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Stony Brook University Center for News Literacy

Not all of the people quoted in news reports are legit. How much weight should you give to President Obama’s official spokesman, Robert Gibbs? How about the Man-On-The-Street interviews you see on TV? With our simple checklist, you’ll be able to decide how much to trust the people reporters put on camera.

Stony Brook University Center for News Literacy

Whether your source of news is Newser or the New York Times, you can’t just take it for granted that the information is solid. We’ll teach you how to evaluate the evidence and decide for yourself. Why did students at Stony Brook decide they need to Open The Freezer? What scary things were in the freezer?

Geraldine Baum, The News Literacy Project

How does a reporter cover a dramatic and cataclysmic breaking story while the facts are still emerging? How does one make sense of the deluge of information and emotion at the epicenter of an event like the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001? Geraldine Baum, a reporter in the New York bureau of the Los Angeles Times, was one of the first journalists on the scene amid the devastation that fateful morning. In this session, she will walk students through her coverage that day and in the months that followed. Students will discover how to think like a reporter, gain insights into how to ask the right questions and where to get accurate information, and learn valuable lessons in how to what to believe.

Patricia Kitchen, The News Literacy Project

The Internet, 24-hour cable TV, social media — the rate at which we now share and receive information can be overwhelming. But what happens when false information is spread and people absorb and act on it before checking it out? Even those at the highest levels of our government in the case of former U.S. Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod. How can students know if the information they receive is true? This session will look at what happens when misinformation goes viral and people fail to check its accuracy, and present students with the tools they need to discern what is credible from the what is incredible the media.

Dina Temple-Raston, The News Literacy Project

One of the most important and complex news topics of our time is the terrorism threat. Dina Temple-Raston covers counter-terrorism in the U.S. and abroad for NPR. In this workshop, she will give students a behind- the-scenes look at the challenges and responsibilities journalists grapple with when reporting on terrorism. Students will gain an understanding of the role of the reporter as well as their own role as consumers of such high-stakes information.

Andre Lambertson and Lisa Armstrong,
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Pulitzer Center photographer Andre Lambertson and journalist Lisa Armstrong have reported from Haiti on the aftermath of the quake and the ongoing struggles of people affected by HIV/AIDS in the country. They will present their most recent Haiti reporting and contrast it with the mainstream media’s portrayals of the January earthquake. Their work, along with poet/writer Kwame Dawes, integrates traditional journalism, poetry, and video and photographic documentary elements to move the audience into a factual, yet sensory and sensitive, exploration of the issues and the people they are representing. Emphasizing critical thinking and news literacy skills, they will discuss the importance of distinguishing quality, fact-based news from the sensationalism that often surrounds tragedies. They will help students think about how they can become more active consumers of information by going beyond the headlines of death and destruction to reach a deeper understanding of the systemic crises, before and after tragedies like the earthquake. And they will explore why these kinds of systemic crises are often underreported, addressing such questions as who decides what is news, and why some topics receive attention while others do not as well as what youth can do about it.

Bill Wheeler, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Pulitzer Center journalist Bill Wheeler, whose work includes extensive reporting on water access and sanitation in South Asia, will lead a workshop with students who have participated in the Pulitzer Center’s news literacy/reporting program in the weeks leading up to the News Literacy Summit. The project used the global issue of water as a case study for considering media coverage of systemic crises.

During this program, students worked with Bill and Pulitzer Center staff to explore the global topic of water through a news literacy lens and a hands-on reporting project about water issues at the local level. Addressing when, where, and how the water issue has been covered, the group will explore how underreported stories can gain attention, and how students can identify quality information in an oversaturated media landscape. Participating students will share their work and the lessons learned throughout this process. They will explore and discuss how doing the reporting affected how they understand both the issue and how news is put together, what it takes to engage an audience on underreported issues, the role of news as a public good, the challenges and promises the new media landscape presents, how and why decisions are made in news, fact versus opinion-based reporting, what goes into a quality story, and their role as both active consumers of information and producers of it.

Geanne Rosenberg, Baruch College

For generations, newspapers and other media outlets provided news to a broad, general public in a largely one way communication from news organization to audience. Now, with the Internet, the public no longer plays a passive role as recipient of news information, but actively contributes and shares news information that’s available to everybody. How can you be a responsible contributor of newsworthy content? What are some of the journalistic, ethical and legal do’s and don’ts that can help you to contribute high quality news content, build your own credibility and avoid legal risk? Geanne Rosenberg will engage a high school audience in exercises and an animated discussion of ethical and legal parameters and best practices in order to encourage and help students to become engaged, credible, responsible participants in news gathering and the sharing of newsworthy content.

Garry Pierre-Pierre, New York Community Media Alliance
Geanne Rosenberg, Baruch College

When one of the worst earthquakes in history struck Haiti earlier this year, hundreds of journalists boarded planes bound for the already impoverished West Indies nation. For Veteran Journalist Garry Pierre-Pierre, this was more than a major international story. It was a trip home. As founder, editor and publisher of Haitian Times, he was covering his own community for his own ethnic community, some half-million Haitians living in New York. Through photo images and recollections, he will share his reporting. Students will participate in a conversation with Pierre-Pierre led by Geanne Rosenberg and consider what it takes to produce accurate news information, why news matters, how reporting on behalf of a community impacts the journalism, the value of a multitude of voices and perspectives in news coverage, what the ethnic press and community-based journalism contribute, and how students can responsibly contribute and share valuable news information as engaged members of the public.

Baruch College of the City University of New York
Nov. 12, 2010

Where are students going for their news information? How do they filter and evalute the news information that comes to them via Facebook, MySpace, broadcast media and other platforms? What is their personal role in staying informed on matters of public concern? What is the value of high-quality, independently reported news information? Why is an independent press essential for any free society? What is the role of the press and the public in holding public officials accountable?

Students need to be empowered to become critical consumers of news information so they’re not duped by propaganda, misinformation, marketing spin, and poor-quality information, can find AND share high-quality information, and can be informed participants in society. They need to learn how to assess the information that comes to them and how to go out and seek and verify news information. As members of a public that increasingly contributes to the news information available online, they also need to learn how to be credible contributors of news content.

On November 12, 2010, classes from ten New York City public high schools, along with teachers, administrators, journalists and journalism educators from around the country, will convene at Baruch College in Manhattan. There, the approximately 300 attendees and educators will participate in an all-day series of meetings, panel discussions and events aimed to raise the profile of news literacy education and help provide students with knowledge and tools that can help them to become better informed citizens.

Baruch College’s Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions is working in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center, Stony Brook’s Center for News Literacy, Alan Miller and The News Literacy Project, and Juana Ponce de Leon and the New York Community Media Alliance to create this event, which is possible because of the generous support of the McCormick Foundation.

Participating Organizations:
Baruch College
Pulitzer Center
Stony Brook’s Center for News Literacy
The News Literacy Project
New York Community Media Alliance
McCormick Foundation
The Harnisch Family Philanthropies

Participating High Schools:
Bronx Academy of Letters
Curtis High School (Staten Island)
Frank Sinatra School of the Arts (Queens)
GED Plus Tenzer Learning Center (Manhattan)
Herbert H. Lehman High School (Bronx)
New York City Lab School (Manhattan)
Queens High School for the Sciences at York College
Townsend Harris High School (Queens)