The News Literacy Project (NLP) is an innovative national educational program that teaches students in middle school and high school how to know what to believe in the digital age. It does so by creating original lessons and working with educators and seasoned journalists to deliver them in classroom, after-school and digital programs.
Students learn how to distinguish verified information from spin, opinion and propaganda — whether using search engines to find websites with information about specific topics, checking their social media feeds, viewing videos on YouTube, watching television news or reading a newspaper or blog post.
The project gives students the critical-thinking skills to become smarter and more frequent consumers of credible information across all media and platforms. They are taught to seek news and information that will make them well-informed and engaged students, consumers and citizens.
They are also encouraged to produce news and information accurately, fairly and responsibly to make their own voices as credible and powerful as possible. In a digital age, when so much information is available literally at the tips of one’s fingers and it is possible to share information with mass audiences with a single click, everyone has to be his or her own editor.
Finally, the project aspires to elevate the mission of news literacy nationally through a variety of program offerings as well as professional development for educators. NLP also seeks to raise the profile of the field of news literacy through public events and coverage of its programs and activities.