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February 2019 Visit us at newslit.org.
GIVE FACTS
A FIGHTING
CHANCE
A global playbook for
teaching news literacy
Copyright © 2019 by The News Literacy Project. All rights reserved.
The map on page 15 from the study Challenging Truth and Trust: An
Organized Inventory of Social Media Manipulation is included with the
permission of Philip N. Howard, Ph.D., of the Oxford Internet Institute.
For more information and to obtain permission to reproduce this book
or any portion thereof, please contact:
The News Literacy Project
5335 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Suite 440
Washington, DC 20015
USA
info@newslit.org
3
Table of contents
Acknowledgments.............................................. 4
Foreword........................................................... 5
Chapter 1
History of the News Literacy Project..................... 7
Chapter 2
A Brief History of Misinformation....................... 11
Chapter 3
News Literacy and Civics Education.................... 19
Chapter 4
Lessons Learned and Best Practices.................. 22
Chapter 5
Resources.......................................................... 37
Strategic Overview 2018-2022........................... 43
4 Acknowledgments This project could not have come together without the contributions of several News Literacy Project team members: our founder and CEO, Alan Miller; our senior vice president of education, Peter Adams; our senior vice president of communications, Christine Nyirjesy Bragale; our vice president of production, Darragh Worland; our director of partnerships, Damaso Reyes; our senior editor, Leslie Hoffecker; and our visual designer, Andrea Lin. Our director of education, John Silva, is the author of the chapter on the connection between news literacy and civics education. Freelance graphic designer Adam Payne ensured consistent branding and compelling visuals throughout the publication. Jamie Gold not only took the contributions from our staff and turned them into a cohesive explanation of the lessons we have learned in the last decade, but also put together a narrative about the history of misinformation. We are grateful to Campbell Brown and the Facebook Journalism Project for supporting the production of this global playbook. And finally, we appreciate the assistance of the Facebook Journalism Project and the International Center for Journalists in connecting us with nonprofits around the world that are eager to spread the news literacy message. Thank you. — The News Literacy Project
Foreword 5
Foreword
The worldwide pandemic of misinformation and that the newspaper industry was experiencing —
disinformation is, to be blunt, a global public and feared that unless young people developed
health crisis. an understanding of, and appreciation for, quality
journalism, deep and accurate reporting would be
We have seen it play out with deadly consequences overtaken by rumor, spin, propaganda, hoaxes and
in India and Myanmar. We have seen it manifested other falsehoods. Over time, we have discovered that
in the 2016 presidential election in the United these issues are not simply local or national — they
States and in elections in the former Soviet are found in every country around the world.
republics, Western Europe and Brazil. And we have
seen it in the growing international demand for our We do recognize the limitations of this guide. The
Checkology® virtual classroom. News Literacy Project is based in the United States,
and our curriculum and resources — which include
To help stem the spread of this virus, we have put The Sift, our weekly newsletter for educators, and the
together what we are calling a “global playbook.” tools on our website, newslit.org — were designed
Our hope is that our experiences in the field of news for a U.S. audience. We realize that social, political,
literacy — and the lessons we have learned — will educational and cultural challenges differ from
be useful to you as you introduce or expand news country to country — so we hope that you will use this
literacy programs in your community and country. guide by adapting what is relevant and useful to your
situation.
I started the News Literacy Project in 2008 for
two reasons. I was concerned about the large To be honest, we were surprised by the international
quantities of misleading (and often outright false) reach of our programs. With no marketing efforts
information that my daughter, then a teenager, was outside the United States, the first version of
finding online. And as a reporter for the Los Angeles Checkology, launched in May 2016, attracted
Times, I was caught up in the wrenching change registrations from teachers in 93 countries — and
Alan Miller, the founder of the News Literacy Project, discusses his Pulitzer Prize-winning series, “The Vertical Vision,” during a visit to
Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, in October 2015.
Foreword 6
we took that global presence into account as we this field in your country, and welcome stories of
developed version 2.0, released in August 2018. It challenges as well as successes.
includes a new lesson on press freedoms around the
world (featuring videos of journalists in 10 countries Your efforts to create a more news-literate society
talking about their work) and a Spanish-language are exactly what the world needs today. We hope
version of “Practicing Quality Journalism,” one of our we can help you achieve this objective, and we look
most popular lessons. We’re also consulting with 10 forward to hearing from you.
dynamic nonprofits in Eastern Europe, the Middle
East, Africa, Asia, North America and South America
to help them introduce or expand news or media
literacy education in their countries.
As we begin to reach a wider global audience, we
want to learn from you. Please send us your feedback
on this guide and on news literacy education in Alan C. Miller
general: What is useful? What is not? What would Founder and CEO
you like to see more of? What is missing? We would
also like to hear about your experiences working in
History of NLP 7
Chapter One
History of the News
Literacy Project
In 2006, Alan Miller — a Pulitzer Prize-winning reunion. There he participated in a long-scheduled
investigative reporter in the Los Angeles Times’ panel on the future of journalism moderated by
bureau in Washington, D.C. — was invited to discuss Alberto Ibargüen, a 1966 graduate of Wesleyan
his work as a journalist, and why it mattered, with and the president of the John S. and James L.
175 sixth-grade students at his daughter’s middle Knight Foundation, the largest funder of journalism
school. He went into Pyle Middle School in Bethesda, education in the United States.
Maryland, concerned about two things: how his
daughter, Julia, was accessing and evaluating the After the session, Miller told Ibargüen that he had
tsunami of information of such varying credibility, the beginnings of an idea that he would like to share.
transparency and accountability on the internet, and Ibargüen connected him with Eric Newton, Knight’s
whether — amid the wrenching transformation in vice president for journalism. Over the next 18
the news business — there would continue to be an months, they spoke periodically, tugging and pulling
appreciation of quality journalism. on Miller’s idea until Knight was ready to award him a
founding grant for the News Literacy Project (NLP).
