News Media Literacy course helps students separate facts from falsehoods

News Media Literacy, a new class at Rowan University, helps students parse online truths from falsehoods, avoid the traps of conspiracy theories and better understand how today’s news media work.

Developed by Nick DiUlio, a journalism lecturer in Rowan’s Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts, and Dr. Emil Steiner, an assistant professor of Journalism and coordinator of the college’s Sports Communication & Media Program, the class was built around the idea that amid an ever-growing and chaotic media landscape it’s become difficult to tell what’s true and what isn’t.

DiUlio said the class was created to be non-partisan and free of bias, especially regarding news brands. He said left-leaning news outlets like MSNBC, as well as right-leaning sources like Fox News, can all be valuable sources of information. But they can also be questionable, especially when they quote unnamed sources for important stories. What’s more, the decentralized nature of the internet has created a frenzied information landscape that requires training to navigate.

“We focus on teaching students how to evaluate information,” DiUlio said. “Is the info they find online valuable or just noise? Can it be corroborated? We talk about never relying on a single source of information, considering the robustness of the reporting, and whether what they read, see or hear feels thoroughly reported.”

New Jersey in January became the first state in the nation to require K-12 educators to teach media literacy, including lessons on differentiating facts from opinions and building critical thinking skills.

Rowan’s News Media Literacy course satisfies one of the University’s core requirements for Humanistic Literacy so it will likely draw students from across campus.

“Though today’s students grew up with social media and smartphones, the maze of disinformation and falsehoods online can be confusing to even the savviest media consumer,” Steiner said. “News Media Literacy helps them become more discerning in understanding what makes news legitimate and what is truly fake and meant to deceive.”