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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

#291

Post by MikeUt »

wolverine876 wrote: post #110
oefrha wrote: post #14

IMO the most effective and most widely deployed (especially among the supposedly more reputable publications) propaganda tool isn’t outright lies, but rather, selective reporting of cherry-picked facts and omission of others to shape stories into their predefined narratives. TFA doesn’t address that at all. It seems to me that students’ main takeaway from this course would be to trust NPR, NYT and the like, rather th…

What basis is there for these claims? > IMO the most effective and most widely deployed (especially among the supposedly more reputable publications) propaganda tool isn’t outright lies, but rather, selective reporting of cherry-picked facts and omission of others to shape stories into their predefined narratives. TFA doesn’t address that at all. That doesn't mean it isn't taught. The article can't cover everything t…

> In the NY Times, for example, I haven't seen it,

Try now:

NY Times title when a "story" (schoolyard scuffle) broke:

A Black Virginia Girl Says White Classmates Cut Her Dreadlocks at a Playground - https://web.archive.org/web/20190927202007/https://www.nytim...

The title after the story turned out to be a hoax:

Update: Virginia Girl Recants Story of Assault, and Family Apologizes - https://web.archive.org/web/20191001003852/https://www.nytim...

NY Times title after an islamic terrorist beheaded a teacher near Paris: French Police Shoot and Kill Man After a Fatal Knife Attack on the Street - https://web.archive.org/web/20201016193107/https://www.nytim...

When Trump did not penalize the Saudis after the Khashoggi killing, the Times said Trump’s decision was “a stark distillation of the Trump worldview: remorselessly transactional, heedless of the facts, determined to put America’s interests first, and founded on a theory of moral equivalence.” - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/world/middleeast/trump-sa...

When Biden did the same: "For Mr. Biden, the decision was a telling indication of how his more cautious instincts kicked in, as the responsibilities of managing a difficult ally led him to find ways other than going directly after Prince Mohammed to make Saudi Arabia pay a price." - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/us/politics/biden-mbs-kha...

When the muslim immigrant Ahmad Al Alawi Alissa killed 10 people in Boulder, Colorado, the shooter is referred to as a "gunman whose motives remain a mystery":

‘I Know She’s Gone, but Why?’: Love and Loss at a Boulder Grocery Store - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/us/colorado-shooting-fune...

Gunman Kills 10 in Grocery Store - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/us/boulder-colorado-shoot...

One of the few stories by the Times that identifies the mass killer is titled "An Immigrant Family Caught Up in a Distinctly American Tragedy" - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/27/us/boulder-gunman-alissa....

But they're not shy about leading with race when white women do.. something: "How White Women Use Themselves as Instruments of Terror" - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/opinion/racism-white-wome...

The above examples don't include stories the Times simply decide not to cover. Besides schoolyard scuffles where the attacker and victim are anything other than white and minority, respectively, it includes news such as "Sweden rape: Most convicted attackers foreign-born, says [state] TV" - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45269764

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

#292

Post by jwond »

Shared404 wrote: post #151
rayiner wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they had any trustworthiness they would also include the media that led to 2/3 of Democrats falsely believing that Russia had tampered with the votes: https://mobile.twitter.com/peterjhasson/status/1064259048902... . They could also look into all the Russia Collusion stories that turned out to be hot air. People’s overreliance on the Steele Dossier would actually be a good example. Like there’s actually plenty of…

... Did you just use a Twitter link that does nothing but make claims on numbers as a source? More specifically, it provides the claim that there was no tampering without any evidence. Meanwhile [0] shows that they have the capability, and the motivations. This is the exact reason we need a class like this. [0] https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/docu... Edit: And even looking at the numbers provi…

The numbers come from a YouGov poll [0] as the image in the tweet shows.

Also I think it’s funny you link that senate report, because section VI of the report is titled “NO EVIDENCE OF CHANGED VOTES OR MANIPULATED VOTE TALLIES”

[0] https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/20...

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

#293

Post by handrous »

tester756 wrote: post #113
markus_zhang wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should teach independent thoughts. Sadly this is so inconvenient for most of the adults.

>Sadly this is so inconvenient for most of the adults. I've heard about it before, but I struggle hard to understand what does it mean like parents will go to school to flame teacher cuz their kid disagrees with them on $hot_topic?

