The project

The Indiana Public Broadcasting News (IPB News) team created a pilot project to connect Indiana classrooms with media literacy presentations, from journalists. 

During the 2023-24 school year, our team launched a pilot project of presentations to primarily high school social studies and government classes. We presented on bias, fact-checking, and how news teams work and function. Some presentations also integrated information on the First Amendment, how stories can change after publication, how culture influences news, and how journalists negotiate language and sensationalism. 

In increasingly divided social bubbles with rampant misinformation, our goal was to contribute to the resources educators had on hand to arm students with skills and resources to be informed citizens.

Many thanks to the teachers and students at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis and Morton High School in Hammond for their participation and feedback on the project. 

Importance and benefits

Recent research has found high school students struggle to distinguish news stories from ads, trusted uncredible websites and were duped by social media posts spreading disinformation. And teens and young adults under 30 “are worse than older adults at identifying false headlines, and that the more time someone spent online recreationally, the less likely they were to be able to tell real news from misinformation.” 

Students are connected to and influenced by the frequently evolving and complex media landscape. They are consumers and creators on social media, and digital media is where young people receive their news. News, more specifically local news, is how people often stay informed and engaged with their communities. It’s never been more important to teach critical thinking skills to process what they see, read, hear and create on these platforms effectively. 

This guide outlines the many benefits to students and connections between media literacy, state curriculum and employability standards. It also includes customizable tools and resources for use in the classroom. 

We understand the need is widespread and spans all age groups, so we hope some of the resources can be used beyond high school classrooms. 

Benefits:

• Think more critically while consuming information; 
• Understand how news/media is shaped by opinions, assumptions, and perceptions; 
• Distinguish between credible and not credible sources; 
• Build awareness around conscious and unconscious biases; and 
• Examine how one’s messages can affect and influence others.

Many community members rarely, if at all, have the chance to interact with journalists. The IPB News team is working to change that by being responsive to community needs through this initiative and others. Scroll to the bottom if you’d like to connect with us. We are open to helping craft activities, hearing your feedback and presenting if availability permits.

State standards

Many organizations are pushing for state legislatures, including Indiana, to pass policies increasing media literacy in classrooms. Teachers have found indicators that the more students are exposed to and presented with media literacy information and strategies across subjects, the better they become at these skills that will benefit them throughout their life. 

Here are some current high school classes that our activities fit into, though media literacy can be integrated into every subject.

• U.S. Government
• State and Local Government
• Citizenship and Civics
• Current Problems, Issues and Events
• Indiana Studies
• Intro to Communications
• Digital Media
• Journalism
• Student Media

The concepts covered by our activities and presentation also meet interdisciplinary employability skills standards. 

• 6-8.LS.1: Communicate information to audiences in a variety of formats (i.e., large and small group presentations, e-mail communication, interview setting, etc.).
• 6-8.LS.2: Speak to and have conversations with peers and adults to express ideas while respecting differing opinions.
• 6-8.SE.2: Demonstrate an awareness of the needs and rights of others.
• 6-8.SE.3: Demonstrate an understanding of different cultural practices and others' worldviews.
• 9-10.M.1: Seek and participate in challenging learning activities related to career goals.
• 9-10.LS.1: Write documents for a variety of purposes and audiences using varied media formats.
• 9-10.SE.3: Able to listen to others' ideas and respect different ways of being and doing.
• 9-10.SE.4: Begin to think critically about equity and social justice in a variety of environments and cultures.
• 9-10.SE.7: Able to approach conflict in a collaborative manner and work toward solutions using a strength-based lens that respects individual or cultural differences.
• 11-12.LS.4: Evaluate how personal attitudes and values integrate into career choices.
• 11-12.LS.5: Acquire occupational-related skills through work-, service-, or project-based learning experiences.
• 11-12.LS.13: Generate solutions critiqued with reason, logic, and inferences about alternatives.
• 11-12.LS.14: Enhance creative thinking by integrating personal ideas from others.
• 11-12.SE.5: Recognize the importance of diverse perspectives within communication and seek understanding.

We also found many media literacy principles are included in elementary social studies curriculum. Those include primary sources, fact and fiction, resources on public issues and responsible citizenship.

Lesson plans and presentation

We’ve created four activities with input from teachers who worked with us on the pilot project. The presentation we used is available as a Google Slides presentation. We also created a printable Fact-checking 101 guide for students in both English and Spanish.

Additional resources

• KQED and PBS offer online courses and workshops on media literacy for K-12 educators 
  teach.kqed.org and teach.kqed.org/p/certification 
• Checkology from the News Literacy Project
  get.checkology.org 
• NAMLE, The National Association for Media Literacy Education
  namle.org
• Common Sense has some great media literacy lesson plans and presentations, even for the elementary level. 
  commonsense.org/education/
  news-media-literacy-resource-center 
• Rumor Guard, you and your students can follow them to help recognize misinformation
  rumorguard.org 
• Ball State University’s CREATE project
  bsu.edu/academics/
  centersandinstitutes/
  cecl/
  create/resources-for-educators 
• Indiana University’s OSoMe tools
  osome.iu.edu/resources/tools

About us

Indiana Public Broadcasting News (IPB News) is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. We believe Hoosiers with greater access to trusted, timely and relevant information and resources build stronger communities. At a time of widespread polarization and disinformation, we focus our community-responsive journalism on equity, accountability and solutions. 

We cover the intersection of people and policy across five beats: government, education, health, energy and environment, and labor and employment. IPB News brings clarity to policy through its practice of community engagement-based journalism. Our stories are never behind a paywall, making free and accessible programming available over the air, online and through in-person events. We produce about 1,000 unique stories per year, sharing them among our partner stations for distribution across Indiana.

Have questions or feedback? Want to see if we can visit your classroom? Fill out the form below or email us at newsroom@ipbnews.org or fill out our contact form.