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Founded more than a decade ago by Alan Miller, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Los Angeles Times, NLP has become the nation’s leading provider of news education. You can learn more about the organization and its resources and programs here.
The material in this post comes from Sift, an organization newsletter for educators with nearly 22,000 subscribers. Published weekly during the academic year. It examines timely examples of disinformation, addresses media and press freedom topics, explores social media trends and issues, and includes discussion prompts and classroom activities. Modeled after Sift, Get Smart About News is a free weekly newsletter for the public.
NLP has Checkology, an e-learning platform that helps educators teach middle and high school students how to identify credible information, seek out reliable sources, and know what to trust, what to reject, and what to debunk.
It also gives them an opportunity to appreciate the importance of the First Amendment and a free press. Checkology and all NLP resources and programs are free. Since 2016, more than 42,000 teachers and 375,000 students in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and more than 120 other countries have registered to use the platform.
Here is an article from the November 31 issue of Sift:
1. Recently editor-in-chief of Oregon’s largest newspaper apologized for the newspaper’s historically racist and xenophobic coverage. The public apology introduces the Oregonian’s “Publishing Prejudice” series, a project prompted by the 2020 murder of George Floyd that examines the racist legacy of the 161-year-old daily newspaper. The Oregonian found that its own news and editorials justified lynching, opposed equal rights, celebrated the Chinese Exclusion Act, supported the internment of people of Japanese descent during World War II, and more. In her apology, editor Teresa Bottomley called the racist coverage from the newspaper’s archives “disgusting. painful Unprotected”.
• Discuss: What do you think of the Oregonian editor’s apology? Why do you think she felt the need to apologize? When news organizations publish apologies for their historically racist coverage, is that a meaningful way to rebuild trust? How do past news stories affect today’s communities?
• Idea: Have students search the local newspaper archives on Newspapers.com [login required], or ask them to check out one of the newspapers featured in this database of harmful historical materials in the United States. Look at front pages from different eras and discuss how non-white residents are covered (or not covered). Who did the newspaper write for? How has news coverage changed over the decades?
◦ “On Atonement: The media apologized for past racism. This should be just the beginning.” (Alexandria Neeson, Columbia Journalism Review).
◦ “New database expands ‘Printing Hate’ series” (Howard Center for Investigative Journalism).
Use this reflection sheet to better understand the Oregonian’s past coverage of racism and how the paper is addressing the legacy it leaves behind.
2. Alleged threat of fentanyl-laced Halloween candy some elected officials and the media are sounding the alarm, but doctors and drug addicts say the warnings are overblown. Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, has spent decades tracking news reports about tainted treats and has found no evidence that any child has been seriously injured or killed by the treats at the treats. Although “rainbow fentanyl” is made to look like candy, no drug cartels are known to target Halloween candy.
• Discuss: What are zombie rumors? Do you think the motivations of some of the people who spread this rumor differ from those of the concerned parents who spread it? What other types of overhyped, fear-based rumors have you come across? Why do you think such rumors spread so widely — and for so many decades?
• resource: “Disinformation” (NLP Checkology® Virtual Classroom).
• related: “Scary rumors about drug-related Halloween candy spread without evidence” (Dan Avon, RumorGuard NLP).
3. Utility digital Día de Muertos Altar created by the Los Angeles Times last year was so popular — with more than 1,000 entries — that the paper is bringing it back this year. Readers can create their own digital ofrendas with photos and messages to honor and mourn loved ones who have died.
• Discuss: Why did the Día de Muertos digital altar resonate with Times readers? How can newsrooms better communicate with diverse audiences?
• related: “Thought | Lessons from North Carolina for Local Immigration News Coverage” (Liz Robbins, Poynter).
Ballots sent to dead people do not prove fraud
NO: Voting requests sent to dead people are not proof that it is easy to vote on their behalf.
SO: Each state has procedures for regularly removing deceased people from voter rolls, and applications submitted on behalf of a deceased person are usually rejected.
SO: It is a crime to try to get a ballot in the name of a dead person. In rare cases, people try to vote for dead people and are accused of fraud.
SO: Each state has additional checks, including signature verification and verification of updated voter rolls, to prevent fraud.
NewsLit Conclusion: Disinformation narratives about elections often lead people to misinterpret ordinary aspects of elections and can become self-sustaining as they spread. Third-party mailers of ballot applications are less diligent than state officials in updating their records, and they sometimes mail applications to ineligible voters, adding to the widespread but false perception that votes are usually cast by names of dead people. When it comes to staying informed about election security, look for reliable, verified information and official sources, not viral claims on social media.
Claim falsely attributes Katy Perry’s strange eye movement to coronavirus vaccine
NO: Katy Perry’s eye movement in this video of her performance at a concert in Las Vegas is not related to a side effect of the coronavirus vaccine.
SO: The incident sparked other conspiracy theories about robotic clones and even links to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
SO: Perry opened up about the incident and explained that it was a “party trick” for her act.
NO: “Eye bugs” are not a known side effect of the coronavirus vaccine.
NewsLit Conclusion: Anti-vaccination trolls often try to find ways to attribute strange viral moments to coronavirus vaccines, but such claims lack evidence and can spread harm. This video of Perry’s eye “sparkling” during a concert in October 2022 was no exception. As the video gained millions of views, many people dismissed the most likely explanations in favor of their own conspiracy theories. Despite their wide range, all of these conspiracy claims had one important characteristic in common: a complete lack of evidence.
On these slides you can find examples of this week’s rumors to use with students.
• The man accused of trying to kidnap House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and assaulting her husband, Paul, was steeped in QAnon and other fringe conspiracy beliefs. In addition, Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, spread misinformation about the attack in a since-deleted tweet.
• A new ProPublica investigation found that Google’s ad business is funding disinformation around the world by routinely placing ads on non-English-language websites that spread falsehoods about topics like the election, vaccines, COVID-19 and climate change.
• When it comes to news trust, the Pew Research Center found that adults under 30 now trust information on social media nearly as much as they trust national news organizations.
• The New York Times Learning Network has compiled eight films for students about digital media that cover topics such as children’s online privacy and how conspiracy theories spread.
• In the first TikTok Associated Press, the global news agency recognized its 176-year history of delivering news with Telegraph➡️Teletype➡️TikTok.
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