DML: Kony 2012, FEMA Camps & Wikipedia: Who Can a Concerned Kid Trust?

What does the intersection of digital literacy, current affairs, hands-on media making and civic engagement look like? The emerging area of news literacy offers a clue: Kids discuss the issues that matter to them, monitor their own media habits, experience a self-imposed media ‘blackout’, carry out hands-on journalistic projects, and explore what news and information sources are trustworthy and why. This area is being taught as a stand-alone workshop but also increasingly infused into after-school programs and history, English, social studies, and science curricula. Chicago has become a laboratory for community-based approaches for energizing schools and after-school programs to become engaged in this area, with the goal of feeding teen civic engagement.

Panelists are leading youth media, news literacy and after-school educators from the Chicago area.