NLP Educator Booklet - Flipbook - Page 6
What is
News Literacy?
News literacy is the ability to
determine the credibility of
news and other information by
recognizing the standards of factbased, high-quality journalism. It
is an essential 21st-century skill,
integral to any media literacy,
digital literacy or civics program.
The Challenge
Our disordered information environment
threatens the very fabric of our democracy.
It deepens political polarization and erodes trust in
institutions and standards-based news organizations.
Young people, who get most of their news and other
content from social media, are particularly vulnerable,
yet most states lack a mandate for teaching news
literacy. Without the skills and tools to evaluate the
credibility of information they encounter online, young
people are at a civic and personal disadvantage.
Consider these 昀椀ndings from NLP’s report
News Literacy in America: A survey of teen
information attitudes, habits and skills (2024):
NLP has developed 昀椀ve standards
that de昀椀ne the core competencies
for high-quality news literacy
teaching and learning:
1. Information type
Students distinguish news from
other types of information and
can recognize both traditional and
nontraditional advertisements.
2. Free press
Students acknowledge the
importance of the First Amendment
in American democracy and a free
press to an informed public.
3. Credibility
Students understand why professional
and ethical standards are necessary
to produce quality journalism, and
they can apply understanding of
those standards to discern credible
information and sources for themselves.
4. Verify, analyze and evaluate
Students demonstrate increased critical
habits of mind, including effective
veri昀椀cation skills and the ability to detect
misinformation and faulty evidence.
5. Citizenship
Students express and exercise civic
responsibility by seeking, sharing and
producing credible information as
effective participants in a democracy.
6
Teaching news literacy
Nearly half of teens surveyed
thought the press does more to
harm democracy than to protect it.
Eight in 10 teens surveyed reported
seeing posts on social media that
spread or promote conspiracy theories,
and of those, 81% said they are inclined
to believe one or more of them.
The majority of teens struggled
to distinguish between different
types of information, such as
news, advertisement, opinion
and entertainment.
