My vision for News on Atlas is and has always been to provide a tool to improve the news literacy and international-mindedness of users.  I think it’s worth exploring other initiatives that have had similiar aims in order to highlight the potential usefulness of News on Atlas.  Having researched this area a lot, I have found two prominent examples in recent years of efforts to integrate such lessons into the classroom, The Powerful Voices for Kids Program and the News Literacy Program at Stony Brook University.  I discuss these examples here:

1. The Powerful Voices for Kids Program – Hobbs (2010)

Powerful Voices for Kids participated in a university-school partnership involving Temple University students working with small groups of children (ages 9 to 11) to develop their news literacy skills during July 2010.  The young age of the participants made this program particularly unique.  According to Powers (2010, pp. 2) targeting students still in compulsory education is wise, because these are the years when many people begin developing reading and viewing routines.  The younger news literacy can be taught the better.  Hobbs (2010) observed this program closely, reporting it to be a perfect example of “what works” in news literacy education, and she uses this to draw fundamental learning principles that should guide the pedagogy of news literacy.

Hobbs focuses specifically on one group of children who were involved in a project where they explored just one news story in depth: the violence associated with flash mobs in Philadelphia.  Using the simple programming tool, Scratch, the children made interactive media about the news event, which stimulated conversation about how the news is constructed and why news is important in society.  Hobbs (2010) reveals key learning outcomes of this project for the children, which made them more aware of the role of news in society, how to assess its reliability and the impact news can have on others.

Commenting on the outcomes of the program, McManus (2009) states that:

‘In my view, these are the kinds of insights that are now essential for people to be full participants in contemporary society.  These are habits of mind that will enable young people to flourish in the tsunami of information that surrounds them, where news pretenders offer “fake news” and where cheapening and corner-cutting interfere in cash-strapped news organisations leads to a diminution of quality news and information’. 

According to Hobbs (pp. 4), the success of the program was achieved by building critical thinking and communication skills.  In contrast to the transmission model of education, the program begins from the learner’s interests: ‘Learners, not teachers select the topic to examine, and they select news that’s personally meaningful to them’.  In the teaching process, students are also encouraged to ask critical questions, using reasoning and evidence to support their ideas.  This method is particularly appropriate for the area that Hobbs refers to as ‘constructedness’, in which careful attention is paid to how news stories are constructed.

2. News Literacy Program at Stony Brook University – Fleming (2013)

Fleming (2013) provides a case study that focuses on one of the most ambitious and well-funded curricular news literacy programs.  Ideologically, the News Literacy Program at Stony Brook is similar to the Powerful Voices for Kids Program, but it is an ongoing program that exclusively involves university students.  Fleming describes it as an experiment in modern journalism education.  This is because traditionally, journalism has had a practice-oriented philosophy, and yet as Fleming (pp. 2) explains, Stony Brook’s program ‘veered off of journalism education’s skills-development tradition and into unchartered territory called news literacy’.  Howard Schneider, the founding dean of the School of Journalism at Stony Brook University, designed the program with the objective that young audiences would sharpen their critical thinking skills and come to support high-quality news.  According to Fleming (2013, pp. 11), Schneider feared that important news literacy principles of the press were disappearing as the lines of “responsible” journalism and ‘everything else blurred in the fast-moving digital sea of information and disinformation’.

The approach at Stony Brook is in line with suggestions made by Mihailidis that news literacy programs should not just focus on critiquing news content but should also focus on understanding and contextualising it.  According to Fleming (2013, pp. 13), this translates into an instructional strategy that teaches students how to access, evaluate, analyse, and appreciate journalism.  As with the Powerful Voices for Kids Program, the success of news literacy education is largely derived from creating what Hobbs (1998, pp. 28) calls a ‘pedagogy of inquiry’, “asking critical questions about what you watch, see, and read”.  The ultimate objective is to promote critical thinking skills which develop intellectual autonomy on the part of the student.  The broader goal of critical thinking, according to Mihailidis (2011, pp. 4), guards against taking the mediated environment for granted.  After all, as McLuhan (1969, pp. 5) pointed out, humans live in constructed media environments as unconsciously as fish live in water.