> like parents will go to school to flame teacher cuz their kid disagrees with them on $hot_topic?

Worse: for even bringing up a hot topic without bending entirely to the parent's opinion on it (where these opinions differ from a straight description of the facts, is when it's really annoying to deal with this—no amount of neutrality will make them happy, because that's "indoctrination" from their POV). Definitely doesn't have to get to the point of the kid disagreeing with the parent, just presenting anything that they don't agree with can result in angry calls or visits from parents.

Note also that you'd probably be very surprised what can count as a "hot topic".

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

#294

Post by nverno »

wolverine876 wrote: post #289
nverno wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

well when their job is to write about politics, do you really still think that is true? I'm not saying to disregard those sources as illegitimate, but take them with a grain of salt

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

#295

Post by avs733 »

ODILON_SATER wrote: post #69

This is a terrible idea. A lot of people are failing to realize that this is a bad precedent. Even though the article spends most of the time talking about an example orthogonal to politics, it is clear that politics will be the main topic of this course. I have zero faith in the system to show the numerous examples of bad articles by the NYT, WP, NPR... anybody remembers the Covington kid? The issue goes beyond self…

where in gods name are you getting 'the state is playing a role in telling kids what they should and shouldn't use as a news source'

The bill, the classroom experience, the examples are all about tools and heuristics to evaluate ANY news source.

Strawman argument...

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

#296

Post by ethbr0 »

kesselvon wrote: post #260
hn8788 wrote: 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.

It's not surprising that universities are more left-leaning when the right has taken a stance against higher education and pushes anti-intellectualism for political gain. The right likes to push this idea of universities as brainwashing factories, but there's very little of that going on given that its usually a struggle to get everyone to do the assigned reading, let alone try to brainwash people.

I flat out started dropping classes when I showed up and lecture was regurgitating the assigned reading.

I understand some students are lazy. But that's what an F is for. Even in undergrad, I valued my time and tuition dollars more than that.

As my father told a student who complained about a D in his course: "No, I didn't give you a D. You earned a D. I would have given you an F."

(Went to GT and had family who taught undergrad and grad, so might have different perspective on expectations)

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

#297

Post by guerrilla »

wolverine876 wrote: post #152
kebman wrote: post #52

Part of the primary school curriculum here in Norway is how to be critical of source material, no matter where it comes from. We call it “source criticism.” Summed up, it's about how trustworthy a source is, what method was used to obtain the data or opinions in the material (if any), whether the observations or claims in it are first hand or second hand, and whether its conclusions are reasonably objective or subjec…

> We call it “source criticism.” Summed up, it's about how trustworthy a source is, what method was used to obtain the data or opinions in the material (if any), whether the observations or claims in it are first hand or second hand, and whether its conclusions are reasonably objective or subjective. That sounds fantastic. What is known about, and what are your experiences with, the outcomes? After class? 1 year late…

If I understand it, it's more or less the same in Sweden and in that case the result is that becomes a basic part of adult life for many people and shows up in public discourse, in the papers, on TV, online*, etc..

* with some minor exceptions like literal fascists who spam things with their bots or puppets.

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

#299

Post by alexilliamson »

lordloki wrote: post #261
somehnacct3757 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's two ways to lean left. Do some leftward leaning, or stand still while your reference point ("the right") leans away. I personally think both of these have happened. I bristle at the inference that only one of them is taking place.

Except evidence has shown the the left has moved further left than the right has moved right. Both have moved but the left has moved further left in the US.

Except evidence says the opposite. I would start here. The right is driving polarization.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/solutions-to-political-...

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

#300

Post by wolverine876 »

jimmygrapes wrote: post #231
wolverine876 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As I said, the most effective propaganda tool is omission. You’re not going to compare sources on something you never even read about. How is that a risk? What are the chances that anyone will only see news from one source? > After fact-checking a hundred times you’ll decide that NPR does report facts, but do those facts paint the whole picture? After fact-checking a hundred times, won't you learn NPR's strengths a…

> Quality news, no deception or try to push an agenda you... may want to take a refresher course in the topic at hand

You say that as if your own position is beyond question, but what makes it true? What is your position?

You may find my position is far from yours and what you've normalized, but if you do understand these issues, you know that that's not a signal about accuracy; it's often a signal about biases when we don't have room for considering other POVs.

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