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Where does our news come from? What鈥檚 the difference between 鈥渇act鈥� and 鈥渙pinion鈥� in news reporting? Should this article be trusted?

After the past four dizzying years鈥攄uring which the president has consistently and sought to 鈥攁nswers to these fundamental questions are evidently far from elementary for many Americans.

A December 2020 Pew Research study found that many Americans have difficulty distinguishing between and those that simply circulate already existing stories. Fewer than 4-in-10 survey respondents knew whether Google News, Apple News, or The Wall Street Journal do reporting of their own. (Correct answers: The Wall Street Journal does; Google News and Apple News do not.)

Perhaps even more unsettling, a 2018 Pew Research report found that many Americans in news reports. This survey asked respondents to distinguish between factual statements鈥攕tatements that could be proved or disproved by objective evidence鈥攁nd opinion statements based on beliefs or values. (You can take the news statements quiz .)

Roughly a quarter of respondents incorrectly identified most or all of the statements. According to the report, respondents鈥� abilities to classify statements as factual or opinion varied widely 鈥渂ased on political awareness, digital savviness, and trust in news media.鈥�

These findings suggest that media literacy educators in the United States face big challenges. As my colleague Allison Butler, who teaches in the department of communication at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, told me recently, 鈥淭he absence of critical media literacy education in the United States is a continued embarrassment.鈥�

鈥淲e live in the most media-saturated time in human history,鈥� she said, 鈥測et students and teachers in the U.S. have little access to formal, well-structured critical media literacy education.鈥�

Engaging Students in Critical Media Literacy

In 1976, Carl Jensen, a professor at Sonoma State University, established Project Censored, a media watchdog organization, with the aim of monitoring and promoting important news stories that establishment news outlets had failed to cover.

Jensen鈥檚 project garnered praise from many of the era鈥檚 leading journalists, including Walter Cronkite, Hugh Downs, and I.F. Stone, and it engaged students in the day-to-day work of identifying, vetting, and summarizing 鈥渢he News That Didn鈥檛 Make the News鈥� for the project鈥檚 annual listing of its 鈥淭op Censored Stories.鈥� Before there was any organized movement for critical media literacy education, students in Jensen鈥檚 sociology courses at Sonoma State were doing it.

Beginning in 2009-10, under the leadership of Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff, Project Censored expanded to include faculty and students from about two dozen colleges and universities across North America, in what is now the project鈥檚 Campus Affiliates Program. Since 2011, I鈥檝e served as the program鈥檚 coordinator.

By identifying, vetting, and summarizing high-quality independent reporting on newsworthy topics that corporate media have either marginalized or entirely ignored, students in the program sharpen their critical thinking skills and enhance their media literacy.

Critical media literacy education helps students 鈥渢o question the social construction of media, the politics of representation, and the inequalities of power,鈥� writes Jeff Share, who teaches critical media literacy to future educators at UCLA, in an article from Project Censored鈥檚 latest yearbook, State of the Free Press 2021 (Seven Stories 2020).

Doing so, the students also contribute to a wider, networked effort to raise public awareness about the limitations of corporate news coverage, and to cultivate public appreciation for independent investigative journalism.

The highlighted in State of the Free Press 2021 represent the collective effort of some 309 students and 32 faculty members from 19 campuses, who reviewed more than 300 independent news stories during 2019-2020.

This year鈥檚 story list reveals the corporate news media鈥檚 鈥渂lind spots鈥� when it comes to systemic social problems, such as the epidemic of (our  #1 story this year) and the (our #5 story). As Matt Taibbi observes in the foreword to State of the Free Press 2021, corporate news media typically shun stories about inequality, those that take on powerful interests, or those that lack 鈥渁 clear partisan angle.鈥� The project鈥檚 annual story list, he writes, gives working reporters 鈥渁 glimpse into the work we probably should be doing, instead of delivering clicks or ratings for bosses.鈥�

Positive Impacts Beyond the Classroom

Project Censored is distinctive among the nation鈥檚 news watchdog organizations in providing hands-on critical media literacy education to students鈥攁nd making their work public.

We publish students鈥� preliminary research on important but underreported news stories as on the project website. And, for those stories that make it all the way to the final ballot from which the project鈥檚 expert panel of 28 international judges rank each year鈥檚 Top 25 stories, we recognize each story鈥檚 student researcher and faculty evaluator by name, along with those of the independent investigative journalists who broke the news story.

In my own teaching, at Pomona College and Citrus College, I saw how the promise of recognition and impact beyond the classroom could galvanize students to do their very best work. Students come to think of the independent news stories that they research as 鈥渢heir鈥� stories, and this often motivates them to become active on the social issues that their story addresses, beyond the classroom, among their peers, and in their home communities.

By engaging in the project鈥檚 critical media literacy curriculum, students learn to investigate, rather than react, when they encounter controversial or sensational news content. They develop skills to assess whether the evidence in a news report holds up under scrutiny, and how to cross-check content with other stories on the same topic鈥攅ach of which Nolan Higdon, the author of , recommends as 鈥渄etection skills鈥� to determine the validity of news content.

Notably, Higdon鈥檚 interest in the power of news began when he was an undergraduate at Diablo Valley College, where courses in history with Mickey Huff introduced him to Project Censored and spurred him to pursue critical media literacy education as his vocation.

Even as the Pew surveys cited above lead to sobering conclusions about media literacy in the United States, the experience of working with faculty and students from across the country keeps me from despairing over our society鈥檚 future. Instead, it bolsters my faith that, with enhanced efforts to promote critical media literacy, we can do better in the immediate future. And it fortifies my belief that increasing public awareness of, trust in, and support for independent journalism is one essential dimension of every movement for social justice.