Stony Brook University’s Global News Literacy Conference concluded after three days of workshops to try to create a proper curriculum on how to teach news literacy and combat fake news.
News Literacy professors from Poland, Russia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Argentina gathered at Stony Brook to exchange ideas on how to promote and teach news literacy courses.
Howard Schneider, Dean of Stony Brook’s School of Journalism, says news literacy courses are needed because of the rise of fake news.
“All of us gathered at this conference feel a sense of urgency now about developing educational intervention to combat fake news.”
They discussed the importance of breeding skepticism in students and pushing them to look for credible sources in news stories. They also want to find ways to evaluate if students remain news literate after the courses end.
Masato Kajimoto, an assistant professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Center in Hong Kong, says he’s glad to have found colleagues through Stony Brook.
“Fake news has become a big issue in America after the presidential election last year, but fake news has been a big issue in Asia for many, many years.”
Kajimoto worked with Stony Brook to help implement the news literacy course in Hong Kong.