Teaching News Literacy in the Age Of New Media: Why Secondary School Students Should Be Taught to Judge the Credibility of the News They Consume

This paper involves two of the oldest institutions in America -- schools and the press -- and the preparation of informed citizens in the age of new media. I examine the manner and ways in which news literacy, the use of critical thinking skills to judge the reliability of news reports and news sources, is taught to secondary school students in the United States. It is axiomatic that a vigorous and independent press is critical to our democracy. Yet news literacy has not historically been included in the public school curriculum and continues to be widely absent, despite states vowing through their educational standards to graduate media literate students. News literacy is of increasing significance as the media sources from which citizens can obtain news and public affairs information continue to expand, and as people increasingly report being overwhelmed by the amount of information available online. Individual teachers, college faculty and a range of organizations run by media professionals have championed news literacy in recent years. In the following paper, I highlight these efforts to integrate news literacy lessons in the classroom, as well as the institutional barriers to broadening studentsΓÇÖ access to news literacy instruction

Journalism and Mass Communication Textbook Representations of Verbal Media Skills: Implications for Students with Speech Disabilities

This study examines representation of disabilities by conducting a qualitative content analysis of how 41 journalism/mass communication textbooks frame the ideal standards of verbal communication for media professionals. Textbooks are integral to students’ understanding of professional norms and may influence career decisions. Results show that textbooks rarely address the topic of speech disabilities, describing them as “roadblocks to success.” Instead, authors often address best practices in broadcast voicing and the value of projecting confidence in interviews and press conferences. What are the explicit and implicit messages for students with speech disabilities such as stuttering? We argue that such framing is a critical media literacy issue because it addresses media diversity and access

How Students Access, Filter and Evaluate Digital News: Choices That Shape What They Consume and the Implications for News Literacy Education

Being an informed citizen in the digital age requires the ability to sift through an avalanche of news online and identify content that is credible and diverse. News literacy, a topic with a small but increasing presence in high school and college curricula, is concerned with training students to be discerning news consumers. Assessments of news literacy typically gauge the effects of exposure to news literacy curricula measured through student analysis of media messages selected by researchers. This exploratory, mixed-methods study instead examined how students with no formal news literacy instruction searched for news on a computer using their typical routine, their process of filtering and evaluating news about a topic of interest, and their awareness of their choices when accessing news online that shape what they consume. This study contributes to the understanding of what digital media concepts, cognitive strategies and evaluation criteria warrant targeting or greater emphasis in news literacy curricula. Survey results revealed that participants (n=244) typically spend a significant amount of time consuming video and written news, largely through digital platforms and mostly on a computer. They are mostly information scanners and more often stumble upon news online than seek out specific news of interest. Participants have a strong social interest in news, like to share stories with others, and are often trusting of their social networks and technology to filter the news they consume. Concurrent think-aloud protocols and subsequent interviews with a subset of survey respondents (n=37) found that participants often did not pay close attention to the process by which they accessed and filtered news online, doing so in a state of automaticity instead of thinking critically. When asked to explain the thought processes underlying their news searches, a significant percentage of students lacked a conscious awareness or understanding of the strategies and evaluation criteria that potentially affect the credibility and diversity of news consumed. As a result, students' online news habits often placed them at risk for consuming unreliable news and for adopting a hive mindset or being in a news silo

Political Engagement During a Presidential Election Year: A Case Study of Media Literacy Students

This exploratory, mixed-methods study uses data gathered during the previous U.S. presidential election in 2012 to evaluate student political engagement and digital culture. Survey results and media diary entries revealed that college students enrolled in a media literacy course during Super Tuesday or Election Day gravitated toward low-barrier political actions and expressive modes of citizenship, and they were most engaged when there was a social component to following election news. These results, coupled with recent data on political engagement and media consumption, present an opportunity to consider the role of digital platforms and online communities in the 2016 election

«The world unplugged» and «24 Hours without Media» : media literacy to develop self-awareness regarding media

La mayoría de los jóvenes del mundo se conecta habitualmente a los medios de comunicación; sin embargo, en pocas ocasiones reciben formación respecto a los impactos que este consumo mediático tiene en ellos mismos. Este artículo expone la experiencia llevada a cabo en el marco del Currículum UNESCO, denominada «24 horas sin medios». En otoño de 2010, cerca de 1.000 estudiantes de 12 universidades de cuatro continentes participaron en el estudio «El mundo desconectado». Investigadores de la Universidad de Maryland (Estados Unidos) recogieron rigurosamente las reflexiones de los alumnos que participaron y las analizaron a través del programa estadístico IBM’s ManyEyes. Los resultados muestran que los jóvenes, a raíz del ejercicio, fueron más conscientes de sus hábitos mediáticos, y muchos de ellos indagaron sobre su propia «adicción» a los medios, mientras que otros no consiguieron siquiera concluir estas 24 horas sin medios. También se pone en evidencia que el acceso cotidiano a la tecnología digital forma parte ya de su identidad juvenil y son básicas para entender su forma de trabajar y sus relaciones sociales. También se demuestra que los alumnos aumentaron su autoconciencia sobre el papel de los medios en sus vidas, y el profesorado comenzó a comprender mejor los intereses de sus alumnos, así como sus parámetros de consumo de Internet, mejorando sus habilidades para ayudar a los jóvenes a estar más alfabetizados mediáticamente.Across the globe, many students have easy and constant access to media, yet they often receive little or no instruction about the impact of their media consumption. This article outlines a «24 hours without media» exercise in accordance with the guidelines set in Module 7, Unit 1 of the UNESCO curriculum. In the fall of 2010, nearly 1,000 students from a dozen universities across five continents took part in «The World Unplugged» study. Researchers at the University of Maryland gathered students’ narrative responses to the going without media assignment and analyzed them by using grounded theory and analytic abduction, assisted by IBM’s ManyEyes computer analysis software. Results showed that going without media made students dramatically more cognizant of their own media habits –with many self-reporting an «addiction» to media– a finding further supported by a clear majority in every country admitting outright failure of their efforts to go unplugged. Students also reported that having constant access to digital technology is integral to their personal identities; it is essential to the way they construct and manage their work and social lives. «The World Unplugged» exercise enabled experiential learning; students gained increased self-awareness about the role of media in their lives and faculty came to better understand the Internet usage patterns of their students, enhancing their ability to help young people become more media literate

The Yeast Tor Signaling Pathway Is Involved in G2/M Transition via Polo-Kinase

The target of rapamycin (Tor) protein plays central roles in cell growth. Rapamycin inhibits cell growth and promotes cell cycle arrest at G1 (G0). However, little is known about whether Tor is involved in other stages of the cell division cycle. Here we report that the rapamycin-sensitive Tor complex 1 (TORC1) is involved in G2/M transition in S. cerevisiae. Strains carrying a temperature-sensitive allele of KOG1 (kog1-105) encoding an essential component of TORC1, as well as yeast cell treated with rapamycin show mitotic delay with prolonged G2. Overexpression of Cdc5, the yeast polo-like kinase, rescues the growth defect of kog1-105, and in turn, Cdc5 activity is attenuated in kog1-105 cells. The TORC1-Type2A phosphatase pathway mediates nucleocytoplasmic transport of Cdc5, which is prerequisite for its proper localization and function. The C-terminal polo-box domain of Cdc5 has an inhibitory role in nuclear translocation. Taken together, our results indicate a novel function of Tor in the regulation of cell cycle and proliferation