UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A special on-campus event with two presentations, one for educators and one for students, will kick off U.S. News Media Literacy Week as the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications partners with the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) on Oct. 23.
Students and teachers from high schools in central Pennsylvania will be on the University Park campus for the event, which has been coordinated by NAMLE and the Penn State News Literacy Initiative.
The day’s first session, “Finding Your Voice in Loud Media World,” intended mostly for students, will begin at 10 a.m. in the atrium of the Bellisario Media Center. It will be led by Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, executive director of NAMLE.
The day’s second session, “Everyone is a Media Literacy Educator,” will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Foster Auditorium of Paterno Library. It will be led by Megan Fromm, education manager of NAMLE.
Both sessions will stream live for those unable to attend and include options for live questions from those remotely watching. Students and citizens of all ages are welcome to attend and learn how to cultivate a healthier relationship with media.
The Penn State News Literacy Initiative launched in 2022 as a response to unreliable information that overwhelms the media system and U.S. citizens who are increasingly avoiding the news.
In the spirit of the University’s land-grant mission, the initiative aims to help by teaching students and citizens strategies for telling the difference between reliable, public-interest journalism and the noise that often overwhelms and divides people.
The initiative has leveraged resources from across the Penn State system in a multipronged approach that includes campus events, K-12 educator webinars, online certification programs, a student News Literacy Ambassadors program, research efforts and a radio show/podcast titled News Over Noise.
Founding campus partners for the initiative include the Bellisario College, the College of Education, Penn State Libraries and Penn State Student Affairs. They have consistently partnered with NAMLE, Pen America, the Poynter Institute, the News Literacy Project and WPSU.