By the time the election was over, teachers weren’t the only ones sensing a bigger shift in the events around us and their coverage in the news media. “Fake news” became a buzzword. News producers and aggregators feared for their reputations, while news consumers feared for their sanity. Media literacy was thrust into the spotlight, as educators and the general public alike demanded more tools to address this growing problem.
At the Newseum—a private, nonprofit Washington, D.C., museum dedicated to explaining and defending the First Amendment—our mission has long led us to tackle controversial topics through the lens of the five freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. With all eyes on the media, we’re determined to help build an understanding of freedom of the press that goes beyond pithy sound bites.
In our exhibits, programs and classes for visiting students and adults, we explore how freedom of the press is a vital part of a democracy and depends on media savvy and critical thinking. In on-site and online activities, we prompt our visitors to wrestle with what it means that the First Amendment protects not only good journalism, but also flawed or misleading attempts at news.
By digging into the decision-making processes of journalists and teasing apart their own interactions with news and information, we make the case for why freedom of the press must be protected—even though it will always fall short of the ideal—and why regulations or algorithms are unlikely remedies for biased, incomplete or even false information.
We’ve been teaching media literacy for two decades, but in response to the current political climate, we have brought these efforts to the fore and begun experimenting with new approaches. We launched a new class for visiting student groups called “Fighting Fake News: How to Outsmart Trolls and Troublemakers.” In this interactive session, students get inside the heads of fake news creators and learn strategies for identifying false information. To highlight the relevance to real life, students use our laptops and their own devices to go online and immediately put what they’ve learned to use in a timed “Real or Fake?” challenge. In the pilot phase alone, we’ve taught this class to over 1,750 students from schools right here in D.C. and from as far away as Alaska.
Our resources aren’t only for those who can make the trip to Pennsylvania Avenue. We launched our “Media Literacy Maven” video series to provide a more informal, fun way to share new media literacy strategies and fake news examples with an online audience. And two bright, bold infographics provide tips for how to “E.S.C.A.P.E. Junk News” and how to weigh whether a story is share-worthy. Both are available at newseumed.org.
In addressing this vital issue, we know the stakes are high. But we choose to see this as a moment of opportunity to build on the buzz and provide in-depth, non-partisan content that is more important and valuable to the public than ever before. Some of the news out there may be fake, but our commitment to empowering news consumers is real.
Barbara McCormack is vice president of education at the Newseum. The organization offers free learning resources, available at newseumed.org.
Top photo by Maria Bryk/Newseum
