The News Literacy Project

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Nov 2, 2025, 8:30 PM

We provide educators in all 50 states with the resources they need to help students learn to confidently navigate the digital world. False information erodes the trust that connects us. Thanks to you, our national movement is rebuilding it. Every day, we help educators shape the next generation of resilient, independent thinkers. During the 2024-25 school year our resources were used by: With our free virtual classroom, you can help students learn to spot falsehoods, understand media bias, find reliable sources and think critically.

Lessons, activities, infographics and other resources cover misinformation, conspiratorial thinking, algorithms and more. See how it can help in the video below. StudentCornell High School, Pennsylvania The News Literacy Project (NLP) is an American nonpartisan national education nonprofit, based in Washington, D.C., that provides resources for educators, students, and the general public to help them learn to identify credible information,... It was founded in 2008 by Alan C. Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter[1] at the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau.

As an academic discipline, news literacy is widely considered a subset of media literacy and information literacy. The American Society of News Editors' Youth Journalism Initiative defines news literacy as "the acquisition of 21st-century, critical-thinking skills for analyzing and judging the reliability of news and information, differentiating among facts, opinions and... It can be taught most effectively in cross-curricular, inquiry-based formats at all grade levels. It is a necessary component for literacy in contemporary society.”[2] In 2006, Miller was invited to tell 175 sixth-grade students at his daughter's middle school in Bethesda, Maryland, what he did as a journalist and why it was important. When the students responded with 175 handwritten thank-you notes, he began to think about the impact that many journalists could have if they shared their expertise and experience in classrooms across the country.[3]

The idea seemed particularly meaningful as more and more Americans, young and old, were turning to social media as a news source, and as it was becoming increasingly challenging to distinguish fact-based news from... Two years later, Miller left the Times and founded NLP.[4] Its lessons and materials, initially aimed at educators and students in middle school and high school, "are apolitical, created with input from real journalists," Mark Sullivan and Tim Bajarin of Fast Company wrote in... "It teaches students how to recognize the earmarks of quality journalism and credible information, and how to know if articles are accurate and appropriately sourced. It teaches kids to categorize information, make and critique news judgments, detect and dissect viral rumors, interpret and apply the First Amendment, and recognize confirmation bias."[5] This includes coordinating in-school units through NLP’s classroom and digital programs as well as proving select materials, training and other support to other youth services providers that are interested in adopting news and information...

NLP will expand to deliver its curriculum to more sites in Chicago, especially the blended e-learning unit that is the centerpiece of its digital program. The NLP is an innovative national educational program that mobilizes seasoned journalists to help middle school and high school students sort fact from fiction in the digital age. The project’s primary aim is to teach students the critical thinking skills that will enable them to be smarter and more frequent consumers and creators of credible information across all media and platforms. Students learn how to distinguish verified information from raw messages, spin, gossip and opinion and are being encouraged to seek news and information that will make them better students today and better-informed citizens tomorrow. In the 2012-2013 school year, NLP worked with a total of 54 schools, 79 teachers and reached 3,668 students in New York City, the Washington D.C. area and Chicago.

Half of these school partners participated in NLP’s new digital program by completing a one-week blended e-learning unit. In Chicago, NLP worked with 45 teachers in 35 schools to reach 2,350 students in the 2012-13 school year, about two-thirds of whom participated in the digital program. students participated in The News Literacy project nationwide in the 2012-13 school year. Contributed by:Jackie Dillon-Fast, MLS [she/her]Supervisor/Coordinator for the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Global News Center The News Literacy Project (NLP) is a nonpartisan education nonprofit whose goals are to build “a national movement to advance the practice of news literacy throughout American society, creating better informed, more engaged and...

This resource is designed for anyone who is curious or concerned about misinformation in our news streams or wants to know how to recognize it, especially in light of the increasing presence of artificial... It offers special resources for educators, especially K-12 educators. Two resources created by the News Literacy Project worth checking out are their weekly newsletter The Sift Archive — News Literacy Project geared toward educators this newsletter provides discussion prompts and other teaching tools... Mashable lauds RumorGuard as set apart from other fact-checking sites for going “beyond the simple debunk” to teach debunking skills. Visit our website's Games & Activities page. Cat Murphy, a college student, has wanted to be a journalist since she was 11.

Many of her friends don’t understand why. When they engage with the news — if they do — they hear a cacophony of voices. They don’t know who to believe. Reporters are biased. They make mistakes. Besides, why would you hitch your future to a dying industry?

“There is a lot of commentary — ‘Oh, good for you. Look what you’re walking into. You’re going to be screaming into the void. You’re going to be useless,’” said Murphy, a 21-year-old graduate student at the University of Maryland’s journalism school. She is undeterred. And it’s also why she’s not surprised by the findings of a study this fall that documented negative attitudes toward the news media among 13- to 18-year-old Americans.

The press rarely fares well in surveys of adults, but it’s sobering to see the same disdain among people whose opinions about the world are still forming. Asked by the News Literacy Project for one word to describe today’s news media, 84% of teens responded with something negative — “biased,” “crazy,” “boring,” “fake,” “bad,” “depressing,” “confusing,” “scary.” Columbia College Chicago student Kailey Ryan reads a newspaper in Chicago on Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

Offei Koram watches a broadcast of a Democratic presidential debate at a bar in Atlanta, June 27, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) Pedestrians pass under a news ticker in Times Square on March 11, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) Newspapers are displayed magazine and newspaper stand, June 11, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, FIle)

A view from the control room at Spectrum News NY1 is seen during the Republican gubernatorial debate, June 20, 2022, in New York. (Brittainy Newman/Newsday via AP, Pool, File) NLP advances the development and teaching of news literacy in K-12 education. Email contact available with a Pro subscription Legal name of organization: The News Literacy Project Inc. EIN for payable organization: 27-4011343

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ. Cat Murphy, a college student, has wanted to be a journalist since she was 11. Many of her friends don’t understand why. When they engage with the news — if they do — they hear a cacophony of voices. They don’t know who to believe. Reporters are biased.

They make mistakes. Besides, why would you hitch your future to a dying industry? “There is a lot of commentary — ‘Oh, good for you. Look what you’re walking into. You’re going to be screaming into the void. You’re going to be useless,’” said Murphy, a 21-year-old graduate student at the University of Maryland’s journalism school.

She is undeterred. And it’s also why she’s not surprised by the findings of a study this fall that documented negative attitudes toward the news media among 13- to 18-year-old Americans. The press rarely fares well in surveys of adults, but it’s sobering to see the same disdain among people whose opinions about the world are still forming. Asked by the News Literacy Project for one word to describe today’s news media, 84% of teens responded with something negative — “biased,” “crazy,” “boring,” “fake, ”bad,” “depressing,” “confusing,” “scary.”

The News Literacy Project

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