Library talks
Many libraries hold sessions on how to find and check information. Staff there can also help you find reference books and encyclopedias if you need to confirm a date or a name.
Events
Events
Reading the news calmly is a skill you do not have to build alone. It comes up at talks and open workshops and in school lessons, and it sticks best through conversations at home. This section describes the formats you are likely to come across and how to check an event listing before you sign up.
Media literacy is not an exam you pass once, but a habit that is easiest to practise together.
We do not publish schedules or advertise courses. Event types are described here in general terms; check dates, venues and conditions of participation with the organisers only.
Where to learn to read the news
Four formats in which media literacy usually comes up.
School media literacy lessons
In these lessons, children learn to tell fact from opinion and to look for the original source. Ask the teacher what was covered: it is a good starting point for continuing the conversation at home.
Open workshops at museums and cultural centres
Sometimes reading the news is approached through history: what the first newspapers looked like, how the telegraph worked, how a photograph differs from a drawing in an old broadsheet.
Family conversations
The most accessible format of all. Take one neutral headline together, for example about the weekend weather, and look at what follows from it and what does not.
How to check a listing for a talk or course
- Identify the organiser: a library, school, museum or cultural centre usually posts listings on its own website or noticeboard.
- Check the date, time and address against the organiser's own announcement, not just a forwarded image.
- See whether the presenter is named and what they do: a teacher, a librarian, a member of museum staff.
- Find out whether registration is required and whether there is a fee; if you are asked to pay via a link in an unfamiliar message, it is better to call the organiser.
- Pay attention to the subject: a media literacy session teaches a method of checking, not which news to believe.
Related sections
- Collections
Reading lists for anyone tired of the news, about to share a post, or wanting to talk it over with family.
- People
Who makes the news: the reporter, the editor, the photo editor, the fact-checker, the columnist and the reader who shares.
- Analysis
A headline taken apart using a neutral example, and what to check about a photo that arrives without a caption.
Sources
- Library materials on media literacy
- Materials from media literacy education projects
The magazine draws on general principles of media literacy and encyclopedic knowledge of the history of print. How feeds work, notification settings and menu names in your apps may differ from the general descriptions given here.