By producing news stories and other content, young people master the gathering, assessing and sharing of factual and verifiable information.
A student reads articles on the Mobile Stories site. (Illustration by News Decoder)
Gathering and assessing the quality of information is one of the most effective ways to develop media literacy, critical thinking and effective communication skills. But without guidance, too many young people fail to question the reliability of visual images and overly rely on the first results they find on Google.
That’s why News Decoder has been working with the Swedish nonprofit, Voice4You, on a project called ProMS to create a self-guided digital tool that guides students in writing news stories.
The tool, called Mobile Stories, is now available across Europe. It takes students step-by-step through the journalistic process. Along the way, they gain critical thinking skills and a deeper understanding about the information they find, consume and share.
It empowers students to develop multimedia stories that incorporate original reporting for school, community or global audiences, with minimal input from educators. It comes with open-access learning resources developed by News Decoder.
After a decade of success in Sweden, Voice4You partnered with News Decoder to help make the tool available across Europe and the globe. Throughout the ProMS project, new English language content suitable for high schoolers was developed and piloted in 21 schools in Romania, Ireland and Finland. The Mobile Stories platform has demonstrated remarkable potential in building student confidence and media and information literacy by providing a platform and an opportunity to produce quality journalism.
From story pitch to publication
Using the new international version of Mobile Stories, students have already published 136 articles on mobilestories.com, with another 700 currently in production. Their topics range from book reviews and reporting from local cultural events to in-depth feature articles on the decline in young people’s mental health and child labor in the fast fashion industry.
“The tool looks like a blogging platform and on every step along the way of creating an article, students can access learning materials including video tutorials by professional journalists from around the world, articles and worksheets,” said News Decoder’s ProMS Project Manager Sabīne Bērziņa.
Some of these resources, such as videos and worksheets are open access, available to all.
The project has also developed a code of ethics for young people for using artificial intelligence that is also freely available and has been adopted by News Decoder for its educational programs.
All these efforts have led to a tool that students find easy, relevant and fun to use. User experience survey shows that 91% of students who have used the tool said they found its video content engaging, and 96% felt the content was up-to-date.
A playlist of video tutorials from journalists and media professionals developed for the Mobile Stories tool
Continuous research efforts so far indicate that students become more confident in their abilities to evaluate sources, check images and videos and fact-check content they produce. They also improve their knowledge of the digital information landscape, and this is useful for students across academic disciplines, said News Decoder Educational News Director Marcy Burstiner.
“Even students who intend to be scientists or mathematicians need to be able to validate information, maybe even more so,” Burstiner said. “And in all professions, people need to be able to communicate clearly and stop themselves from passing on dubious information. Journalism teaches them all that.”
Mobile Stories in the classroom
The platform’s impact extends beyond numbers. Students get a practical, hands-on experience that values their voices and opinions. Educators see in it a transformative potential. “The students responded well and liked to work as if they were actors in an actual newspaper editorial staff,” said one Finnish teacher.
A teacher from Romania said the tool had fostered habits of skepticism and diligence.
Students found particular value in the platform’s publishing function. Another teacher noted that seeing a finalised, professionally-formatted article helped students grow as individuals and realise they were capable of more than they had thought.
The project — co-funded by the European Union — is a collaboration between seven partners in six countries: Åbo Akademi (Finland), Associata Apulum Forum (Romania), Committee of Dublin West Education Centre / Scoilnet / Webwise (Ireland), Media & Learning Association (Belgium), News Decoder (France), Tritonite AB (Sweden) and Voice4You (Sweden).
If you are an educator and would like to learn more about incorporating the Mobile Stories tool into your classes you can check out the ProMS website or reach out to jenny@mobilestories.se.