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Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

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Re: Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

#281
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure why are you asking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1619_Project Copy a little bit to show the dishonesty of the project creator: > In September 2020, lead 1619 Project writer Nikole Hannah-Jones criticized conservatives for their depiction of the project, arguing that it "does not argue that 1619 is our true founding".[12] Atlantic writer Conor Friedersdorf responded on Twitter by citing statements f…

you: it's not about reframing, they get facts wrong the author: "reframe the country's history, understanding 1619 as our true founding" I think this speaks to the fundamental issue that the entire conversation here AND the need for news literacy is about...taking a different lens on something cannot, by definition, be 'correct' or 'incorrect'. It is a perspective...it can be coherent or incoherent, it can be widely…

"to show the dishonesty of the project creator"

Re: Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

#282
News literacy is critical for future students. I think one thing I learned in middle school and not sure they even teach anymore is advertising techniques, like:

Bandwagon

Testimonial

Emotional Appeal

Humor

Anti-bandwagon

Slogan

Glittering Generality

Product Comparison

Repetition

Weasel Words

Understanding the basic construction of ads can help people understand when they are "being sold something" as opposed to informed.

Re: Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

#283

I think the full text of the bill is only a handfull of paragraphs modifying an existing law: https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=&Sessi... I try to summarize below by skipping some extra words: "media literacy" means the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and communicate using ... print, visual, audio, interactive, and digital texts. every public high school shall include ... a unit of i…

and this being buried at the bottom highlights not a bias but a limitation and challenge of media explaining law to the public, which is there role.

What you posted is fairly dense and obtuse to someone not in the field...it's technical, and it is abstracted from concrete meaning. So the news article about it used examples. People are now reacting to the examples used in the article, and more examples provided. Rather than the underlying meaning.

This thread is the metapoint.

Re: Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

#284
post #2

Given the primary example used on the kids, the 2016 election, this seems more about instilling bias under the name "news literacy". Are they going to do a section studying the "coverage" of hunter biden's laptop? Remember, for weeks it was cast as Russian propaganda. What about the origins of covid.. will they discuss how at first the lab leak theory was discarded as "misinformation"? I could not trust a public scho…

> Given the primary example used on the kids, the 2016 election, this seems more about instilling bias under the name "news literacy".

I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this, but their "punchline" conclusion was that "the video came from Russia". Sometimes if something isn't reported in certain countries because of bias it can be reported from other countries, even if the only reason they do so is to make that country look bad. It doesn't mean that the video was fake, or that it didn't show evidence of ballot stuffing.

I am not saying it was true, I haven't seen that particular video and I'm not one that pushes that particular idea and at this point I don't really care anymore. I'm just unimpressed if that's the reason they discounted it. They also talk about fossil fuel companies funding studies about climate change. While this can certainly be nefarious, it's also possible that they are the only ones motivated to study a particular aspect of climate change because no other groups will touch it because of politics.

"Look at the source" is only one piece of the puzzle. I think it's often sought after because it's a good way to dismiss something out of hand.

It would have been better, in my opinion, if they looked through the video and had the kids see if they can come up with other possible reasons for the actions they are seeing in the video other than "ballot stuffing", and then come up with ways they could try to validate those hypotheses and assign a "truthiness" rating to it. It doesn't matter who publishes a video if it's actually showing what it says its showing.

Re: Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

#285
News sources which print, voice, or provide air time to outright lies and fabrications are still considered news right?

Consider CNN calling out the times: http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/05/10/ny.times.reporter...

After fraud is discovered, the public forgets and then the "news" continues.

Re: Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

#286
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What if the propagandists are portraying it that way, in order to create that skepticism/concern. They do delegitimize one institution after another: Journalism, education, government, etc. - these are the big ones. > But most straight news from major sources is impressively straight, IME. Your attitude is exactly why so many posters here are skeptical of the idea of "News Literacy". Whatever right-wingers are sayi…

Can we think subtly enough to find ground between "fealty" and deligitimization?

You don't seem to be able to:

> Most straight news from major sources is impressively straight

Re: Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I try to pinch my nose and read both parties' propaganda machines There is a lot you can find that isn't in propaganda machines. One essential piece of propaganda is to say that everything is propaganda, like a liar saying everyone lies. The very good news is that, while nothing will meet a standard of perfection, there are excellent news sources - you have more access to quality news than anyone in history, thanks…

> Despite what those propagandists and opinion pieces say, the NY Times, Washington Post, and similar publications do provide quality news (don't read their opinion sections either). They do, but only on certain subjects they approve of. There are often major world or local events that are never covered in these outlets. Just to give some recent examples, the largest worker protests and strike in history happened in…

> the largest worker protests and strike in history happened in 2020 across India, and not 1 mainstream outlet in the US and UK covered it at all. Similarly, the miners' protests in NY were not covered in mainstream media.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=india+worker+protests+site%3Anytim...

I didn't see the New York miner protests in the NYT in a quick search, but I lack search terms and time. Do you mean the protests in support of Alabama miners?

I'm not saying that they don't miss stories and can't improve, a lot, but I think attacking journalism is trendy and normalized, and much of it is BS.

Re: Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

#288
post #34
post #2

Given the primary example used on the kids, the 2016 election, this seems more about instilling bias under the name "news literacy". Are they going to do a section studying the "coverage" of hunter biden's laptop? Remember, for weeks it was cast as Russian propaganda. What about the origins of covid.. will they discuss how at first the lab leak theory was discarded as "misinformation"? I could not trust a public scho…

I don't understand why they wouldn't use historical examples or stuff about aliens or big foot. History is a great filter and we can now somewhat reasonably understand smear campaigns and propaganda from decades ago. It's not as clear what's being manipulated at the current moment. This just seems more like a way to influence children's political leanings.

Like, you know, the multiple times the US has gone to war over misleading and incomplete claims? (1898, 1964, 2002)

Re: Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

#289
post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I try to pinch my nose and read both parties' propaganda machines There is a lot you can find that isn't in propaganda machines. One essential piece of propaganda is to say that everything is propaganda, like a liar saying everyone lies. The very good news is that, while nothing will meet a standard of perfection, there are excellent news sources - you have more access to quality news than anyone in history, thanks…

From a political point of view those are biased sources though, when 90+% of their journalists are self-proclaimed liberals this should be immediately obvious.

> From a political point of view those are biased sources

What is that based on?

> 90+% of their journalists are self-proclaimed liberals this should be immediately obvious

People can do their jobs without injecting their political opinions. I see that every day.

Re: Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

#290
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to "what if" it, people have already looked into it. In "The Coddling of the American Mind" they cite studies showing that universities are more left-leaning than they've ever been.

> In "The Coddling of the American Mind" they cite studies showing that universities are more left-leaning than they've ever been. What do they mean by 'left-leaning'?: My professors might have been left-leaning, but I rarely knew their politics. The question is what the students are learning. Also, conservatives have moved far rightward, which might make others relatively more leftish. Also, reactionaries politicize…

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