News Literacy Project

The News Literacy Project is an innovative, national educational program that connects seasoned journalists with educators to teach middle-school and high-school students how to distinguish verified information from raw information, spin, opinion, and propaganda in traditional and new media: an essential skill in the digital age, with its unprecedented production of unfiltered information online and through more traditional media, such as television. This grant funds the News Literacy Project to work in Chicago, and particularly to provide programming for youth at YOUmedia, the teen space at the Chicago Public Library that is a key element in the Foundation’s digital media and learning initiative.

The News Literacy Project is an innovative new educational program in which seasoned journalists work with middle- and high-school students to help them develop critical thinking skills and become smarter consumers and creators of credible information, and how to distinguish verified information from spin, opinion, and misinformation—in search engines, viral email, YouTube videos, television news, newspapers and blog posts. The Project will use this grant to bring its programs to the 16-school Chicago International Charter School network and to YOUMedia, the Chicago Public Library’s teen space at the main library and three branch locations; and to offer its content online.