OP-ED BY NINA BOARD MEMBER ROGER RUTHHART
Thirty-seven years ago, in the days before “Internet news,” I was invited to join the Northern Illinois News Association board. In the many years since, this organization — which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year — has done an amazing job on behalf of its members in support of quality journalism in Northern Illinois. We have run countless numbers of seminars as the industry evolved, honored quality journalism with annual contests, helped many high school students pursue their dream of being professional journalists through our scholarship awards, and supported hundreds of NIU students by helping to educate and prepare them for professional careers.
But of all the things we’ve done, none is more important than the effort we are beginning right now. This year, under the direction of NINA President John Lampinen, the board decided that there is nothing more important than the topic of news literacy in our high schools and junior colleges and that news literacy will be a priority in the years ahead.
As part of our efforts, NINA has made news literacy the central theme of its annual conference, which will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, via Zoom. There is no cost, and we’re hoping that journalists and educators will attend. Scroll down or click on this link for more information.
It’s not as if NINA has historically ignored the topic of news literacy. For many years I presented a program to high school newspaper staff members at the Spring Conference of the Northern Illinois Student Press Association, addressing just that topic. The room was always full. Students knew they had to figure it out.
Then in 2021, coming out of the COVID 19 pandemic, the Illinois Legislature passed Public Act 102-005, which mandates that a unit of instruction in media literacy be taught in public high schools in the state beginning in the 2022-23 school year. The law defines media literacy as the “ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create and communicate using a variety of objective forms, including, but not limited to print, visual, audio, interactive and digital text.” As several people have pointed out, the law comes with little guidance.
At the same time, with all of the bizarre sources of “news” on the Internet, producing generations of future news consumers who embrace and understand news literacy is extremely important to the professional news organizations, from Chicago to the Mississipi River, that make up our membership.
To figure out how we can work with our potential educational partners, our board members have reached out to journalism advisers at schools across the state. A few schools are well on their way to meeting the state’s goal, while others have barely started or don’t even plan to. Some schools are incorporating news literacy in English classes, others in journalism classes and still others in American government classes. Many are still in the process of developing the curriculum.
We’ve found that many advisers are eager for any help they can get. There is a lot of work to do. To help lead the way, we have and will add high school advisers as ad hoc members of the NINA board.
As we figure out how to teach students the most effective way to read and process news, we also need to understand that the rules are always changing. As one adviser said when asked how his students get the news: “It’s all Tik Tok and social media. Twitter is for old people. Facebook is for really old people. They flick through their feed – they’re not looking at news sites.”
Perhaps that will change as they become “old people” but it’s likely something new will change the playing field again. We need to make sure the next generation is prepared to weigh the news value. Their future, as well as the future of legitimate news sites, depends on it.
As I noted earlier, news literacy is not a new topic. With the new state law, and as ”news” sources degenerate, it has taken on heightened importance. Two advisers noted there is a “weird club” of high school advisers who plan all the major events, which makes it hard to break into this group or make meaningful progress. Another adviser admitted she had never been a part of any organization for journalism teachers and welcomed NINA’s efforts. In either case, it can’t hurt to get a little help and support from a group like NINA that understands news literacy deeply from a professional perspective.
As a second step, NINA invited a wide range of advisers to attend its annual Fall Conference and Award Ceremony on campus at Northern Illinois University as a way to introduce us to each other. Many advisers just could not attend, so we went one step further and made the annual meeting a free-of-charge digital Zoom conference, hoping that more will join in. Certainly, it’s a good next step as we continue to reach out to advisers for their input.
Not all kids can become educated news hounds, but they can all be taught to spot and understand bias and how knowing and understanding the truth from different angles can help them and their generation. It’s a huge target with a lot of different opinions and work to be done. But I’m proud that NINA has chosen to help. I believe advisers, students and our member news organizations will benefit.
In my almost four decades on the board, nothing we have done is more important.
How To Attend
The Northern Illinois News Association is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom presentation of its 2023 Conference And Awards Ceremony. The event’s purpose is to celebrate quality journalism in northern Illinois and to discuss the future of news literacy and how journalists, educators and civic leaders can work together to promote it.
Topic: 2023 NINA AWARDS PROGRAM
Time: Oct 26, 2023 6 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81285714713?pwd=PbRT1WOwS35yziXQOAbBxqp5DVCXLl.1
Meeting ID: 812 8571 4713
Passcode: 631591
Roger Ruthhart
Roger Ruthhart is the retired editor of The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus daily newspapers in the Quad-Cities and has won many regional, state and national awards.
His career started in Lake County with Lakeland Newspapers, where he was managing editor of 15 papers and twice won the IPA award as the Best Weekly in Illinois.
His paper in the Quad-Cities twice won second place in the IPA General Excellence category among large dailies behind the Chicago Tribune and won the General Excellence award for daily papers from NINA for seven straight years.
He has served on the NINA board since 1986 including several terms as president. He was on the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors board almost as long and was honored as a member of the Lincoln League of Journalists. He also chaired a training committee for the Illinois Press Assn. and was a founding member of the Downtown Rock Island Arts & Entertainment District.
He is the author of the book “Citadel of Sin: The John Looney Story” about the infamous 1920s gangster. He is a native of Barrington, IL, has a journalism degree from Bradley University and lives in Rock Island.
For the board members who didn’t work with him before he retired, the better-known family member might be his son, Bill, former political reporter for the Chicago Tribune, now at the New York Times.
Northern Illinois News Association 