News literacy education must therefore help students understand and analyse the constructions of reality presented by journalists, which sometimes offer incomplete or inaccurate portrayals of the world we live in.  This would explain the overall objectives of both the Powerful Voices for Kids Program and the news literacy course at Stony Brook, which is for students to become more consistent and sceptical news consumers, who are able to accurately assess the reliability of news.  Fleming (2013, pp. 13) presents results that instructional approaches based on this approach to news literacy, include high levels of engagement, a greater awareness of current events, and deeper, more nuanced understandings of journalism.

Moreover, as alluded to by Mihailidis (2011, pp. 28), the goal of news literacy should not simply be to generate distrust or cynicism about the news, because otherwise, news literacy programs might lead to dismissive attitudes about the press and civic responsibilities in general.  In one of his studies for example, Mihailidis (pp. 30) finds that a class focused on news was successful in developing critical reading and viewing skills, but it also seemed to encourage cynical views of the press.  A balance needs to be struck, therefore, between teaching critical thinking skills and at the same time fostering appropriate interpretative habits about the news.  It is this approach that seems to be exemplified by both the Powerful Voices for Kids Program and the Stony Brook news literacy program, which equips students to demand and appreciate quality journalism that adheres to the norms to which it aspires.

Concluding thoughts…

Aside from their effective pedagogies, the success of these two programs can be attributed to the ready availability of appropriate technologies and access to diverse news sources.  These two factors facilitate the fundamental objectives of news literacy but unfortunately also represent the key challenges in the programs’ replication.  Fleming (2013, pp. 14) for example, states that ‘the Stony Brook approach is not without fault because of its cost, dependence on PowerPoint presentations, and last minute updates’.  Similarly, the Powerful Voices for Kids Program relies on the distribution of age-appropriate news articles, coding software (Scratch), and the support of university students.  Discussing information obesity, Whitworth (2009, pp. 2) states that:

‘At the very least, we will suffer a loss in quality of engagement, and require new tools and strategies to deal with the overload’.

This same statement could apply equally well to the challenges facing news consumers.  Both the Powerful Voices for Kids and Stony Brook Program have appropriate strategies in place to deal with the large quantity of news online, helping students to navigate and analyse this information.  However, the replication of these strategies is limited because the tools provided on the programs themselves are costly in terms of time to prepare, organise and use.  News on Atlas has been designed to reduce these costs and enable more schools to replicate the pedagogy underlying successful news literacy programmes.

References

Fleming, J.  2013.  Media Literacy, News Literacy, or News Appreciation? A Case Study of the News Literacy Program at Stony Brook University.  Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.

Hobbs, R.  2010.  News Literacy: What Works and What Doesn’t.  University of Rhode Island.

McCluhan, M and Parker, H.  1969.  Counterblast.

Mihailidis, P.  2011.  News Literacy.  Global Perspectives for the Newsroom and Classroom.

Whitworth, A.  2009.  Information Obesity.  Chandos, Oxford, UK.

Technology has made the world increasingly interconnected, but not necessarily better informed.  One of the key roles of technology today should be to help learners better understand the world we live in, and this means teaching news litearcy in schools.  Yet despite some efforts by those championing media and news literacy, Gretchen Schwarz (2006, pp. 255) writes that its proponents are still dealing with ‘all the problems of a young field – becoming visible in the academic world, acquiring credibility among educators and others, developing a strong research basis, and finding funding’.

The challenges facing media literacy education become even more pronounced when one looks specifically at its subset, news literacy education.

