Trusting the News in a Digital Age Toward a "New" News Literacy

by Dvorkin, Jeffrey

• ISBN13: 9781119714293
• ISBN10: 111971429X
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781119714408
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2021-05-11
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• More Book Details

Summary

TRUSTING THE NEWS in a Digital Age

How to use critical thinking to discern real news from fake news

Trusting the News in a Digital Age provides an ethical framework and the much-needed tools for assessing information produced in our digital age. With the tsunami of information on social media and other venues, many have come to distrust all forms of communication, including the news. This practical text offers guidance on how to use critical thinking, appropriate skepticism, and journalistic curiosity to handle this flow of undifferentiated information.

Designed to encourage critical thinking, each chapter introduces specific content, followed at the end of each section with an ethical dilemma. The ideas presented are based on the author’s experiences as a teacher and public editor/ombudsman at NPR News. Trusting the News in a Digital Age prepares readers to deal with changes to news and information in the digital environment. It brings to light the fact that journalism is about treating the public as citizens first, and consumers of information second. This important text:

• Reveals how to use critical thinking to handle the never-ending flow of information
• Contains ethical dilemmas to help sharpen critical thinking skills
• Explains how to verify sources and spot frauds
• Looks at the economic and technological conditions that facilitated changes in communication

Written for students of journalism and media studies, Trusting the News in the Digital Age offers guidance on how to hone critical thinking skills needed to discern fact from fiction.

Author Biography

Jeffrey Dvorkin is a Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto and holds an appointment to the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto, advising on ethical issues. From 2011, he was lecturer and director of the journalism program at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. 

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

 1: Introduction to News Literacy

 2: Changing Definitions of News

 3: Ethical Obligations of News Platforms

 4: The Journalism of Verification

 5: How the News Changes Across Media Forms

 6: Influences On and From the News Audiences

 7: The Economics of News

 8: Threats and Opportunities in Journalism

 9: Framing and Deconstructing the News

 10: News and the Law

 11: News Literacy in a time of “Fake News”