As he left the building that spring morning, he came
to a realization: If many journalists brought their (Coincidentally, and unbeknownst to Miller, in 2006
expertise and experience to classrooms across Knight had given a larger grant to Stony Brook
America, it could be extremely meaningful. That University in New York for a program that would
evening, Julia brought home 175 handwritten thank- teach “news literacy” to college students. Hence,
you notes. Together, as they read each one aloud, Newton effectively named a new field of study, and
Miller could see what had resonated. Knight’s support launched it. Howard Schneider, the
founder of Stony Brook’s Center for News Literacy,
Two weeks later, he returned to Wesleyan University became a founding member of NLP’s board.)
in Middletown, Connecticut, for his 30th college
“I thought it was great when you said a newspaper was like
a buffet, with so many articles you can read. I loved your
presentation, and I hope you come again soon.”
— Zena Zangwill, sixth-grade student at
Pyle Middle School, in a thank-you note to Alan Miller
History of NLP 8
On Feb. 2, 2008, soon after receiving that founding In an effort to reach even more students (and
grant, Miller began a leave of absence from the Los addressing teachers’ wishes for more educational
Angeles Times to focus on developing his idea (and technology in the classroom), NLP developed a
ended up resigning a month later). He wanted to digital unit in 2012. It retained the journalists’ voices
create a program that would give students in middle through narrated video lessons, interactive computer-
school and high school the tools to separate fact based training sessions and a live videoconference.
from fiction in everything they read, watch or hear, That same year NLP began working with Evaluation
enabling them to appreciate the value of quality news Services, an outside consultant, to conduct formal
coverage and encouraging them to consume and assessments of its programs — a collaboration that
create credible information across all types of media. continues to this day.
Miller’s realization from 2006 — that journalists could
have an impact in the classroom — was a central part
of the mission, and from the start, journalists joined
educators in teaching students how to know what to
believe.
On Feb. 2, 2009 — exactly one year after Miller’s
leave of absence began — NLP kicked off its initial
pilot with an event featuring Soledad O’Brien, a
CNN correspondent and NLP board member, at
Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School, a middle
school in Brooklyn, New York. That afternoon, David
Gonzalez, a reporter and columnist at The New York
Times, delivered NLP’s first classroom lesson. Just
over three weeks later, NLP began its classroom
program in five Advanced Placement government
classes at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda,
featuring journalists from Time, ABC News, Politico,
The New York Times and USA Today, among others.
The success of those initial pilots led NLP to expand
the classroom program to Chicago, Illinois, in the fall
of 2009, followed by Washington, D.C., in the spring
of 2011. In each city, NLP partnered primarily with
underresourced schools where a majority of the Top: Miller and Soledad O’Brien (right) attend the kickoff event
for NLP’s classroom program at Williamsburg Collegiate Charter
students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch School in Brooklyn, New York, in 2009. Bottom: Gwen Ifill (left)
programs. At the same time, NLP was making its moderates a student panel on the importance of news literacy at
name known to a wider audience through a series of the Council on Foundations’ annual conference in Washington,
D.C., in 2014.
public events in the Washington area, featuring such
well-known journalists as Gwen Ifill of Washington
Week and PBS NewsHour, David Brooks and Thomas By the 2013-14 school year, NLP’s classroom, after-
Friedman of The New York Times, Chuck Todd and school and digital programs had mobilized journalists
Andrea Mitchell of NBC News, Ruth Marcus and to work with more than 100 English, government,
E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post, and Al Hunt of history and journalism teachers in 82 schools to
Bloomberg News. reach more than 6,800 students in Chicago, New
York City and the Washington, D.C., area (including
suburbs in Maryland and Virginia). But it had become
History of NLP 9
apparent that the program needed to move fully
online to reach national scale.
That decision led to the development of the
Checkology® virtual classroom — initially a series
of 10 core lessons that gave students a foundation
in news literacy, with prominent journalists from
The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The
New York Times, NBC and other well-known outlets
as video teachers and guides. Launched in May
2016, the platform was extremely well-received;
in just its first two months, educators in 22 states
and the District of Columbia signed on. And it has
grown exponentially: More than 17,000 educators
(and counting) in all 50 U.S. states, the District
of Columbia, three U.S. territories and more than
100 other countries have registered to use the
platform since its release.
Today, NLP’s website, newslit.org, offers tools
that help adults, as well as teens, understand the
importance of news literacy. Started in April 2017,
our NewsLitCamp® is a one-day professional
development program, hosted by a local news
organization, where journalists from that outlet
join NLP staff to bring news literacy resources to
local teachers. And in August 2018, NLP released
a reimagined version of the Checkology virtual
classroom, with 13 lessons, greater interactivity,
improved resources, and an increased ability for
educators to customize lessons based on classroom
needs. Of particular interest to international
educators is our lesson “Press Freedoms Around the
Top: A still from an NLP video depicts one way students today
World” — led by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, a Berlin- find information — on their smartphones. Middle: Damaso Reyes,
based correspondent for NPR — in which students NLP’s director of partnerships, talks to educators attending a
explore the state of international press freedoms NewsLitCamp in August 2018. Bottom: NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi
Nelson is the host of “Press Freedoms Around the World,” a
through an interactive map that includes videos from
lesson in NLP’s Checkology virtual classroom.
journalists reporting on the state of press freedoms
in their country.
