the digital age has most of us drowning in information
but not all information should be treated equal. And
not all of it is news today kicks off the third annua
national news literacy week, a campaign promoting the
importance of understanding you news in order to stop
misinformation from spreading usher Carrie, she sat
down with the founder of the News literacy project on
separating fact from fiction an how to be a smart
active participant in our world's news. Last year, the
average american adults spend about 11 hours a day
consuming media on their computers, television or
mobile device. That's a 20% increase from just a decade
earlier. We think news literacy is an essential skill
in today's front information environment. It's r
it's really a life skill. Alan Miller is the founder
and Ceo of the news literacy project. He started th
nonprofit in 2008 to address concerns about the tsun
of sources of information that vary in credibility and
accountability. News literacy is the ability to
evaluate all news and information and to discern
credible information. To be able to sort fact from
fiction to fact is defined as something known to be
true. Opinion is a belief or judgment that rests on
grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty. The
main difference is that facts can be proven. Whereas
opinions cannot. A 2018 Pew research study found that
when presented with five factual and five statements of
opinion, only 26% of adults were able to correctly
recognize all five statements of fact. Just 35% were
able to identify the statements that were opinions
correctly, We've got a perfect storm now that has
created a situation where misinformation is an
existential threat to the health of our democracy
Miller says one in five newspapers have gone out of
business in the last 15 years, while at the same time
there's been an explosion of other sources of
information, particularly onlin and through the social,
through social media platforms that do not seek to
inform in a fact based, contextual, accountable
but rather seek to persuade or exploit or misinfor
and he says there in lies the importance of news
literacy. I'm usher Quraishi reporting, News litera
is really fundamental to what we believe in here at
Newsy going behind the headlines and really getting yo
that context that you need to know. So we want to talk
about the value of news literacy and how you can fend
off the spread of misinformatio in your news and media
consumption. So we're joined by the Senior Director
Professional learning at the news literacy project,
john silva, thank you for joining us, john so what is
America's grade when it comes to news literacy Um Good
morning, I am very happy to join you. So, you know, the,
the teacher in me as a classroom teacher before, dur
the news literacy project wants to say, we don't have
enough to be able to give a grade. Um the reality is
that news literacy as a structured, consistent part o
the american education experience, just really hasn't
been there. Um for a significant amount of time, it'
really only in the last several years that we've seen a
major increase. Um I will just say that generally, I
think we're getting a little better, but we have a lot
of a long way to go now, john I've had so many
conversations, I mean not even just within my family
but with friends as well who either share posts that
are just absolutely untrue and they don't know the
difference and can cannot see the difference there. How
do we get to a point where most americans are not ne
literate I think one of the most important things that
we want to do first with through news literacy is
teaching how to evaluate information, the credi
of information and the credibility of sources, but it'
also about knowing when we need to check. And I think a
really good rule of thumb that I would really love to
encourage people to think about. And as a starting
habit is that if you see something that you you want to
share or if there's a piece of information that you
want to act on or use to make a decision before you d
anything, you need to verify it, you need to determine
whether or not it's credible and that's a, that's a
really important first step in terms of just general
news literacy and it has been really amazing though to
see because I remember when I was in middle school or
high school, one of the first things our teachers told
us was if it doesn't have a dot gov or dot org on the
end of that website, it's more than likely not true and
then fast forward, you know, a couple of decades and
now it is just so vital and misinformation, it ju
runs completely rampant. What is the difference between
news literacy and media literac So media literacy is a
very broad field of study um and it's been around for
some time. News literacy is a particular, a particular
type of, it's a discipline within media literac
when we teach newsletters and when we talk about news
literacy, you know, it's that ability to determine
credibility of information credibility of sources, but
it's also about understanding that one of the most
important ways that we are informed is through news
organizations and journalists who are following the
standards of quality journalism So when we talk about
news literacy, it's really about information and
sources of information and bein able to evaluate it um
to sort of put a little bit more broadly. So if we talk
about media literacy and news literacy, one example, I
like to use this with the pandemic um in some ways
media literacy is looking at all the different ways
that we talk about the pandemic and that could include
things like how it's portrayed on television shows.
for example, like Grey's Anatom is one, right But news
literacy really focuses on what is what is happening
right now that I can get, you know, verified
information to help inform the decisions that I want to
make. So what changes have you seen in journalism News
literacy and misinformation whe you compare that to
the print and digital age Well, I think in terms of
where we are right now, information just moves so much
faster and you know, we can reach more people ah more
rapidly than any other time. So when we talk about
print journalism, you know, they were there were many
ways the gatekeepers of informa we we only had a
limited amount of information that came through them
now really anyone can publish information. People can
create their own blogs, their own newsletters. Um and
so there's just where more and more sources um and
information is spreading so qui that we need to be
aware of that. And in some ways just kind of find ways
to slow down. What would you say is the ultimate
solution to media misinformation. The most import
solution has got to be education. Um not only do we
have to focus on the things that we're doing at the
Music city project to provide resources and
professional learning for educa to be able to
integrate this into the curricu but in a lot of
ways I think a lot of adults need to take some time t
sort of have a refresher about critical thinki
reasoning and learn some of these essential habits and
skills so they can start to practice this. Um because
that's how this is going to slow down is by helping
everyone realized that we can, we have a role to play
no matter how small in slowing down and maybe even
eventually stopping some types of misinformation that
is the hope. Their senior director of professional
learning at the News literacy project, john silva,
thanks for your time today. Have a good one. Thank you
so much. All right. And we should note Newsy's parent
company scripts is a partner in the news literacy
project for more on how to boost your news literacy
skills, visit newslit dot org.