. I also would have included more, and I think better, articles for them to review for both the identifying true opinion journalism exercise and for the identifying quality journalism exercise. Locating good examples ended up taking more time that I anticipated because I wanted to try and be as fair and balanced as possible. I'm not sure I succeeded there.

I might also have handled the post assessment better. But in the end I thought what I most wanted to have the students be able to and felt the news literacy article would suffice, since the students are working on artifacts throughout the course and the instructor would be able to use those and regular drop ins to monitor the group discussions which would give a good sense of the student's learning and the effectiveness of the instruction.

I am also concerned about the amount of group work in the course and the degree to which the course is self-lead. But I decided that using formative assessment to keep taking a pulse check of the situation, would allow the instructor to make any changes needed on the fly.

I would have liked to have structured the course on an authentic project but I wasn't able to think of something that I was happy with in time. I attempted to give some flavour of that type of experience by having the collaborate article assignment at the end. That might actually end up being awkward. Maybe I could have had them work on a different type of collaborative artifact each lesson. Like maybe a video for lesson, an article for another, a audio recording or podcast for another.

I also would have spent more time defining the prerequisite skills, especially the supportive skills. The way I looked at it was that the students in this class didn't need any additional skills than those that would be needed to get into the college.

News Literacy Overview
News Literacy Glossary
News Literacy Lesson 1
News Literacy Lesson 2
News Literacy Lesson 3
News Literacy Lesson 4
ETAP 623 Fall 2011