New Jersey takes lead in push to teach media literacy to K-12 students

The Hechinger Report
New Jersey is set to become the first state in the nation to mandate teaching media literacy to students of all ages as a bill with the requirement heads to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk for a signature.
 
The bill, which won bipartisan support from the state’s senate and assembly, would require the New Jersey Department of Education to develop learning standards across K-12 in media and information literacy.
 
Media literacy is often defined as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create and communicate information or media. Experts say that many Americans, both young and old, lack the skills required to critically analyze information in a digital world.
 
A 2019 report from the Stanford History Education Group found that high school students had “difficulty discerning fact from fiction online.” MORE