The following is a press release from the Mid-America Press Institute.
MPI Presents: News Literacy, Fake News and the First Amendment
Join the Mid-America Press Institute Sept. 20 for a one-day seminar on increasing news literacy to better report stories for your audiences.
The one-day seminar — “News Literacy, Fake News and the First Amendment” — will cover how to recognize and verify news, the role of the First Amendment and how to combat fake news.
The seminar will be at Briar Ridge Country Club 123 Country Club Drive Schererville, IN 46375.
Stephanie Craft and Ben Holden, both of the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Peter Adams of the News Literacy Project in Chicago will lead the day’s sessions.
Cost is $30 for MPI members, $35 for non-members and $20 for students. Lunch is included. Register online at http://bit.ly/newslit-MPI.
For more information, please contact MPI co-director Pam Dempsey at pamelagdempsey@gmail.com.
Peter Adams is the News Literacy Project’s senior vice president for educational programs and is based in Chicago. Peter began his career in education as a classroom teacher in the New York City schools through Teach For America. He has also taught in the Chicago public schools and at Roosevelt University and Chicago City Colleges’ Wilbur Wright campus. In addition, he has worked with the New York City Teaching Fellows Program, with After School Matters and as an independent education consultant.
Stephanie Craft is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Illinois. Her research addresses news literacy, press practices and journalism ethics. With funding from the McCormick Foundation, Craft and two colleagues developed a measure of news literacy and conducted research demonstrating a relationship between news literacy and political participation and conspiracy theory endorsement. Her work has appeared in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Mass Media Ethics, Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, International Journal of Public Opinion Research and Journalism Educator. With Charles Davis, she is author of the journalism textbook Principles of American Journalism, published by Routledge. Before earning a PhD at Stanford University, Craft worked as a newspaper journalist.
Ben Holden teaches media law and news reporting in the Department of Journalism at the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign College of Media and is a visiting faculty member at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. He was formerly an associate professor and director of the Reynolds National Center for Courts & Media at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). The Center is an affiliate of the National Judicial College on the UNR campus. Mr. Holden’s media consulting work includes assignments in the former Yugoslavia (Kosovo) on behalf of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the U.S. State Department to aid judges, journalists, and public information officers in developing professional press coverage of the courts. Previously, he practiced law at the Bay Area media law firm Cooper, White & Cooper and was Editor-in-Chief of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Ga., a McClatchy newspaper. He spent his daily news reporting career at The Wall Street Journal, where he was eventually the Journals national utilities correspondent.
For nearly 50 years, Mid-America Press Institute has trained hundreds of journalists and students in the Midwest through affordable seminars that connect experts, veteran reporters and industry leaders with its members to increase their skill set and networking opportunities. Visit online at www.midamericapress.org or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @MidAmericaPress