Vitals News & Events


Topics


Home Information Literacy Teaching information literacy with a focus on news

Teaching information literacy with a focus on news

As reported on PBS’s News Hour, a four-year-old program known as the News Literacy Project is being taught “to middle and high school students in 21 inner-city and suburban schools in the Washington, D.C., area, New York City, and Chicago. With funding from “a combination of foundations, corporations and individuals,” it is designed to help young people learn to separate fact from fiction in the news they consume.

Watch News Literacy Project Trains Young People to Be Skeptical Media Consumers on PBS. See more from PBS NEWSHOUR.

With health literacy being taught in inner-city schools, and now news literacy as well, perhaps it is time for a school curriculum to be built around information literacy as a whole. What if a librarian were in charge of the curriculum? In an age where the quality of information is critical to everyday life, perhaps it is time for librarians to step forward and take the lead in educating our young people.

What dreams and ideas for helping people learn to be effective consumers of information do you have? Tell us about it!