In just over a decade, NLP grew from an idea in a
journalist’s mind to a national leader in the field of
news literacy. We are delighted to work with you to
expand this knowledge throughout the world.
History of Misinformation 10
Chapter Two
A Brief History
of Misinformation
The phrase “fake news” has come into frequent GIFs, news articles and more. And technology allows
usage only recently, but the concept, a broad one, is more sophisticated forms of distortions of what is
old. (How old? Pope Francis suggested in January published — and greater speed in spreading lies.
2018 that it can be traced to the serpent’s lies to
Eve in the Garden of Eden.) As news consumption has moved online, news
organizations long recognized for their credibility and
For eons, people around the world have shared all adherence to traditional standards of quality journal-
sorts of information — the news that’s important ism have seen their profits disappear and their staffs
to have, to be sure, but also the latest rumors and decimated. As a result, many communities have lost
the hottest gossip. Community, city, regional and common sources of information — and a common
national leaders handed down what they wanted understanding of facts.
the public to know and believe. Then, as now,
there were three basic elements to the transfer Add social platforms with their algorithms and bots,
of information: the source, the message itself and the public is now caught in a powerful and danger-
and the recipients. ous whirlwind of self- and auto-selected news, rumors,
gossip, state-sponsored propaganda and falsehoods.
While these are still the basic elements of
information exchange within communities and And dangerous it is: While technology has led to
among societies today, technology and the leaps in people’s abilities to stay in touch with family
internet have immeasurably changed the nature of and friends, lead more informed lives, create positive
each and created a vastly different ecosystem for change in their communities and more, it has also led
news. to a world in which the internet and social media plat-
forms have allowed people to see only the viewpoints
they want to see, with their existing beliefs reinforced
by what the internet serves up. Today, technologies
are being used as weapons in a fight for power and
money, tapping into and exacerbating our best and
worst traits.
Of today’s media fragmentation, consisting of filter
bubbles and echo chambers, Jonathan Albright of
Today, everyone with an internet connection — 4.3 Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journal-
billion people as of January 2019, or more than ism in New York City says: “Our technological and
half of the world’s population — can be a publisher, communication infrastructure — the ways that we ex-
even just by retweeting a Twitter post or sharing a perience reality, the ways we get news — are literally
meme. That means there are billions and billions of disintegrating around us.”
pieces of information, distributed as images, videos,History of Misinformation 11
To understand the battle between “fake news” and purpose, as the American Press Institute puts it, is
journalism in today’s digital world, it helps to know a “to provide citizens with the information they need
bit of the history of both. to make the best possible decisions about their
lives, their communities, their societies, and their
Standards of reporting governments.”
Today’s high-quality journalism is founded on facts, The origins of journalism, with its core concept
but that’s not the way it has always been. of neutrality, lie in what professors John Maxwell
Hamilton and Heidi Tworek, among others, call an
“Journalism” and “news” are not interchangeable Anglo-American model that emerged in the late 19th
concepts, and the two have a long, intertwined and early 20th centuries (PDF download). Numerous
history. Accurate eyewitness reports of events are factors in the United States and Britain, including
only a small part of the information ecosystem, the greater profit that owners found in owning
which also includes a mix of entertainment, biased or nonpartisan news outlets, led to a system of practices
sensationalized reports, and outright fictions. and beliefs that credible news organizations aspire to
today: impartial, independent news reporting whose
“News” goes back to when balladeers sang stories, or methods, such as attribution, are clear enough to the
people gathered at watering holes to talk. “News,” too, public that people are able to decide how trustworthy
was the piece in a Scottish broadside (single-sheet the information is.
newspaper) in the mid-1700s about a mermaid seen
near Inverness. It also was The War of the Worlds, the (Elsewhere at the time — including in France, for
1938 radio drama about a Martian invasion of the U.S. example, as Jean K. Chalaby notes in his 1998 book,
state of New Jersey that many listeners believed was The Invention of Journalism — journalists continued to
an actual news report. mix news and opinion and “to write in the tradition of
publicists, writing to propagate political doctrines and
defend the interests of a particular political group.”)
Fact-based journalism did not grow — and has not
grown — equally in countries throughout the world.
Hamilton and Tworek also note that such aspirations
did not thrive in countries where “the public had low
literacy and oligarchs controlled the press.”
That continues to be the case today: The
Committee to Protect Journalists, an international
nongovernmental organization based in New
York City, tracks the countries where reporters are
threatened, jailed or killed for trying to report the
Nowadays (and perhaps then), the mermaid tale news. In countries with repressive regimes, citizens
would be considered wholly made up and the Martian officially learn only what the government wishes
invasion satire. Needless to say, neither was based in them to hear — and even then, reporters for state-run
facts. That’s where “journalism” comes in. operations might live in fear.
Journalism standards and codes of ethics — generally, Even in countries with a model of objective reporting,
the attempt to uncover the facts and report them much of what outlets publish or broadcast as
fully, fairly, accurately and contextually — are relatively “news” is actually entertainment. Or it could be
new, even in countries with a free press. Journalism’s sensationalized, highly partisan or made-up storiesHistory of Misinformation 12
“Fake news means what
your side says it does.”
— Craig Silverman of BuzzFeed News
that can attract readers or viewers (and, therefore,
profits), just as was the case hundreds of years ago
— only now the reach and influence are reinforced by
the sheer power of the internet. U.S. President Donald Trump, CNBC, 2017
And, as never before, citizens of democratic But the meaning of those two words changed on Jan.
countries can be targeted by repressive state actors. 11, 2017, when Donald Trump, only nine days from
It’s not a new phenomenon; during the Cold War, for being inaugurated as president of the United States,
example, what the Soviets called “dezinformatsiya” pointed to a journalist from CNN — which had reported
was used to plant seeds of discontent among the previous day on a document that contained
specific communities in the U.S. “to harden people’s controversial allegations about Trump — and said: “No
existing beliefs and fears [and] sow divisions among questions from you — you are fake news!”
