I love your skepticism! I also like that you’re thinking critically about what we’re teaching you and asking us to explain things that don’t sound right.
Category Archive: News Literacy
You do! The job doesn’t pay much but will keep you on your toes.
Amazon’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is one of many billionaires beguiled by the news industry. He joins Rupert Murdoch, who controls Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, Michael Bloomberg, who founded his eponymous news agency, Laurene Powell Jobs, who bought a majority stake in the magazine, The Atlantic, and Sheldon Adelson who controls the Las Vegas Review-Journal– to name just a few.
The sad reality is that newsrooms–like most other businesses in the country–do not mirror the racial or economic makeup of the country as a whole. And this disparity likely impacts the coverage the community receives.
As our collective attention span wanes, people are consuming information faster than ever and flocking to content that only requires short bursts of undivided attention. Microblogs fit the bill: Short, bite-sized content posted on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Reddit, to name just a few.
It takes exactly 109 days to become news literate, which is great because that is the exact length of Media 211.
You are correct that the Espionage Act of 1917 has been used to punish whistleblowers but not journalists – yet. No member of the press has been prosecuted for publishing leaked classified information, but the 100-year-old law has been called a “loaded gun pointed at newspapers and reporters.”
This is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We are consuming an enormous amount of information on a daily basis but not necessarily more informed.
As we approach World Press Freedom Day, this year there is sadly little to celebrate and much to defend. Press freedom around the world is under siege, misinformation is rampant, and journalists continue to be arrested and even killed in the line of duty. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these three threats and provides cover to authoritarian leaders already intent on curbing press freedom.
Wingnuts generate profits, but only if we watch them.
