NIE Week 2015 and API’s growing work on reaching a new generation of news consumers

As we approach News in Education Week (the first week of March, this year March 2 – 6), we wanted to share an update about the American Press Institute’s increasing work in matters related to helping young people be better news consumers and helping publishers better reach the next generation.

API hosts and has built upon the former Newspaper Association of America Foundation’s resources that news organizations, educators, advisors, parents and students can use to better understand how news and media works. One core feature is our curriculum resource Introduction to News Literacy. This curriculum is a condensed and modernized version of the High Five 2012 curriculum, offering three units of media literacy activities and lessons for teachers. We’ve added to this resource pool over the past year with short posts on individual tactics such as six questions that tell you what media to trust.

As 2015 rolls onward, here’s where we’re headed when it comes to assisting those in this youth and media space: insights, research and tools.

API publishes regular insights for the news industry through our Need to Know newsletter and regular updates on trends and best practices, including through our Good Questions Q&A series. Last year during NIE Week we published a series of Good Questions interviews pertaining to original ideas and successful projects around youth involvement in news. My personal favorite was our interview with teen researcher danah boyd, who spoke on how news organizations might plan for tomorrow’s 20-somethings. We’re planning to do youth and media-themed interviews once again this year.

We also conceive and produce original research at API, ranging from Strategy Studies to survey work on how news audiences are changing through our Media Insight Project with AP-NORC. We intend to do some work in this space as it relates to helping youth be better news consumers, as well as identifying the news habits of younger generations.

In terms of tools, API has a content strategy program to help news organizations build an empirical, data-informed news strategy through custom-built content analysis software and other processes. We’re also working on technology to help reach the younger generations and teach them how to be thoughtful news consumers. We plan to share more about this soon, likely during NIE Week.

We will continue this approach focused on insights, research and tools going forward in news literacy, mirroring the approach to everything else we do here at API. If you have ideas that fall under those categories, we’d be happy to hear them. If you’re interested in program updates related to youth and media and reaching the next generation of news consumers, we’d like to keep you abreast of what we’re up to. Please sign up below for updates.

And if you have any questions, please email me at kevin.loker@pressinstitute.org.