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medialiteracyColumbiaJournalismReview

(http://www.cjr.org/index.php)

News literacy vs. media

literacy
How academics are dierentiating critical thinking skills

Three years ago, pioneer media literacy scholar Renee Hobbs published a short critique
(http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/102645/News-Literacy-What-Not-
to-Do.aspx) of what she viewed as troubling trends emerging in news literacy
education. She argued on the site Nieman Reports against teaching news literacy in a
way that romanticizes the industry or merely transforms a Journalism 101 class into a
news literacy one, teaching students the fundamentals and ideals of the craft. In the
comments, there is a lengthy rebuttal from Dean Miller, director of Stony Brooks
Center for News Literacy.

Dr. Hobbs critique of News Literacy would be devastating if it described the way News Literacy
courses are actually taught, he wrote. But, what a perfect lesson in the need for News
Literacy, he continued. Her piece denes itself as unreliable opinion by oering no citations,
no data and no evidence of direct observation of News Literacy classes.

The exchange represents the existence of ongoing factions in the news literacy world, which have
become starker as access to news literacy training grows
(http://www.cjr.org/feature/can_news_literacy_grow_up.php). Hobbs views media literacywidely dened as the ability
to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media in various formsas a big tent
(http://mediaeducationlab.com/sites/mediaeducationlab.com/les/Field%20Guide%20to%20Media%20Literacy%20.pdf),
under which news literacy is a strand, and her approach
(http://mediaeducationlab.com/sites/mediaeducationlab.com/les/Hobbs,%20NEWS%20LITERACY%20AEJMC%202010.pdf)
to teaching news literacy is rooted in integrating journalism across courses through critical reading and thinking
exercises, as well as helping students understand journalisms structures and forms through creating media and
discussing the process.

Meanwhile, Miller and his team at Stony Brook, who teach undergraduate-level students but also train teachers to
implement news literacy programs (http://www.centerfornewsliteracy.org/) in their own schools, view media literacy as
more suitable for academic pursuit. To them, media literacy emphasizes the need to dierentiate between types of
mediasay, marketing, propaganda, and pop culture. But they believe that news literacy, an independent curriculum
that uses existing examples of journalism to teach actionable skepticism in the form of journalistic verication skills, is
more appropriately the bread and butter of their curriculum.

While all approaches ultimately seek to foster critical consumption and thinking skills, controversy over how to dene
the eld hasnt abated since that clash at Nieman Reports. Next month, in the rst Poynter-organized news literacy
summit since 2008, representatives purposely invited from the various factionsincluding Hobbs and Miller but also
numerous other stakeholders in the eldwill come together in Chicago to reect on their work thus far and set an

agenda for going forward. The national summit is part of Why News Matters
(http://www.mccormickfoundation.org/whynewsmatters), a three year, $6 million news literacy initiative funded by the
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(http://www.mccormickfoundation.org/whynewsmatters), a three year, $6 million news literacy initiative funded by the
McCormick Foundation, which also funds CJRs news literacy coverage.

One of the goals in this conference is to continue the dialogue between those who represent themselves as presenting
media literacy and those who present themselves as news literacy, says Clark Bell, the McCormick foundations
journalism program director. I cant see any disadvantage of bringing some of these factions together. Were not
looking to rile people up. This isnt to entertain; this is all about knowledge.

To that end, the summit, which currently has 125 registered attendees who were selected by invitation or self-
nomination subject to approval, focuses on discussion and the collaborative production of a white paper dening the
discipline and its best practices. Hobbs and the Pulitzer Centers Mark Schulte are slated to lead a discussion and
working group on how to teach news literacy and whether there should be a standardized model curriculum.

Its an interesting decision by conference organizers considering Hobbs long-time critique of some news literacy
models, and the fact that shes more of a media literacy expert than a news literacy one.

I think we have a problem right now where the general level of trust [in journalists is so low] and the general level of
suspicion is so high that some people might perceive news literacy as a kind of desperate attempt to reclaim some old
authority that actually doesnt exist anymore, says Hobbs. The argument echoes what Ive heard from numerous
journalists, educators, and technologists over months of reporting on news literacy. (In one memorable conversation, a
journalist told me that news literacy sounds like the high priests of journalism are attempting to get people to read
their work.)

Yet regardless of where participants fall ideologically, they will have their work cut out for them.

Our goal will be to take news literacy to the next step, ideally embedding news literacy in the curriculum of schools
across the country, says Wendy Wallace, a faculty member at Poynter who is also their grants manager and
coordinating producer of the summit.

To do this, news literacy thinkers from across the spectrum will need to solve issues such as how to get teachers
comfortable with the news. Hobbs has observed many teachers (especially in the K-12 setting) express fear, hesitation,
and even hostility toward bringing the news into the classroom. Its likely that they have some anxiety, because the
news climate right now is so polarized, she says. Its polarized in a way that youre damned if you bring in CNN and
youre damned if you bring in Fox.

Except for teachers whose political values are well-aligned with the parents of their students in homogenous districts,
using current aairs as a teaching tool is a nerve-wracking experience. This is something that needs to be addressed at
the summit, and considering the years of training workshops Stony Brook has provided for K-12 teachers, one that its
representatives will likely have some valuable input on. Other issues include understanding the crossover between news
literacy and related elds, such as civics, media studies, and information literacy, how technology can help reputable
news organizations reach young people with quality content, and how to measure the eectiveness of news literacy.
Stony Brook has pioneered the latterits faculty enrolled their 10,000th student this fall, and they have had
independent evaluations completed by three outside research teams.

Perhaps the most important benet that unity across these disciplines can give news literacy is collaboration on how to
dene the type of content we call news. Bell plans to propose a name-change for the initiative at the McCormick
Foundations board meeting on September 11, from news literacy to news and information literacy. Whether you call it
media literacy, news literacy, digital literacy, information literacy, it all deals with building critical thinking skills, says
Bell. But the name change was inspired, in part, by research they commissioned to the Berkman Center, which found
that what young people consider to be news might not be the same as what the adults who are teaching them news
literacy believe it is. An expansive denition of content allows for literacy building across more types of content
consumed digitally.

While this might sound like a mere matter of inconsequential jargon, it is in fact very consequentialthe results of the
summit may well inform McCormicks future grantmaking in the eld. Weve also gotten other funders to get involved
in this, and thats part of the goal too, says Bell. The Ford, Knight, and MacArthur Foundations, for example, are all
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in this, and thats part of the goal too, says Bell. The Ford, Knight, and MacArthur Foundations, for example, are all
exploring new or continued investment in news literacy.

Which, perhaps, is a reason there are factions in the rst place.

Funding for this coverage is provided by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

Jihii Jolly is a freelance journalist and video producer in New York City

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