As Journalists Face Constant Attacks From the White House, Teaching News Literacy Gets Harder

Fred Reeder Jr. likes to open conversations with, “I teach journalism, or as some people would say, fiction.”

Reeder, a visiting instructor at Miami University, said most of the students who crowd into his introductory-journalism course aren’t journalism students – they are strategic-communication or professional-writing majors, there to learn the basics of news writing, journalistic ethics, and the role of journalism in history and society.

There has always been general ignorance about the role of journalism in society, Reeder said, which often leads to distrust. “A lot of people struggle with really understanding what news organizations should be doing or should not be doing. And that, to me is a deeper conversation that we all need to have, not just students at a university.”

But lately, with every lesson, Reeder said, he finds he must navigate a political minefield for each news story. The truthfulness of every story is called into question by students. He sometimes struggles to hold his tongue when his field is dragged through the mud.

Scholars who work and teach what’s now considered a politicized subject like journalism have seen their jobs become harder. When news reports are criticized as “fake news,” and journalists are called the “enemy of the people,” Reeder and other professors say the landscape of teaching journalism or news literacy has changed. Several instructors say they experience tension in their classes, and adjust their curricula as a result.

The challenges are largely thanks to social media and “toxic politics,” said Howard Schneider, founding dean of the school of journalism at Stony Brook University, and co-creator of one of the nation’s first courses in news literacy. Most students believe that the news media has a systematic political bias on one side or the other.

“The pressure to get it right has never been greater for journalism and media educators,” he said.

At Stony Brook, Schneider said, students learn the tools and vocabulary to identify their own implicit biases and analyze news coverage – like a series of questions to ask for each article, video, or social-media post. “Where is this coming from? Who is telling me this? How do I know it’s true?” Then students are given a rubric, with steps to break down a story and determine its reliability.

Avoiding partisan debate during class is a matter of framing and tone, Schneider said. Professors need to talk about current events, provide samples from a range of different news outlets, and supply context.

“You frame the course as a course about not what to think about the news, what to think about President Trump – but how to think about the news, how to empower yourself,” Schneider said.

But it’s not easy. Common suspicions about the role of journalism – the watchdog protecting democracy versus the “fake news” destroying it – make some professors anxious to teach the subject, even when their students are journalism majors.

Sara Blankenship, an adjunct professor at the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at the University of North Texas, said it has been increasingly difficult to stay away from the “liberal-professor stereotype” during her “Principles of News” course.

The course, made up of 120-150 journalism students, teaches the basics of news history and production. Standing in the lecture hall, Blankenship said, she doesn’t have the same confidence she did before the Trump administration took office.

“I’m very aware that I’m in mixed company, politically. So I do want to make it comfortable for everybody,” Blankenship said. But with the repeated attacks on the press, she said it’s been difficult to create balanced material for her class. “I’m constantly worried that it’s one-sided, and I know it’s not. It’s just the tax of it has really gotten under my skin.”

The president’s rhetoric and “vitriol” against journalists has had direct effects on her students, too, she said. Blankenship remembers a student once coming to her in tears: She had to change her major because her father would not pay for her to become the “enemy of the people.”

In a way, the recent attacks on the press have challenged her to become a better educator, Blankenship said. She has adjusted the course to be theory-based rather than anecdotal, presenting facts and making it clear that she’s offering no opinions. She’s also added more history, to show the “link between journalism and how democracy works.” She tries to communicate what she perceives to be the value of journalism.

“It really works to remind them why journalists do what they do, why journalism is important,” Blankenship said. “There is a reason why this industry is referred to as the Fourth Estate.”

It’s challenging, but many professors say that journalism and news literacy are more important to teach now than ever before. Schneider said students should be equipped with news-literacy tools as early as middle school.

At Miami University, Reeder’s strategy is to “teach like a journalist.” He does not give his opinion. He just presents the information and offers a discussion, he said. “I love the truth, and I want as many people as possible to know the truth - not just about the events in our country, but about the messengers.”

Follow Teghan Simonton on Twitter at @teghan_simonton, or email her at teghan.simonton@chronicle.com.