Not unlike kids in past generations, children today tend to learn news of their neighborhood, the nation, and the world by absorbing information from parents and other family members. Few of them pick up a daily newspaper or weekly newsmagazine. Some will hear snippets of radio news in between songs. Some might even see local or national news while flipping through the channels. A more likely source for teenagers is when friends post links on Facebook; some might click on a story or a video of a news story.
Otherwise, their engagement with news tends to be rare and fleeting. Yet as children and young people get ready to assume their roles as citizens prepared to fully participate in a democracy, they need to know about what’s happening in their communities, in the wider world, and with their government. They also need to acquire the skills of self-expression and gain experience as members of groups or networks engaged in the process of taking action on a public matter.
This is why digital literacy (the understanding of and capacity to use new information technologies) and media literacy (the capacity to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of media) are essential competencies today.