Resources
Resources and Fact-Based Programs
The Center for News Literacy at the Stony Brook University School of Journalism
Community News Team partner: the Center for News Literacy at the Stony Brook University School of Journalism. Thank you to Howard Schneider, Executive Director, Center for News Literacy School of Journalism for his support for this project.
The News Literacy Project
The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan national education nonprofit, provides programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information and equal and engaged participants in a democracy.
Civic Online Reasoning
Students are confused about how to evaluate online information. We all are. The COR curriculum provides free lessons and assessments that help you teach students to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world.
Control-F
CTRL-F is the keyboard shortcut for ‘find.’ The idea behind the CTRL-F verification skills module is that we can all use quick strategies to investigate information on any topic, at any time. With the rapid rise in false and misleading information online, the ability to discern what is reliable has become a fundamental life skill. CTRL-F supports informed citizenship by helping students learn contemporary digital information literacy skills purpose-built for the modern web.
Namle
As the leading voice, convener, and resource for media literacy education, NAMLE aims to make media literacy highly valued and widely practiced as an essential life skill.
Common Sense Media
From misinformation to the 24-hour news cycle (on TV and now on social media), students must learn to navigate a noisy, biased, and challenging world. But with the right support, they can learn to be critical and not cynical — to speak up, not sit back. This collection of news and media lessons, videos, printables, and more is a great place to start. Everything’s been carefully vetted by Common Sense editors (and fellow teachers) to help you find that “just right” resource for your classroom.
PBS LearningMedia
This collection, which includes videos, blog articles, student handouts, lesson plans, and tip sheets for families, helps students identify, analyze, and investigate the news and information they get from online sources. Media literacy is an essential skill for all students across a range of subjects, from Science to Social Studies to English Language Arts. The collection is also useful for a behind-the-scenes look at journalism and how information is researched, shaped, and reported. Check out the resources in the collection topics.
Newscompare
Newscompare-Get the real story and filter the spin with side-by-side comparison of the news.
Read Across the Isle
We’ve been living in filter bubbles. Most of the news and stories we see on social media are shared by our friends, who are—not surprisingly—very similar to us. We come away with the impression that our views are the predominant and correct ones, and we aren’t exposed to much of the news and stories that other people are seeing. Social media makes it easy to live in these bubbles, and they’ve gotten stronger and more polarized over the last year. A better first step is to take a deep breath and try peeking outside your bubble—and we’re building an app that helps you to do precisely this. Just as your Fitbit reminds you to get up and walk around after an hour of inactivity, this app will notice when you’ve gotten a little too comfortable in your filter bubble—and it’ll remind you to go see what other folks are reading. Available as an app only.
Nonpartisan Fact Checking Organizations
FactCheck.org
A nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.
PolitiFact
PolitiFact is a nonpartisan fact-checking website to sort out the truth in American politics. PolitiFact was created by the Tampa Bay Times, a Florida newspaper, in 2007. In 2018, PolitiFact was acquired by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for journalists.
Snopes
When misinformation obscures the truth and readers don’t know what to trust, Snopes’ fact-checking and original, investigative reporting lights the way to evidence-based and contextualized analysis. We always link to and document our sources so readers are empowered to do independent research and make up their own minds. Snopes got its start in 1994, investigating urban legends, hoaxes, and folklore. Founder David Mikkelson, later joined by his wife, was publishing online before most people were connected to the internet. As demand for reliable fact checks grew, so did Snopes. Now it’s the oldest and largest fact-checking site online, widely regarded by journalists, folklorists, and readers as an invaluable research companion.Snopes.com is an independent publication owned by Snopes Media Group.