News literacy

It’s an important topic for class and newsroom staff development

By Pat Winters Lauro

CBS President Leslie Moonves scandalously said during the run-up to the 2016 GOP primary that Donald Trump is “bad for America, but he’s damn good for CBS.”

Moonves was talking about TV ratings, but the same could be said about news literacy, which includes the development of skills to discern fact, opinion, bias and hidden agendas.

While news literacy has been discussed for years, new such discussions are burgeoning, thanks to Trump’s dismissing news stories critical of him, his family, or administration as “fake news” and calling the press “the enemy.”  These discussions are beacons for all who view journalism as essential to a free society.

News literacy is a topic for classrooms and college media newsrooms.

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