As media scholar, Fifi Schwarz (2012, pp. 1) points out,

‘The most relevant sources for informing citizens about social, economic & political affairs – news media – are often overlooked in media literacy education.  This seems rather odd, considering that interest in news media among (young) citizens clearly relates to their civic engagement’.

Similarly, media educator David Buckingham (2003, pp. 3) writes,

‘It is quite extraordinary that the majority of young people should go through their school careers with so little opportunity to study and engage with the most significant contemporary forms of culture and communication. Clearly, there is an argument here that still needs to be made’.

There are several possible reasons why news literacy has received little scholarly attention and has been underrepresented in education curricula.  First and foremost, news literacy has been overshadowed by the more popular subject, media literacy.  Schwarz (2012, pp. 2) suggests this is to do with the fact that news media is generally associated with, or falls into the category of what he refers to as “old media”, which is not as popular with young people, especially in the digital age.  Buckingham (2000, pp. 9) supports this claim with data, reporting that young people frequently express indifference, or even considerable dislike, towards the news.  This is a significant point given the underlying philosophy of media education in general as a form of inoculation.  Buckingham (2003, pp. 19) explains that this idea comes from the belief that students should be partly exposed to the debilitating forms of media influence in the classroom so as to ultimately enhance their immunity from manipulation.  In terms of news media however, this notion of inoculation can be seen to not apply – after all, it does not make sense to spend time teaching students news literacy in order to “inoculate” them if they are not interested in news itself.  For this reason, other areas of media literacy education have held greater importance in the eyes of educators.

As an ephemeral and potentially contentious subject, news by its very nature can also be seen as a difficult, if not an unnecessary media, to bring into the classroom.  Laufenberg (2010) states that:

‘There is tons of news out there, and you need to interact with it at an analytic level as it happens.  You cannot plan ahead for current events, and it makes some teachers uncomfortable to plan lessons around things that have not yet happened.  They want to control the content’.

Hobbs (2010, pp. 7) adds to this point by suggesting that, ‘where competition and fragmentation of news audiences reign, no easy assumptions can be made about the nature of what counts as trustworthy and authoritative when it comes to news and current events’.

The result is that however relevant or useful it might be, most teachers are reluctant to use the news as part of their daily pedagogy.  This situation is not helped of course, by the fact that there is no training given to teachers on how to teach news literacy.  Hobbs (2004, pp. 53) writes that:

‘Based on my experience as a teacher-educator, I have observed that it takes about three years of practice, supported by staff development and peer critique, to enable teachers to develop the new skills and knowledge they need to effectively use media texts in the classroom to promote critical-thinking and analysis skills’.

According to Powers (2010, pp. 37) though, education schools that prepare today’s teachers do not offer instruction on how to incorporate news literacy instruction into the classroom or test teachers on this content area.  One possible explanation for such barriers to bringing news literacy into the classroom are arguably systemic, rooted in society’s fundamental perceptions and attitudes towards the news media.

For example, Altschull (1990, pp. 53) suggests that news literacy has consistently been viewed as a discipline of practice, ‘not one of deep and reflective thought’.  Similarly, Hobbs (2004, pp. 51) writes,

‘Although the use of popular-culture materials is becoming more and more common, there is little widespread public enthusiasm for the use of popular mass media texts among education and business leaders, and even less among parents and community leaders’.

An obvious reason for this is that news literacy might be seen as a tool by some for propagandising by the teacher.  In other words, there may be concern that news literacy lessons come with political judgments.  As Powers (2010, pp. 43) writes though,

‘While maintaining absolute political objectivity is impossible for teachers introducing any classroom lesson, proponents of news literacy emphasise that the instruction is about teaching skills rather than ideological values’.

Indeed, news literacy education is not about teaching students what to think when it comes to news – quite the contrary, it is about teaching students how to think critically about the news they read.  Nonetheless, misconceptions about the pedagogy underlying news literacy needs to be taken into account as a widespread barrier for its inclusion into curricula.

