News Literacy Week

In the age of “fake news,” media literacy is an important skill to develop. Medgar Evers College’s Interim Dean of Student Affairs, Alexis McLean, Ph.D., was on hand to help selected middle school students examine the manner in which they evaluate media.

E.W. Scripps news outlets collaborated with the News Literacy Project last week, to promote the first-ever National News Literacy Week.  News stations and newspaper companies across the country worked with local schools to help the students spot misinformation and to understand journalistic standards. PIX11 News, which is owned by E.W. Scripps, worked with a group of middle school students in Queens to help them analyze facts concerning food insecurity in New York City. Dean McLean and John Weed, the assistant executive director of BronxWorks, a non-profit that operates a network of food pantries in the Bronx, served as experts in a press conference. The news crew guided the students through the conference, and the students’ questions produced information that they used to write their own stories about food insecurity.

You can view the news story and read some of the students’ stories using this link.