I ask the room, "Who wants to chime in on what media literacy means to them?" The room full of high school students smile sheepishly, looking around at their peers. Then from the back corner, a soft voice emerges.
It's Bianca Alicea, a junior in a class rather filled with seniors. I ask her to come up and repeat her answer in front of the camera. It's the answer we all hope to hear from the next generation- as worries of false information on social media is a key factor in today's journalism classes.
“I want at least our news to be truthful and honest so our audience can rely on us as a verified source. They know that they won't be decepted or influenced into a certain way of thinking,” said Alicea.
“Nothing worse than putting out something that is wrong. You don't want to say an event’s on a particular date and have the wrong date or wrong times and those kinds of things,” said Patrick Vaughan, the Video Production teacher at Liberty High School.
Vaughan is one of the guiding voices Bakersfield students get in their broadcast classes.
However, the weekly newscasts are put together by students- for students.
With a team of reporters, as well as anchors, writers, producers, and weather forecasters.
When dealing with news literacy at a high school level, these students explain where they get their headlines.
“I think a big platform is definitely Instagram and TikTok, for a lot of us I think we get so much news off of those,” said Giselle Flores, a senior at Ridgeview High School.
According to Rumor Guard with the News Literacy Project, there are five questions to ask when reading a story:
- Is it authentic?
- Is it posted by a credible source?
- Is there evidence that supports it?
- Is the context accurate?
- Is it based on solid reasoning?
So when it comes to actually trusting news they see on social media, these highschoolers say:
“I think if I wanted to get decent information, I would actually watch the news,” said Flores.
“I think it's extremely important to have the correct information, especially since today it's so easy to get false information,” said Ethan St. Claire, a sophomore at Liberty High School.
“I think if it's like a really big topic that I see on TikTok, I would probably research more on it,” said Angel Garcia, a senior at Ridgeview High School.
While these high school level broadcasts usually focus on school clubs and events, the fact checking and sourcing taught creates the foundation for journalism careers after graduation.
Bianca Alicea, a junior at Ridgeview High School, describes what media literacy means to her, and how it translates through their broadcasts.
“I want at least our news to be truthful and honest so our audience can rely on us as a verified source. They know that they won't be decepted or influenced into a certain way of thinking,” said Alicea.
To view Ridgeview High School's broadcasts, click here.
To view Liberty High School's broadcasts, click here.
To check out Scripps' social media toolkit, click here.
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