Over the last few years much of our work has been based in Turkey, supporting Turkish and Syrian journalists through training, mentoring and capacity building. Our time there has taught us an enormous amount about the value of freedom of expression, the right to information and ethical journalism. How without a free and representative press and crucially without an informed and represented population you cannot call yourself a democracy. No matter how legitimate your election processes may be.
And I’ve got to be honest I never thought we’d need to apply some of the same principles to the UK. But the questions do need to be asked. Did the British public have all the information required to make a sound judgement in recent elections and referenda? Was the information they did receive delivered in a voice they understand? Were they able to decifer what was relevant or not? True or not? Basically, are we equipped for this dizzying new era of news and information?Whatever your answers to these questions, what is certain is that the amount of information we are subjected to via mediums such as social media, TV and news outlets can be overwhelming and educating and empowering children and young people about how to navigate this becomes an imperative.
We live in an era of major national and international political change and disinformation. With the explosion of digital content and use of devices, the need for children & young people to understand and question the news is greater than ever. With this in mind we’ve joined with the National Literacy Trust and the PSHE Association to create News Wise, a pilot news literacy programme for primary school children and teachers, funded by Google.
The pilot, which will be fully launched in Autumn 2018, is focused on children in years 5 and 6 and will create an evidence-based model for teaching news literacy in primary schools. The programme will enable children to access, navigate, critically analyse and participate in the news through a suite of lesson plans, online resources and school workshops. Our long term aim to embed news literacy into the national curriculum.
We are creating News Wise using our experience of working with schools through the award winning Guardian Education Centre, with the National Literacy Trust, a charity with 25 years experience of giving disadvantaged children the literacy skills to succeed in life, and the PSHE Association, the national association supporting a network of teachers of personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education. The project will initially focus on primary schools with a high proportion of children who are disadvantaged or under-represented in the media.
I believe this is a challenge for us all to tackle together. We owe it to the next generation.
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