Americans.” Today, though, these efforts have
reached new heights, with almost daily reports of “In that moment, fake news was conscripted to fight
outside forces attempting to influence elections in the partisan wars, and was co-opted by Trump,”
around the world through social media. Silverman wrote. “This instantly made it harder to win
the actual fight against the manipulation of platforms
In other words, news organizations that are trying for profit and propaganda, the real challenges facing
to inform citizens in a responsible and fact-based democracy in a connected age, and the risks of
manner are fighting for attention and credibility with censorship from platforms and governments alike.”
actors of varying motives, including state-sponsored
trolls trying to sow division, content farms out to Silverman rues his role in making the phrase part of
make money, and internet trolls intent on harassment the contemporary lexicon, even while noting that it has
and provocation. long since lost its original meaning — or, to be honest,
any real meaning.
Fake news and ‘fake news’
“The story of ‘fake news’ symbolizes how our current
Those fighting “fake news” say it’s important to information environment operates and is manipulated,
define it carefully. how reality itself is shaped and bent,” he wrote. “So
long as you have enough followers, propagators,
In 2014, as a research fellow at Columbia University’s airtime, attention — and the ability to coordinate all
Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Craig Silverman of them … you can literally brand real things as fake.
began tracking unverified claims and online rumors. Repeat it often enough, and you manufacture reality
As media editor at BuzzFeed News, he applied the for a portion of the population. Fake news means what
phrase “fake news” only to wholly made-up stories your side says it does.”
— the same definition that was applied in the late
19th century, when the term (according to Merriam- Claire Wardle, the executive director of First Draft, and
Webster, the dictionary publisher) was first used in Hossein Derakhshan, a writer and researcher, are
the United States. the authors of the 2017 report Information Disorder:
Toward an interdisciplinary framework for researchHistory of Misinformation 13
and policy making (PDF download), prepared for the Motive matters too, they write. Who is the source,
Council of Europe. They see the phrase “fake news” and what is the intent: Is it an ad to sell a product, or
mostly as a cudgel used by politicians around the propaganda to sell a belief?
world — including President Bashar al-Assad of Syria,
President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and President Messages, motives and technology combined have
Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines — to condemn led to what Wardle and Derakhshan call “information
journalists and censor news. disorder” (PDF download).
Wardle discourages use of the phrase, largely “We are witnessing something new: information
because it is unhelpful: “The term ‘fake’ doesn’t pollution at a global scale; a complex web of
begin to describe the complexity of the different motivations for creating, disseminating and
types of misinformation (the inadvertent sharing consuming these ‘polluted’ messages; a myriad of
of false information) and disinformation (the content types and techniques for amplifying content;
deliberate creation and sharing of information innumerable platforms hosting and reproducing this
known to be false).” content; and breakneck speeds of communication
between trusted peers.”
Seven Types of Mis- and Disinformation
Satire or parody False connection
When content is created for humor, with no When headlines, visuals or captions don’t support
intention to cause harm — but with the potential the content (for example, headlines that lead a
to fool. person to click to learn more but where the stories
don’t match the headline).
Misleading content
When information is used in a misleading way False context
to frame an issue or individual (for example, When genuine content is shared with false
suggesting that someone took a position that the contextual information (for example, an image of
person did in fact take — but leaving out important an attack that occurred, but with a caption giving a
information that would put the position in a different time and place).
different light).
Manipulated content
Imposter content When genuine information or imagery is
When genuine sources are impersonated (for manipulated to deceive (for example, a fabricated
example, attributing a fact to a well-known and video, known as a “deepfake,” that substitutes a
credible news source that did not actually report person’s face or voice to make it appear that the
the fact). person is doing something that actually was never
done or saying something that actually was never
Fabricated content said).
When content is 100% false, designed to deceive
and do harm. — From Information Disorder: Toward an
interdisciplinary framework for research and policy
making by Claire Wardle and Hossein DerakhshanHistory of Misinformation 14
2.2 BILLION USERS
Motives and More
1.9 BILLION USERS
“Misinformation” is false information
shared with no intent to harm, such as when 1.5 BILLION USERS
someone shares an untrue rumor as a matter
of gossip. 1 BILLION USERS
“Disinformation” falls under the
umbrellas of both false and harmful, and governments. As the Reuters Institute for the Study
includes hoaxes, misleading context and of Journalism at the University of Oxford noted in its
manipulated or fabricated content. 2018 digital news report:
“Malinformation” is harmful, and
includes harassment and hate speech. “A safe place for free expression has been one
factor driving the rapid growth of messaging apps
in markets like Turkey, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.
— From Information Disorder: Toward an In our data we find a strong correlation between
interdisciplinary framework for research and policy
making by Claire Wardle and Hossein Derakhshan use of networks like WhatsApp and self-expressed
concern about the safety of posting political
messages. The highest levels of concern (65%) are
in Turkey, where a failed coup two years ago led
Technology-fueled misinformation to opponents of President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan
being jailed and the media muzzled. In a country
To know where damage is being done, it helps to
that the U.S. NGO Freedom House recently labelled
know where people are exchanging information
‘not free’ for the first time, encrypted messaging
and news. Today, that’s increasingly online, using
apps like WhatsApp have proved a relatively safe
social networking sites and apps — where people’s
way to express political views.”
behaviors are shaped by algorithms and their beliefs
influenced by bots.
