Honors Program

 

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

Spring 3-12-2018

Citation

Brown-Hulme, Lauren. “Information Disorder and the Need for News Literacy Education in the Digital Era.” University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2018.

Comments

Copyright Lauren Brown-Hulme 2018

Abstract

This paper serves as a comprehensive report on the need for and barriers to news literacy education in the United States. Current misinformation issues in the U.S. are introduced and the importance of news literacy among citizens of a democracy. Answers to these questions are sought: What are the current challenges regarding news literacy in the digital age and what are the implications? Further, can news literacy be taught? Based on measured practices, what are the best methods for news literacy education? Existing literature covers the topics of information disorder and news literacy, highlighting the importance of news literacy in informing citizens. Several factors challenge widespread news literacy, such as the overwhelming amount of information users are met with each day and the echo chambers on social media they operate in. Several existing news literacy curricula are outlined and their effectiveness in teaching students how to sort fact from fiction in digital news sources using critical thinking activities are evaluated. After demonstrating the need for news literacy among U.S. readers in the digital era and discussing existing news literacy pedagogy, I hold news literacy initiatives are but one solution in the complex fight against misinformation, and their success in educating students to access veracity is difficult to measure.

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