This report by The National Literacy Trust evaluates the NewsWise project in Birmingham, which aims to increase teachers’ skills and confidence when teaching critical media and news literacy and to support children in Years 5 and 6 (aged 9 to 11).
Developments in digital technology have democratised access to information and the means of publishing, radically altering who can create and share news. Evaluating the reliability of online media and news stories requires an increasingly complex set of skills, and there is a growing recognition of the need to strengthen resilience to mis- and disinformation.
However, opportunities to critically engage with media within the school setting are limited, with implications for children’s rights. The aim of the project is to support children in Years 5 and 6 (aged 9 to 11) and their families to:
- Better understand and navigate news, including increasing their ability to identify mis- and disinformation
- Develop their interest in news, including experiencing the news together
- Feel confident to speak up for themselves and others.
The findings suggest that the intervention was successful in terms of reaching the objectives, including supporting children and families to better understand and navigate the news, which included identifying mis- and disinformation, increasing interest in news and helping children feel more confident to advocate for themselves and others.
Key Findings:
- More children were able to identify news items correctly as ‘real’ or ‘fake’ in short pre- and post-project quizzes:
- 1 in 3 (33.4%) identified 2 of 3 news items correctly as either ‘real’ or ‘fake’ before taking part in NewsWise. This increased to nearly 1 in 2 (45.8%) after taking part, representing a 37% increase.
- Children’s news literacy behaviours and confidence improved
- 4 in 5 (80.1%) pupils said that they stopped, thought and checked facts before deciding whether to believe a news story.
- 4 in 5 (82.8%) agreed that they now felt more confident about spotting fake news.
- Children’s interest in news increased
- While 1 in 2 (49.5%) children said they were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ interested in news before taking part, this increased to 4 in 5 (80.7%) after the NewsWise workshop. This was sustained over the course of the project, with 79.8% saying they were interested in news at the post-project survey point.
- Children felt more confident about advocating for themselves and others through writing their own news reports
- After the NewsWise workshop, 2 in 3 (63.8%) children said they felt more confident to report a news story.
- Families reported greater confidence in supporting their children’s news literacy
- 3 in 5 (62.1%) parents felt ‘very’ or ‘quite’ confident about helping their child spot fake news before the NewsWise family workshop, but this increased to almost all (97.9%) after taking part.
- Following the workshop, almost all parents agreed they knew more about how to check if news online could be trusted (97.3%).