GetNewsSmart® 2
The News Literacy Short Course from the Center for News Literacy
Welcome to GetNewsSmart®!
Adapted from the full ungraduate News Literacy course which was developed in the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University, and taught in classrooms around the globe, This short course provides you with a primer on some of the key skills, tools and techniques that make up the Stony Brook model of news media literacy.
You'll learn how to actively sort and evaluate media online and elsewhere, and discern and identify credible sources of news and other actionable information, by using the frameworks of fact-based journalism in a fun and engaging way.
The Course
The course is made up of 10 lessons, which are spread over 3 units.
The units will be released according to the schedule below.
For each unit, you will read the lessons on this website, and will then complete application activities on the Google Classroom site.
The Units
Unit 1: What is News (media) Literacy, and Why Does it Matter?
This unit consists of 4 lessons and gives an overview of what news (media) literacy is, and its importance in today’s society.
Unit 2: How News is Constructed
This unit consists of 4 lessons and gives the basics of how news is put together, and provides context for analysis of the news.
Unit 3: Analyzing the News
This unit consists of 2 lessons and will take you through the process of analyzing the news and putting previous lessons into practice.
Your Instructor
Michael Spikes, Ph.D. has been teaching, writing about, and developing curriculum on the subject of News Media Literacy and its production for more than 15 years.
Currently, he is a lecturer and the director of the Teach for Chicago Journalism project in the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. His research focuses on the current practices of educators when engaging using media literacy and news media literacy pedagogy.
Before joining Northwestern, Michael was a project manager for the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University where he led the build of its Digital Resource Center, an online repository of news literacy teaching and learning material. Michael also headed up a branch of the Center in the state of Illinois, where he developed teacher training materials and curriculum as part of a new Civics course mandate in the state. Michael continues his work with the center’s curriculum as a speaker, trainer, and consultant, most recently with the American Library Association.
Michael has also held positions as a Media Studies instructor in both public and public charter schools in Washington DC, and was a member of the educational advisory team at the Newseum. He has also held roles as a media producer, primarily in radio as a producer and youth trainer for NPR, and as a freelance producer for Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.