Information Literacy: How does journalism work?

How do journalists and editors decide what news to cover and which stories to promote to readers and news consumers? Why is it important for us to understand this?

An essential 21st century skill is learning how to distinguish information that is reliable from disinformation, misinformation and fake news. Information literacy requires an understanding of the media landscape and knowledge about how to use our critical thinking skills in this landscape. The decisions journalists and editors make are important to all of us as they shape the news media landscape. If we understand a little about how these decisions are made, it helps us analyze and evaluate the media we are consuming and interacting with.

Building curriculum with practitioners

In our recent Information Literacy series, we looked at some possibilities for how to combine News Literacy Project activities and Checkology lessons to create an Understanding Journalism curriculum for emergent readers.

The News Literacy Project is a website designed to help teachers make sure that students are skilled in news literacy and develop the knowledge and ability to participate in their communities as well-informed, critical thinkers. Checkology is a virtual classroom from the News Literacy Project. Many of the lessons on this site are presented by working journalists.

Building an “Understanding Journalism” Curriculum