by Aralynn Abare McMane | 11 Apr 2024 | Education, Educators' Catalog, Journalism, Media Literacy, News Decoder Updates
News and media literacy groups are calling on Europe to include journalism in media literacy education. Students need to know how to spot news they can trust. A teen points to a site that can be trusted while another gives a different site a thumbs down. Illustration...
Young people engage with the news in its many, diverse forms but they can’t always trust its reliability or may not verify sources. It is vital that young people be able to discern between real news and fake, verified trustworthy sources and polemic, propaganda or clickbait. In this piece, Aralynn Abare McMane talks to news and media literacy groups and explores why they are calling for Europe to include journalism in media literacy education.
Exercise: In order to better understand the wider issues surrounding media literacy, ask students to choose one of the organizations or projects mentioned in the article. They should undertake independent research into what they do. In groups, they can look into their chosen organization or project and prepare a short presentation summarizing what they do and the key issues they address. They should then reflect on why this organization exists, what problem it solves and how its objectives help students like them in the real world.
by Aralynn Abare McMane | 18 May 2023 | Art, Environment, World
Children across the globe were invited to tell the world, through art, what needs to be done to save our planet from climate change. These are their messages. Julia, 10, from Brazil created this logo for her local news outlet, Jornal da Criança based in São Paulo,...
by Aralynn Abare McMane | 8 Dec 2022 | Contests, Educators' Catalog, Environment, European School Brussels
Winners of a worldwide competition will get cash prizes as well as coaching from News Decoder and publication on the News Decoder site. Announcing the Climate Champion Profiles storytelling competition Teenage journalists worldwide are invited to profile someone who...
News Decoder is a member of a consortium of organizations implementing a multifaceted project to engage youth with climate change issues and actions. In this article, News Decoder Adviser Aralynn Abare McMane invites high school students across the world to identify and interview someone in their community working to solve the climate crisis in a significant way, then write an article or produce a video or podcast about that person for submission to a worldwide contest.
Exercise: Find an individual in your community who is trying to fight climate change in a real way. Have students research that person by looking up relevant websites and reading any news articles that have been done or watching any videos that feature that person. Then invite the person to talk to your class and have students prepare questions they would need answered in order to write a profile of that person. Have each student write a profile and submit the best one to the The Writing’s on the Wall Climate Champions Storytelling Competition.
by Aralynn Abare McMane | 14 Apr 2022 | Art, Educators' Catalog, Ukraine
News groups around the world are encouraging children shocked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to turn to art as an outlet for their worries. Youth around the world are drawing pictures in an outpouring of support for the children of Ukraine. My nonprofit, Global...
The war in Ukraine has been traumatic for young people around the globe who have never seen armed conflict in Europe and who may not have followed atrocities in Syria, Yemen or elsewhere in the world. Social media platforms have broadcast terrifying images from Ukraine, and teachers have struggled to help students absorb the atrocities. Aralynn McMane, a News Decoder trustee who specializes in how news media can better serve the young, has pulled together artwork by young people inside and outside of Ukraine that channels their emotions while packing a punch. Art, and not just words, can convey complicated thoughts.
Exercise: Ask your students to draw a picture that captures their feelings about the war in Ukraine.
by Aralynn Abare McMane | 25 Feb 2022 | Journalism, Media Literacy, Ukraine, Youth Voices
Editors around the world explain how they’re helping kids to understand and cope with the news as Russia invades Ukraine. From News-O-Matic, by a reader named Derin A week before Russia invaded Ukraine, editor Joyce Grant at Canada’s Teaching Kids News conducted...