Library and Information Science Commons^™

Teaching News Literacy During A Pandemic: Adapting To The Virtual Learning Environment, R. Alan Berry, Jennifer L. Bonnet, Judith E. Rosenbaum

Library Staff Publications

In the fall of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered universities and sent much of higher education online, a team of media and information literacy experts at the University of Maine sought meaningful ways to collaboratively teach news literacy from a distance.

The result of their efforts was a weeklong virtual program, Friend, Enemy, or Frenemy? A News Literacy Challenge, open to anyone with an internet connection and an email address. This approach to remote learning scaffolded multiple literacies (critical media, news, and information) into five days, as participants examined different aspects of news production and consumption. The overall objective …