5 ms·

Former journalist. I have ranted to friends and family for decades about the lack of media literacy and the lack of understanding for the newsgathering and rep

Former journalist. I have ranted to friends and family for decades about the lack of media literacy and the lack of understanding for the newsgathering and reporting processes. I'm glad to see others continuing those rants because I gave up shortly after j school and transitioning careers. Media literacy should be mandated in school.

DLTADragonHawk 4y ago
Is there a good list of resources for media literacy you could recommend? I had been thinking of tackling this problem and am curious on journalist's take.
- jahsome 4y ago
  I'd recommend familiarizing yourself with non profit trade groups, as they're generally full of people with very tight butts about journalistic integrity and fewer advertisers/grant committees to please. Honestly though the goal is to get a good lay of the land for both how a story goes from whiteboard/notebook brainstorm to print, and the general shape of the industry. Small but impactful example: headlines are often written by a different person than the article. This leads to a lot of conflict, which is healthy in terms of producing quality journalism, but potentially confusing for the consumer who may not understand why. The main goals would be - Understand the roles of reporters (gathering), editors (verification), managing editors (suits), publishers (sugar daddies) and their roles for a single given piece, and within the org at large - Media conglomerates disproportionately dominate local news. It's not just Fox and CNN or the NYT/WaPo, and the impact is far more damaging than the more obvious corporate influence). These days I tend to stay away from the news for the most part, in an attempt to retain sanity. You don't need 24 hours of news. I read up for about 2-3 hours a week and feel more informed than ever. Here are a few resources who probably can get you set in a better direction than I would: Columbia journalism review Nieman lab Poytner institute
latchkey 4y ago
> Media literacy should be mandated in school. Just try for basic literacy first. A Gallup analysis published in March 2020 looked at data collected by the U.S. Department of Education in 2012, 2014, and 2017. It found that 130 million adults in the country have low literacy skills, meaning that more than half (54%) of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, according to a piece published in 2022 by APM Research Lab. https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BBFoundation_GainsFromEradicatingIlliteracy_9_8.pdf https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BBFou...
- jahsome 4y ago
  I don't disagree but it doesn't matter in this case. In fact, this is _precisely_ why (especially local) newspapers targeted "5th grade level" vocab and syntax, or lower. It's been the unofficial standard since long before the study cited.
  - latchkey 4y ago
    It absolutely matters for cognitive ability. You might be reading the equivalent of children's books, but if you can't understand the deeper message, you're going to have a very hard time telling right from wrong. The analogy I use for software developers is that the difference between a jr and sr developer is that a sr can evaluate 5 different database technologies and choose the right one based on the current use case. A jr developer chooses whatever is trending on hackernews.
- autoexec 4y ago
  It's the same for math and science. Most Americans aren't capable of anything beyond a 6th grade level. The lack of literacy and numeracy in this country explains a lot about where we are today.
  - latchkey 4y ago
    We prioritize other things, like military spending, over teacher salaries.

DLTADragonHawk 4y ago

Is there a good list of resources for media literacy you could recommend? I had been thinking of tackling this problem and am curious on journalist's take.

jahsome 4y ago
I'd recommend familiarizing yourself with non profit trade groups, as they're generally full of people with very tight butts about journalistic integrity and fewer advertisers/grant committees to please. Honestly though the goal is to get a good lay of the land for both how a story goes from whiteboard/notebook brainstorm to print, and the general shape of the industry. Small but impactful example: headlines are often written by a different person than the article. This leads to a lot of conflict, which is healthy in terms of producing quality journalism, but potentially confusing for the consumer who may not understand why. The main goals would be - Understand the roles of reporters (gathering), editors (verification), managing editors (suits), publishers (sugar daddies) and their roles for a single given piece, and within the org at large - Media conglomerates disproportionately dominate local news. It's not just Fox and CNN or the NYT/WaPo, and the impact is far more damaging than the more obvious corporate influence). These days I tend to stay away from the news for the most part, in an attempt to retain sanity. You don't need 24 hours of news. I read up for about 2-3 hours a week and feel more informed than ever. Here are a few resources who probably can get you set in a better direction than I would: Columbia journalism review Nieman lab Poytner institute

latchkey 4y ago

> Media literacy should be mandated in school. Just try for basic literacy first. A Gallup analysis published in March 2020 looked at data collected by the U.S. Department of Education in 2012, 2014, and 2017. It found that 130 million adults in the country have low literacy skills, meaning that more than half (54%) of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, according to a piece published in 2022 by APM Research Lab. https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BBFoundation_GainsFromEradicatingIlliteracy_9_8.pdf https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BBFou...

jahsome 4y ago
I don't disagree but it doesn't matter in this case. In fact, this is _precisely_ why (especially local) newspapers targeted "5th grade level" vocab and syntax, or lower. It's been the unofficial standard since long before the study cited.
- latchkey 4y ago
  It absolutely matters for cognitive ability. You might be reading the equivalent of children's books, but if you can't understand the deeper message, you're going to have a very hard time telling right from wrong. The analogy I use for software developers is that the difference between a jr and sr developer is that a sr can evaluate 5 different database technologies and choose the right one based on the current use case. A jr developer chooses whatever is trending on hackernews.
autoexec 4y ago
It's the same for math and science. Most Americans aren't capable of anything beyond a 6th grade level. The lack of literacy and numeracy in this country explains a lot about where we are today.
- latchkey 4y ago
  We prioritize other things, like military spending, over teacher salaries.