Why news literacy matters

By John Dillon, Director of Communications and Membership, PSHE Association

Newswise was inspired by a growing realisation that news literacy must start from a young age. The landscape has become even more complex and challenging to navigate in the few short years since its inception. This trend will continue due to increasingly sophisticated AI and the additional firepower it gives those who benefit from spreading disinformation and propaganda.

News consumers therefore need to be more vigilant than ever when faced with an unprecedented volume of content designed to persuade and manipulate, embellished with fake video and audio and spread with alarming speed via algorithmic recommendation media.

Our ability to discern trusted information needs to keep up with these developments. Now more than ever news consumption needs to be an active rather than passive pursuit. It’s therefore crucial that news literacy begins early so that children have the knowledge and skills to identify what’s real and trustworthy. Though technology and society will change, this understanding will be applicable throughout their lives.

Children had little exposure to news when it was confined to TV programmes and newspapers. Now it follows us around on smartphones and wearable tech even during our downtime pursuits. And what news we see is more likely than ever to be informed by our online behaviours and beliefs, even without us knowing it. This is something primary aged children must begin to learn so that they can make informed, active choices about what news they consume and trust.

Our particular focus in PSHE education is on the personal – and this includes helping pupils to understand and manage the emotional impact of news that’s everywhere and sometimes dials up the shock value for clicks.  The three PSHE education lesson plans we created for Newswise therefore reflect this. The first lesson focusses on ways to manage emotional responses when interacting with the news, how to recognise why it’s not appropriate to share personal (private) information as news and how to report concerns or ask for support in relation to news stories they see. Our second lesson focusses on how to identify fake news and the third on how news is targeted, how our online choices and behaviour influence the type of news we see, and how such targeting can influence beliefs.

It’s important however to recognise that news literacy is more than identifying misinformation or disinformation. It is also about fostering a respect for the news as a positive force from an early age, helping children to understand how news can expose, and challenge, problems in society. It might even ultimately inspire some of them to pursue a career in journalism for these reasons.

We also know that news literacy education works. The NewsWise project for example has had a proven impact over the past few years with thousands of pupils benefitting from its workshops and teaching resources. A year-one evaluation found that children who took part in NewsWise developed a deeper understanding of why and how news stories are created, reported greater confidence when navigating news and showed increased critical engagement with the news. The programme also won a prestigious UNESCO Media Literacy award in September 2019.

This all confirms the need for news literacy to be a core part of children’s education. We look forward to the results from the University of Birmingham’s in-depth evaluation of subsequent Newswise activities. This will prove invaluable in optimising this programme’s ability to meet the challenges ahead. We also look forward to continuing to work with Newswise partners The Guardian Foundation and National Literacy Trust on this. As the national body for PSHE education we are also considering how this subject can continue to adapt to the times we are in, and the times to come, while complementing all the great work happening elsewhere on the curriculum and beyond regarding digital and news literacy.