Stopping Misinformation At The Gate: News Literacy Project's Peter Adams

In Reality

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation and the media with Eric Schurenberg, a long time journalist and media executive, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media.
There are two ways to fight misinformation: One is to debunk falsehoods after they have surfaced. The other is to help create media literate news audiences, who can recognize false claims before they take root. Debunking, necessary though it is, inevitably hands the initiative to manipulators and propagandists. Media literacy, on the other hand, helps news consumers debunk their own news feed. It simply scales better.
Today’s guest has spent the past decade and a half engaged in the media literacy cause. A former educator, Peter Adams is the research director of the News Literacy Project, a 15-year-old non-profit that trains middle-school and high-school teachers to impart the media literacy and critical thinking skills their students need to navigate today’s incredibly challenging information ecosystem. Peter and Eric discuss the penetration of news literacy training in school systems, how to deal with bias in news sources, the impact of collapsing media business models on the news environment, and the responsibility of news consumers to curate their own media diet.
Topics
Origin Story of the News Literacy Project
Role of the Research and Design Team
Penetration of NLP's Curriculum in School Systems
Definition of News Literacy and Its Components
Evaluation of Non-Traditional Sources of News
Understanding Bias in News Coverage
Challenges Faced by Mainstream Media
Political Bias in News Coverage
Impact of Changing Business Models on News Coverage
Addressing Partisan Bias in News Literacy Education
Responsibility of News Consumers in Curating a Healthy News Diet
Discovering News Outside of Filter Bubbles
Peter Adams' News Sources
Overview of NLP's Products and Resources
Website - free episode transcripts
www.in-reality.fm
Produced by Sound Sapien
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Alliance for Trust in Media
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