In a news climate dominated by social media, an overwhelming number of news sources and artificial intelligence, it can be challenging for anyone — especially today’s youth — to decipher fact from fiction.
The South Shore Women’s Alliance, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for issues important to not only women, but voters in general, welcomed Howard Schneider, founder of the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University, to its May 28 meeting at the Merrick Golf Course.
Schneider offered attendees tips and tricks to better navigate today’s media climate. But perhaps more importantly, he talked about initiatives he has spearheaded to teach students how to be active and thoughtful consumers of news.
Women’s alliance members hail from Merrick, Bellmore, East Meadow, Wantagh, Seaford, Freeport, Baldwin and other neighboring towns.
“Our education committee is committed to ensuring that Long Island public schools teach strong civics and critical thinking skills,” Claudia Borecky, the alliance’s president, shared about the group’s motivation to host Schneider. “With so many kids getting their news from 10-second TikTok clips and a constant stream of information and misinformation, they’re more vulnerable than ever to conspiracy theories and early radicalization. Our goal is simple: to make sure our schools teach students how to analyze the news they consume.”
Schneider, a journalist who worked at Newsday for 35 years and a founding dean of Stony Brook’s journalism school, created a news literacy program when he started working with the university in 2006.
“I realized, back then, that even they were very confused and overwhelmed about what information they can trust,” he said.
He voiced his concerns to then-Stony Brook University President Shirley Strum Kenny.
“I said it is no longer sufficient for journalism schools in the United States to just prepare the journalists of the future,” he said. “If we don’t prepare the news consumers, the future citizens, journalism won’t survive. People won’t be able to distinguish what’s real journalism. The country won’t survive, and students will have a hard time making decisions.”
A news literacy course, across all disciplines, became available to students in 2006. Schneider said the course has been taught to 12,000 students at Stony Brook, shared with 20 universities around the country, adapted overseas, and implemented into local school districts.
Several challenges overwhelm news consumers, perhaps more so today than 20 years ago, including information overload; speed versus accuracy of the information one receives; deciphering who’s actually a journalist; a crisis of authenticity; and one’s personal struggle in overcoming their own bias.
Schneider shared details of several studies, including one conducted by Stanford University, which clearly demonstrates that today’s youth cannot navigate the media climate.
“Our students are not getting this, and they’re not getting it because we’re in a revolution, really, in communication, and we haven’t prepared them for it,” Schneider said.
Stony Brook’s students have demonstrated that they leave the news literacy program with a greater knowledge of current events and a higher motivation to consume news, he said. The lessons, Schneider added, stick with them as they continue their academic journeys.
In local schools, as early as kindergarten, news literacy programs have been adapted to teach young students to consider the “whole story.” He pointed to an example in which a teacher would read the fairy tale, “The Three Little Pigs,” and challenge students to think about the story, as told from the perspective of the “big bad wolf.”
No matter the age, Schneider explained, or the specific lesson, effective news literacy programs in school districts encourage students to ask themselves: “Can I reach a conclusion?”
Nassau County districts that have incorporated a news literacy program include Jericho, Seaford, Lawrence, Plainview-Old Bethpage, Herricks, Baldwin, Malverne and Cold Spring Harbor.
Through the program, students receive a user guide, which also was distributed to meeting attendees, explaining that news consumers should consider reading the story before it is shared on social media and to ensure that the source is known. Schneider encouraged news readers to “wait and see” — because stories develop over time — and to simply “take a break,” when news becomes too overwhelming.
On a parting note, Schneider encouraged attendees and members of the women’s alliance to speak with their local school districts, ask questions, and encourage them to implement a news literacy program if they haven’t already. Under the news literacy center at Stony Brook, teachers can participate in a four-day summer program to learn how to best explain news consumption practices to their students.
To learn more about available programming and actionable steps, contact howard.schneider@stonybrook.edu and visit CenterForNewsLiteracy.org.
