Knobull Displays Student News And Builds Literacy Skills

BOSTON - Jan. 31, 2022 - PRLog -- Lynn Bentley, President of Knobull reported, "In today's media landscape, we're bombarded by news from a variety of sources. Much of the information comes to us from people we trust. One way is to learn the basics of news literacy, when looking at reports from news sources and journalists, apply the skills of news literacy. Let's begin by looking at the difference between it and media literacy."

Knobull defines news literacy as "the application of critical-thinking skills to the identification and consumption of news and journalistic information. News literacy includes skills in analyzing and evaluating the reliability of news information."

It's important to be somewhat skeptical of everything and to search for credible sources of information. Here are a few general ideas to keep in mind:

1. Know the difference between fact and opinion. Facts don't lie; they are an accounting of what occurred.
2. Investigate the writer/speaker. Are they a journalist? A lobbyist? A political columnist?
3. Evaluate reporting not only for what is included in the story but also for what is left out.
4. Verify the source for transparency. The media should be clear about who they are, who owns them.

One study gave a series of false reports about controversial topics to teenagers and adults. It showed that false claims were more often considered to be true if they aligned with the person's prior views.

And because so much of the news we read about every day comes from social media, we have to fight against algorithms, too. You need to form your own educated opinion about the issue.

Just because you enjoy a comment, news article, video or meme posted by a friend on social media doesn't mean you have to share it. Be skeptical of bold claims and form your own opinion on the quality and reliability of the post. To play it safe use an Academic Search Engine like Knobull to receive Research friendly results.

Research shows that "Young people have difficulty determining whether a news story is fake; less than half (44 percent) of them agree that they can tell fake news stories from real ones. And, among those who have shared a news story online in the last six months, 31 percent say they shared a story that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate."

Bentley concluded, "For this reason we offers Student News to help readers identify credible sources, distinguish between facts and opinion, understand biases, and become active consumers of media.

At Knobull, we're working to provide tools to help consumers do that. These include student focused News to help readers navigate today's complicated news landscape, and our News Literacy training for students and rising professionals. A focus on news literacy can lead us all to a society with more educated citizens and more informed social and scientific debate."