A final factor to consider is that many classrooms may be ill-equipped with the technological resources necessary to facilitate lessons on news literacy.  According to the report “The Internet and the Threat It Poses to Local Media: Lessons from News in the Schools”, one-third of teachers said they are not making as much use of Internet-based news as they would like, because their classrooms are not equipped for it (Patterson, 2010, pp. 5).  The necessity of computers and Internet access is particularly apparent when one refers to global news literacy, in which the reading of news from international outlets online would be a prerequisite.  As some schools lack computers, wireless access, or the projection technology necessary for teachers to effectively draw on digital news as an educational resource, this problem is an immediate barrier to the inclusion of news literacy lessons.  That being said, there are approaches that teachers can take to respond to such technological obstacles, which might include rationing students’ access to equipment or applying a “bring your own device” (BYOD) policy in the classroom.  Such approaches to overcoming technological resource constraints are not necessarily ideal and may present their own problems.  As a result, the inclusion of news literacy curricula needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis, specifically taking account of the school’s access to relevant technologies.

Given all of the barriers to news literacy education in schools, its advocates face an important task ahead.  Hobbs (2010, pp. 8) suggests greater efforts needs to be made to help educators see the value of employing news and current events into K-12 and higher education.  Powers (2010, pp. 45) writes recognition is needed ‘that news literacy involves critical thinking skills, a commonly listed learning objective, and that acquiring the ability to critically analyse news and public affairs information promotes good citizenship’.  In this way, it is much more likely that news literacy education will be represented in educational standards, which reflect the policy consensus of what teachers are expected to cover and what students are expected to learn.

References:

Altschull, H.  1990.  From Milton to McLuhan: The Ideas behind American Journalism.  White Plains, NY: Longman.

Buckingham, D.  2000.  The Making of Citizens.  Young People, News and Politics.  Routledge.

Buckingham, D.  2003.  Media Education.  Literacy, Learning and Contemporary Culture.  Polity Press, USA.

Hobbs, Renee.  2004.  A Review of School-Based Initiatives in Media Literacy Education.  American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 48, No. 1 (2004): 42-59. Print.

Hobbs, R.  2010.  News Literacy: What Works and What Doesn’t.  University of Rhode Island.

Laufenberg, Diana. Telephone interview. 28 May 2010.  Quoted by Powers, 2010.

Patterson, Thomas E. “The Internet and the Threat It Poses to Local Media: Lessons from News in the Schools.” Carnegie-Night Task Force on the Future of Journalism, 2007. Web. 17 July 2010.

Powers, E.  2010.  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.  Washington University in St. Louis.

Schwarz, G & Brown, P.  2006.  Media Literacy: Transforming Curriculum and teaching.  Oklahoma State University: Wiley-Blackwell.

Schwarz, F.  2012.  Media Literacy and the News.  Windesheim School of Media in Zwolle, the Netherlands.

In his book, The Filter Bubble, Pariser (2011) describes a digital situation we all now face in which website algorithms selectively present information to users based on location, click behaviour, search history, etc., and, as a result, distance users from information that disagrees with their viewpoints, effectively isolating them in their own cultural or ideological bubbles.  In December 2009, for example, Google began using 57 different signals – everything from a user login location to their browser to their search history – to make guesses about who the user is and what kinds of sites the user would like to see.  Likewise, social networking sites such a Facebook and Twitter are built on the premise that users interact with other users that they have chosen to interact with, which limits the coverage of news they receive.  Although filter bubbles almost certainly provide users with information of subjective value, based on their needs, desires and preferences, they also lead users to a state of cognitive bias.  This means users may dismiss otherwise potentially useful information, because it does not conform to their cognitive schema.  As more users discover news through algorithm-determined feeds, important news content relevant to the public sphere falls out of view.

According Pariser (2011, pp. 4): ‘Democracy requires citizens to see things from one another’s point of view, but instead we’re more and more enclosed in our own bubbles’. 

