The Penn GSE Magazine recently featured Healthy NewsWorks Program Manager Mia Blitstein and spotlighted Healthy NewsWorks as part of the national movement to increase media literacy in schools. Mia earned a master’s degree from Penn’s Graduate School of Education in 2002. The article highlights Healthy NewsWorks’ emphasis on teaching elementary and middle school students not just about writing, but how to identify a reliable source and how to avoid being swayed by misinformation. “Being a reporter puts them in the driver’s seat,” Mia says.
The role of Healthy NewsWorks in informing young people about the ever-evolving media landscape is crucial. Alesha Gayle, a senior fellow in Penn GSE’s Learning, Teaching, and Literacy division, noted in the article that the Internet has become the way most young people stay informed of current events—86% of people under 22 use online sources as their primary source of events. T. Philip Nichols, a media scholar and historian, highlights how media literacy has become an increasing focus for society, and thus for teachers, especially in a “post-truth” world where the term “fake news” has taken on a life of its own.
Healthy NewsWorks offers an empowering way to bring that vital media literacy education to the classroom as teachers navigate its growing relevance. Newspapers written by Healthy NewsWorks reporters not only provide a source of pride for our students, but also educate their school communities on important health issues. The Penn article also featured some of our Healthy NewsWorks reporters, eighth-graders Julian and Holly from Saint Joseph Pro-Cathedral School. Holly shared that in addition to all of the journalistic skills she learned and the first-hand experience she got in the news-gathering process, she also learned “how we can give back” through reporting on health topics in their community.
