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Last month, I published Part 1 of my interview with Amanda Prosin, librarian of Reseda Charter High School (RCHS) in Reseda, California about the challenges of opening a new school library, the process of maintaining and expanding a book collection, and the services a library provides. In Part 2, we'll discuss her efforts to teach students about media literacy and battling disinformation.
You teach students about media literacy to battle disinformation and bias. You mentioned that you asked your students if they trust the media, many of them said no. Why do you think students distrust the media so much today?
With the abundance of AI, fake news and misinformation, I think it is difficult for all of us, from students to educated adults to know who and what to trust in the media. AI is getting better and better everyday making it harder and harder for everyone to know what is real and what is not. Plus, we can all fall victim to confirmation bias. This is where we may think we are being openminded, but when we feel strongly about something, it is hard for us to believe something that may challenge our beliefs—even if it is true.
You said you use the News Literacy Project to teach students about media literacy. Tell us about it and how use it as a resource.
This nonprofit organization creates materials for educators and students to use to combat misinformation, media bias, and gain digital, media and information literacy. Each week they add to Daily Do Now slides such as influencers vs journalists, “Learning about the First Amendment,” and “What is the purpose of this post?” They also have a feature called “The Sift—An Educator’s Guide to the Week in News Literacy.” They usually choose three things that happen in the previous week to focus on. I look at the articles they focus on and choose one.
I have created a Schoology group for high school students, and I am an administrator on the Middle School group as well. I create a post focusing on one of these issues. The post I make will contain an editorial comic on the topic, a poll, a headline and some questions for discussion. I publish my post and poll each Monday. I also send it to the content area teachers I think it will pertain the most to, along with the News LIteracy Project information and links.
Collaboration with teachers to teach media, digital and information literacy as well as research skills and book love is my main purpose. I try to visit classrooms and teach lessons in content area classes. However, oftentimes teachers do not have time for me to visit. These posts and emails give teachers a way to still teach these subjects to their students—and usually these posts are very timely.
In my article about teaching journalism skills to battle media bias and disinformation, a reader on Medium posted the comment, “I wonder if you think the evolution of media platforms—especially the rise of digital and social media—has made it harder to teach these basics effectively, given the challenges of instant reporting and misinformation?” What do you think about this?
This is an interesting question because I think it also brings up the question of is teaching journalism necessary. I think many people may say that we do not need journalists anymore. Everyone is a reporter. However, I disagree. While people do not read paper copies of the news anymore and social media has made the way we consume news very different, journalists are very important because they follow a code of ethics. Influencers usually follow money. And studies have shown that when most people read the news, they only read the titles of articles before they assume they know what the article is about and click share. This contributes to the spread of misinformation—especially with the abundance of clickbait. Teaching how to check for credibility, how to do research, lateral reading, and journalism skills is more important than ever. |