Both bots and our own behavior create the online
world we each inhabit.
Among the most popular worldwide are Facebook,
which has long topped the list in terms of numbers
Bots — automated accounts that can appear to
worldwide, with more than 2 billion active users;
be the accounts of real people — can send out
YouTube (owned by Google), the largest video
messages on a massive scale. And human behavior
networking site; WhatsApp (owned by Facebook),
doesn’t help. Simply put, people tend to spread
an instant messaging service; Facebook Messenger,
misinformation (which is often more titillating and
an instant message service within Facebook; and
interesting than the truth) far more widely and
Instagram (owned by Facebook), a photo-based
quickly than less sensational news. Also, posts that
sharing site. In China, where the government blocks
tap into primal emotions spread farther and faster
access to Facebook and Google products, WeChat,
online because they keep people engaged longer,
a mobile messaging, social media and payment app,
thus gaining an even larger audience.
has 1 billion users.
The most dangerous situation — one that threatens
Because they are private forums, not public
democracy — is what Facebook calls “false
platforms, messaging apps especially are growing
amplification” (PDF download), which it defines as
in countries with increasingly authoritarianHistory of Misinformation 15
“[c]oordinated activity by inauthentic accounts with tweets — 9 million from the IRA alone, the rest largely
the intent of manipulating political discussion (e.g., linked to accounts in Iran — that had been sent in an
by discouraging specific parties from participating effort to influence and disrupt political debate, both
in discussion, or amplifying sensationalistic voices in the U.S. and globally.
over others).”
Indeed, according to a number of researchers trying
In May 2018, nearly a year after Facebook posted to fight disinformation, “[n]ation-states and politically-
those words, the U.S. House Permanent Select motivated organizations have long been the initial
Committee on Intelligence released 3,500 Russia- brokers of misinformation.”
linked ads that had been published on Facebook and
Instagram accounts before and after the 2016 U.S. Two University of Oxford researchers who focused
presidential election. As special counsel Robert S. narrowly on just that aspect of disinformation found
Mueller III wrote in his February 2018 indictment of evidence in 48 countries — up from 28 in 2017 — of
13 Russian individuals and three companies, those at least one political party or government agency
accounts were able to “reach significant numbers attempting to manipulate public opinion. In their
of Americans for purposes of interfering with the 2018 study Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global
U.S. political system, including the presidential Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation,
election of 2016” — a conclusion that had also been Samantha Bradshaw and Philip N. Howard call
reached a year earlier by the Office of the Director of these parties or agencies “cyber troops.” Since
National Intelligence in a report stating that, based 2010, political parties and governments have spent
on information obtained by the Federal Bureau of more than half a billion dollars on the research
Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and the and implementation of psychological operations
National Security Agency, Russian President Vladimir over social media. In most cases, this has involved
Putin had ordered the pre-election activity with the spreading misinformation during elections, military
goal of disrupting the U.S. political system and crises and humanitarian disasters.
electing Donald Trump as president.
“The manipulation of public opinion over social
At least 700 Facebook pages and accounts (and media platforms has emerged as a critical threat to
likely many more) were linked to the Internet public life,” Bradshaw and Howard wrote, calling the
Research Agency (IRA), a Russian propaganda phenomenon “computational propaganda” — which
organization, feeding lies to very specific target they define as “the use of automation, algorithms and
audiences based on interests people had shown in big-data analytics to manipulate public life.”
their online activities. Of these and other efforts, Figure 1: Global Cyber Troop Capacity: 2018
wrote Mueller, the IRA “had a strategic goal to sow
discord in the U.S. political system.”
Accusations of Russian interference continued in
advance of the U.S. Senate and House elections
in November 2018. On Oct. 19, just weeks before
Election Day, the U.S. Department of Justice
charged a Russian national with conspiracy to
defraud the United States by allegedly managing
a project with a budget of $35 million — paid for
by a close ally of Putin — that created thousands
of email and social media accounts to conduct
“information warfare against the United States.” Source: Authors’ evaluations based on data collected. Note: This table reports on cyber troop size, resources, team permanency, coordination, and capacity. See Table 4 for
Map of global cyber-troop capacity from Challenging Truth and Trust, with
data on global cyber troop capacity. For capacity: = minimal capacity, = low capacity, = medium capacity, = high capacity
20
That same day, Twitter released more than 10 million darker countries illustrating a greater capacity (size, resources, funds,
coordination). Click on the image for a PDF download of the report.History of Misinformation 16
Yet the attempts to sow discord cannot be gauged In the Philippines, a former
just by numbers, according to the Tow Center’s senator and critic of President
Albright, who characterized the addition of Rodrigo Duterte was imprisoned
propaganda and lies as drops of misinformation following a series of viral hoaxes
that pollute the entire information ecosystem in that spread on Facebook, which
unseen but real ways. Here are some examples of Duterte encouraged.
information warfare fueled by the internet:
In the United Kingdom,
In Mexico, two men were attacked thousands of bots linked to
and burned to death by a mob in 2018 Russia’s Internet Research
after false rumors began circulating Agency sent messages on Twitter
on WhatsApp about the presence of with the hashtags #Brexit and
child kidnappers in a remote village. Troll networks #ReasonsToLeaveEU on June
on Twitter — some run by bots, some by real persons 23, 2016 — the day Britain voted
— have posted death threats aimed at journalists. whether to continue its membership
in the European Union.
In Myanmar, Buddhist extremists
spread rumors on Facebook that set In Brazil, WhatsApp was used
off a deadly riot in 2014; three years to spread misinformation and
later, hate speech on Facebook led to disinformation in advance of the
ethnic cleansing against the country’s presidential election and runoff
Rohingya minority. in 2018. One Brazilian newspaper
revealed a coordinated campaign
In Ukraine, where tensions have been that would have sent millions of false and misleading
high since Russia annexed Crimea WhatApp messages to voters a week before the
in 2014, YouTube videos designed runoff.
to discredit pro-Ukrainian forces
and stir up conflict were released in For their part, tech companies insist that they
2017. They were created by a pro-Russia propaganda are neutral platforms and struggle to maintain
outfit in Ukraine that worked with Russia’s Internet a balance between that stance and making the
Research Agency. types of editorial choices that news organizations
must make in what to allow online. Each platform
In India, rumors that included periodically announces a way in which it is trying
doctored images and text messaging to tighten security: For example, in October
in 2012 led to violent protests and 2018, a month before the U.S. Senate and House
sent 300,000 citizens fleeing in fear elections, Facebook invited reporters to see what
of attacks. In 2018, two dozen people it called its “election war room”; that same month,
were killed by mobs who had followed Twitter announced its new attempts to combat
WhatsApp viral rumors. disinformation. Two months before, both Twitter
and Facebook said they had removed hundreds of
In Nigeria, inflammatory photos fake pages and accounts that originated in Iran and
and false information on Facebook Russia and were attempting to meddle in politics in
contributed to more than a dozen the United States and the United Kingdom.
killings in 2018 in an area already riven
by ethnic violence. Facebook disabled the account In addition, Facebook has expanded its worldwide
of a man in the United Kingdom who was spreading fact-checking capabilities by partnering with
these falsehoods. independent fact-checking groups certified by theHistory of Misinformation 17
Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Combating misinformation
Network; these efforts, now in more than 20
and disinformation
countries, also include reviews of photos and videos
for manipulation.
Given that today’s complex information ecosystem
still includes the basic elements of sender, message,
Distrust and civic life and receiver, it makes sense that attempts to rein
in misinformation address all of these elements.
A 2018 report from the RAND Corporation — Truth Technology — the basis for the most popular
Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role methods of disseminating information today — has a
of Facts and Analysis in American Life — examined role as well.
the American public’s relationship to news, trust and
truth. Its broad findings can be applied worldwide. A useful breakdown is found in How to combat
fake news and disinformation, a 2017 report by the
Brookings Institution, a research and public policy
The authors, Jennifer Kavanagh center in Washington, D.C. It recommends five routes
to fight disinformation and one way not to fight it:
and Michael D. Rich, define
through overly restrictive government intervention.
“truth decay” as: (Why? Because governments around the world are
increasingly demonizing and jailing journalists, often
• Increasing disagreement about facts using charges of “fake news.”)
and analytical interpretations of facts
and data. These routes to fighting mis- and disinformation
include:
• A blurring of the line between opinion
and fact. Government. To maintain healthy societies,
governments should support independent
• The increasing relative volume, and
professional journalism — reports that make sense
resulting influence, of opinion and
of complicated developments and clarify rapidly
personal experience over fact. changing events. They should also avoid crackdowns
• Declining trust in formerly respected on the media, which limit freedom of expression.
sources of factual information.
News organizations. Credible news outlets can
champion society’s need for responsible journalism,
and promote their own fact-checking initiatives.
Among causes of people’s tendency to trust less, Transparency efforts that show how good journalism
they say, are the way in which humans process works include explaining the decisions that led to
information — for instance, naturally seeking publication of a story, publishing documents that
out and seeing only what they already believe (a a report relies on, and tapping the wisdom of the
phenomenon known as confirmation bias) and crowd to help ferret out additional information.
relying on what they hear from friends — and They also can support the work of independent
changes in the information system, including the fact-checking organizations in their countries.
rise of social media and the wide dissemination of The International Fact-Checking Network was
disinformation and misleading or biased information. established in 2015. Its 2018 Global Fact-Checking
Summit in Rome, Italy, included representatives from
fact-checking initiatives, academia and technology
companies in 56 countries.History of Misinformation 18
Technology companies. These businesses, According to a 2018 survey by the Pew Research
which now power almost every aspect of society Center in Washington, D.C., about two-thirds of
worldwide, should invest in fact-checking technology Americans get at least some news from social
and ways to use human monitors more wisely. They media, though many of them now expect that what
should “stop the monetization of fake news” by they see there is inaccurate and untrustworthy. The
weakening the financial incentives that lure trolls 2018 digital news report by the Reuters Institute for
to place sensationalized or false stories. (During the Study of Journalism found that, worldwide, as
the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, teens in news literacy increases, trust in news from search
Macedonia wrote or shared on Facebook completely engines and news from social media becomes less
untrue stories meant to appeal to U.S. supporters of widespread.
Donald Trump. Their 140 websites and hyperpartisan
Facebook pages earned them “easy money,” in one In short, as Yale University historian Timothy Snyder
teen’s words, by drawing an enormous number of has written:
clicks and shares.)
Educational institutions. Governments should
“Believe in truth. To abandon
be encouraged to fund news literacy programs, facts is to abandon freedom.”
especially in countries where people are going
online for the first time. Of particular importance are
programs for young people.
Public awareness. Finally, members of the public
need to take responsibility for their media habits.
The strategies taught in educational programs —
checking a variety of sources, learning how to judge
news sites and verifying images and content before
sharing — are ones the general public can, and
should, use too.News Literacy and Civics Education 19
Chapter Three
News Literacy and
Civics Education
For decades, civics education in the United States
was largely based on rote memorization of facts
considered important in U.S. history. Anecdotally,
students in middle grades spent more time
memorizing the preamble to the Constitution (“We
the people of the United States …”) than learning the
relevance of the rights and freedoms set out in that
document. Internationally, this was the case as well;
as recently as the 1990s, when former dictatorships
and Communist countries became democracies,
students had to learn a new set of facts: the nuts
and bolts of how a democratic form of government
works.
Today, civics education is focused on understanding
and applying that knowledge so students can become
active and engaged participants in the life of their
communities and countries. And if civic engagement
is about being connected to the life of the community,
then students must be informed about — and The Checkology virtual classroom has been integrated into social
studies lessons at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia.
understand — the things going on around them. This is
the role of news literacy education.
There are two key areas where news literacy and civics intersect in
the classroom:
• Students must build knowledge about journalism, mass media and other information and
understand how this information is created and published.
• Students must strengthen their ability to critically analyze their existing media preferences —
especially the use of social media as a source for news.News Literacy and Civics Education 20
Teachers typically focus on the first point, with an Of these practices, “deliberations of current
emphasis on legacy local news outlets (such as daily controversial issues” stands out as the key
or weekly newspapers) and national news sources component where news literacy education connects
(such as weekly or monthly magazines and network directly with the civics curriculum. Focusing on this
news organizations). While students do need to requires essential skills that students must master
learn how to evaluate news from these sources, the and that news literacy education provides — for
reality is that very few young people — even as they example, students must be able to differentiate
grow older — will use them the way their teachers between news and opinion and be able to evaluate
and parents do. In their 2017 report The Republic the arguments and evidence used to support the
is (Still) at Risk and Civics is Part of the Solution, latter.
Tufts University researchers described the changes
needed in 21st-century civics education. First on the In addition, students must be able to recognize
list: “Prepare students for a world of social media different types of bias, especially their own. News
instead of printed local newspapers.” literacy provides the spark that can motivate
students to learn more about — and then become
more connected to — their communities. Critical (and
thoughtful) news consumption is essential to civic
The Tufts report also lists
engagement.
six proven practices of civic
education that need to be part Today, students can connect with elected and
of a quality civics course: government officials in ways not available a
generation ago. With the critical evaluation skills
• Courses on civics, government, law and that news literacy provides, students are empowered
related topics. to connect and interact with their elected officials,
especially on social media.
• Deliberations of current controversial
issues. An especially important area of focus for civics
• Service learning. education is to encourage students to become
regular consumers of local news. People with
• Student-created and -led organizations. strong local news habits have a closer attachment
• Student voice in schools. to their local communities, are more likely to vote
in local elections and participate in local group and
• Simulations of adult civic roles. political activity, and are more likely to engage in
conversations about current events that affect them
and their communities.
An essential prerequisite for many of these
practices is ensuring that students are news- There are several other areas where civics education
literate — that they have been empowered to be and news literacy skills connect. During election
critical consumers of news and other information. years or in times where political issues are
Understanding the needs of the community helps widely discussed, students can use news literacy
students as they participate in service learning techniques to evaluate information and distinguish
projects. Creating student-led organizations and among news, opinion and propaganda. They can
student voice committees and participating in also use these skills to identify politically motivated
simulations of adult civic roles also require students misinformation — a constant challenge on social
to have a basic understanding and knowledge of the media. As they follow political campaigns, students
world around them. can apply fact-checking skills — both to the claimsNews Literacy and Civics Education 21
made by candidates and to the endorsements of
those candidates by individuals and organizations.
The goal of civics education in the 21st century is to
prepare students to be active, informed and engaged
participants in the civic life of their communities. It’s
not enough for students to memorize details or recite
facts about their country’s founding documents
and history; students must be able to apply what
they have learned. They must be able to evaluate,
understand and effectively communicate political
information, especially as it relates to their local
communities. It is here where news literacy lays
the foundation and develops the skills for students
to become critical consumers of news and other
information — which then empowers them to be
engaged and informed citizens.
Journalism teacher Noreen Connolly (left) guides a student at
St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, New Jersey, through a Checkology
lesson in 2017.Lessons Learned 22
Chapter Four
Putting It Together: Lessons
Learned and Best Practices
Introduction
As we noted earlier, our hope is that our experiences Educators are our most important partners. We work
will be useful to you as you introduce or expand news closely with them as they use our programs to teach
literacy programs in your community and country. news literacy practices to students. Ties with news
Here are some of the lessons we have learned over organizations — top editors, producers, publishers
the last decade. and owners — help connect us with individual
journalists, who have written about the News Literacy
From the beginning, we established key partnerships Project, appeared at our events and participated in
in our efforts to spread the critical-thinking skills of our curriculum, both in person and on video. You’ll
news literacy, and it may be helpful for you to do so find more information about these partners in this
as well. These partners include: chapter.
If you have not already done so, we recommend
establishing relationships with all of these key players
Educators as you begin to develop your program.
As we expanded, we also needed to raise our profile
— both among those partners and with the general
public. Being able to communicate effectively, both
about our organization and about the importance
News of news literacy, was key, and we have some
Organizations suggestions that could help you.
Individual Read on for an overview
Journalists of how we developed our news
literacy resources. You can use this
as a road map as you start your
own programs and work toward
Students preparing a full curriculum.Lessons Learned 23
Overview
We began on a small scale, creating a series of “Misinformation” and “Practicing Quality Journalism”)
engaging lessons to give students in grades 6-12 are updated or adapted versions of lessons from our
a foundation in news literacy concepts and skills classroom program (“The Information Neighborhood,”
and introducing these lessons in just a few schools “Democracy’s Watchdog,” “The Power of Deception”
(two schools and an after-school program in our and the “Be a Reporter Game”).
initial pilot). This allowed us to test and evaluate
our curriculum (which grew to include hands-on One key to getting into schools was the high degree
e-learning resources and, as our program developed, of flexibility that we offered teachers. We created
digital media) and student project ideas as we drop-in units that could fit into social studies, history,
created them, improved them and established their government, English, humanities or journalism
viability and effectiveness. classes. They were not designed as a full course or
elective that would displace educators’ existing
We also tapped into the passion journalists feel lesson plans.
for their work by bringing both active and retired
journalists into schools to encourage students These drop-in units also helped in terms of
to seek verified information on any medium or bureaucracy; teachers did not need to get approval
platform. Working in concert with teachers and from a school district or school board when they
our staff, these volunteer journalists (we called
them “journalist fellows”) extended what students
were learning in our core curriculum by tying in their
own compelling stories. Individually or in teams,
journalists visited classrooms or connected with
students in videoconferences. They helped to teach
students how journalism works, how journalists
verify information, why news matters to young people
and what a free press and the First Amendment (the
constitutional guarantee of, among other things, free
speech and a free press) mean in U.S. democracy.
In classes during school hours
We introduced our classroom program in February
2009, one year after NLP was founded. It became
our laboratory and our showcase as we developed,
tested and refined our curriculum and model.
Even though our curriculum is now completely online,
we still continue, with ongoing refinements, to use
the formula from our in-person classroom program: a
modular approach that provides smaller curriculum
elements that teachers can use as stand-alone
lessons, as thematic modules or in their entirety as a
comprehensive news literacy unit, depending on what
makes sense for them and their students. In fact, the
four foundational lessons in our Checkology virtual Sorting information then and now: A handout from our classroom
program (top) and the start of our “InfoZones” lesson in the
classroom (“InfoZones,” “Democracy’s Watchdog,” Checkology virtual classroom (bottom).Lessons Learned 24
integrated news literacy into existing coursework programs, are plentiful, but teachers must be trained
or when the class was discussing compatible to recognize these opportunities and supported with
topics. As an example, individual educators in the resources to capitalize on them.
U.S. could fit in our lessons about free expression
and the watchdog role of a free press when their After-school programs
classes were studying the Bill of Rights (the first 10 We partnered with several established after-school
amendments to the U.S. Constitution) or examining programs in the cities where we had classroom
the press and politics. programs (New York City, the Washington, D.C.,
area and Chicago). For all of them, it was vital that
We told our partner teachers that our goal was the program find a way to engage the same group
to help them do what they were already doing — of students on an ongoing basis and hold to a
including teaching critical thinking — while at the predictable schedule for the news literacy classes
same time bringing NLP’s focus and the journalists’ (once a week on the same day, for example).
expertise and experience into their classrooms. We
also underscored where our lessons could help them Another possibility is offering news literacy classes
meet required teaching standards. as a kind of “camp” that students attend during
school breaks or holidays. If these sessions can
Right from the start, we refined our lessons, based also offer students a lunchtime meal or a snack,
on what students and teachers told us and what this may entice parents to enroll their children, who
our assessments showed in terms of student might otherwise have unstructured time during
learning outcomes. Along the way, we learned school breaks.
that opportunities to integrate news literacy into
learning, either during school hours or in after-school
Politico’s Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, Matt Wuerker, gives impromptu drawing lessons to students from Thurgood
Marshall Academy Public Charter High School in Washington, D.C., during their visit to the publication’s office in 2014.Lessons Learned 25
Next, we’ll describe more fully the partners and ideas that might be helpful to
your own news literacy efforts, especially those that include journalists in the
classroom. You can also plan to build into your coursework any or all of our
four foundational lessons in our Checkology virtual classroom (“InfoZones,”
“Democracy’s Watchdog,” “Misinformation” and “Practicing Quality Journalism”),
which are available at no cost.
Key Partnerships Educators are experts in teaching complex
concepts to their students, and in adapting
Educators and delivering whatever resources they have
Teachers are your partners from Day One. Though on hand. Giving them a space to collaborate
you can offer professional development opportunities and access the necessary support structures
(more on that below), start with the understanding will pay big dividends.
that they are already teaching their students to think
critically about news and other information. Let Our classroom and after-school programs
them know that you want to help them do what they included resource guides for teachers, filled
are already doing by providing additional expertise, with background material on news literacy,
experience and focus. Ask what they need — and our initial classroom lesson plans, guidance
what they don’t have. Tell them that you welcome for how news literacy can help meet required
their feedback to let you know what is working and teaching standards, and ideas for enriching
what is not. what students were learning with discussions
and projects. Today, the teacher handbook
Keep in mind that they are probably already and lesson guides for our Checkology virtual
teaching some form of news literacy, classroom are online.)
information literacy or media literacy in their
classrooms. Do not believe — or act as if you When teachers first approach “news literacy,” many
think — that news literacy is the only way to may have limited experience with, or understanding
teach critical thinking. Reverse the idea of of, what is included in this content area. It’s not
who is helping whom: You will want teachers enough to simply provide lesson plans or curriculum
to give you guidance on how you can better elements; educators need to understand the ideas
meet their needs. and core concepts behind them. We found that
creating professional development sessions —
If possible, create a closed group on offered online or in person — enabled educators to
Facebook, WhatsApp or another social become familiar with both the theory of news literacy
platform to connect teachers with each other and the fundamentals of teaching it.
and with you as part of an online community.
Seek their input through surveys, and share For these sessions, it is helpful, but not essential,
the results of student surveys with them. Try that you gather together educators who have
to make someone available to answer their something in common — perhaps they all teach the
questions and assist them when necessary. same age group or subject matter or are in the sameYou can also read