In order to be news literate on a global scale, it is surely necessary to break out of these filter bubbles by reading from a wider variety of sources from around the world.

Another type of filter bubble can be seen in terms of the coverage of global news itself.  Reese (2011, pp. 5) states that against the expectation that media report and reach the entire globe, the global media system, particularly international broadcasting, does not live up to that hope.  For example, Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, presented a cartogram during a TED Conference to show how the US media covers international news.

Fig. 1

This map shown in Figure 1 represents the number of seconds US network and cable news organisations dedicated to news stories by country in February 2007.  This was a month when there had been very significant international events: North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear facilities, there was massive flooding in Indonesia, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a study confirming man’s impact on global warming.  During this month though, Miller (2007) observes the US accounted for 79% of the total news coverage; the combined coverage of China, India, and Russia represented just 1% of the news.  Similar distortions in the way news is covered can be seen in elite online newspapers such as the New York Times and Guardian.

What the cartogram serves to illustrate is that, contrary to what people might think, news media does not deliver an equitable distribution of global news coverage.  According to Adams and Ovide (2009), the online availability of news and the demand for larger corporate profits has driven both audiences and advertisers to cyberspace, triggering a crisis in the news industry, which is increasingly turning to local coverage.  Consequently, foreign news bureaus have been disappearing, as foreign correspondents are seen at best as unnecessary “middle men”, at worst as “endangered species”. (Hamilton, 2009, pp. 463).

Fig. 2

As Figure 2 illustrates, the same problem can be seen on the demand side for news. On average, more than 95% of national news readership is on domestic sites.  Citizens in the UK, for example, are unlikely to read about news happening in Australia on an Australian website.  Instead, they are far more likely to read about events in Australia, filtered through a UK news outlet, such as the Guardian.  Language can be an obvious barrier here, preventing readers from visiting foreign news sites.  With relatively high numbers of immigrants, this may explain why the US and UK have comparatively more of their citizens viewing foreign web pages than China, for instance, which has proportionally fewer immigrants.

Nonetheless, the fact that the vast majority of page views are on domestic news sites for all countries is considered by Zuckerman (2010) to be a serious problem:

‘The real problems in the world are global in scale and scope; they require conversations to get to global solutions.  This is a problem we have to solve’. 

Moreover, when foreign news is reported by a domestic outlet, true comparative analysis is rare. News, according to Reese (2012, pp. 2), is ‘still domesticated through national frames of references, often taken for granted, and media globalisation skeptics have argued that no truly transnational news platforms have emerged, permitting the kind of cross-boundary dialogs associate with a public sphere’.  Media sceptics such as Hafez (2007) point to the continued weaknesses of international reporting: ‘elite-focused, conflict-based, and driven by scandal and the sensational, leading them to conclude that the “global village” has been blocked by domestication’.

As so much of our news now comes from online sources, we need to ensure that our students have the digital literacy skills needed in order to become well-informed global citizens.  If they lack these skills, then we cannot truly claim to be providing an education that facilitates the often touted ideal of “international mindedness”.

References:

Adams and Ovide.  2009.  Newspapers Move to Outsource Foreign Coverage.  The Wall Street Journal, 15 January.

Hafez, K. 2007. The myth of media globalization. Malden, MA: Polity.

Hamilton, J.  2009.  Journalism’s Roving Eye: a history of American foreign reporting, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press

Pariser, E.  2011.  The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think.  Penguin Press.

Miller, A.  2007.  Ted Talk: The News about the News.  http://www.ted.com/talks/alisa_miller_shares_the_news_about_the_news.

Reese, S.  2012.  Global News literacy: The Educator.  Global News literacy: The Educator (Chapter prepared for News literacy: Global perspectives for the newsroom and the classroom). University of Texas at Austin.

Zuckerman, E.  2010.  Ted Talk: Listening to Global Voices.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXPJVwwEmiM