The News Literacy Project

Our vision: News literacy is an integral part of American life, and people of all ages and backgrounds know how to identify credible news and other information and understand the indispensable role a free press has in a democracy, empowering them to play a more equal and active role in the civic life of the country.

Education Engagement: NLP will support and influence the emerging media literacy movement by promoting news literacy – teaching students how to think about news and information, not what to think – and by partnering with educators, administrators and policymakers to fuel a national movement in education that achieves necessary systemic change and prepares students of all backgrounds for active civic life.

Civic Engagement: NLP will raise the awareness and practice of news literacy all across the country – creating the social change in public thinking much like previous campaigns targeting littering, smoking and drunk driving – and empowering people to actively and collectively push back against the spread of disinformation.

Sustainability: NLP will demonstrate its programmatic effectiveness through a robust learning agenda and be financially supported at levels that enable the organization to continue to invest in talent and the innovative resource development needed to sustain the movement. To bolster this sustainability, NLP will also call on leaders in social media, news media, academia and corporate and philanthropic circles to play an active role in strengthening the national effort to combat disinformation.

NLP has been at the forefront of news literacy education since founder Alan Miller left the Los Angeles Times, where he was a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, to start NLP in 2008. Our staff members have backgrounds in fields such as education, journalism, communications and law, bringing diverse skills and perspectives together in a dedicated effort to provide engaging news literacy education on a widespread scale.

Since 2016, more than 345,000 students have used NLP’s Checkology® virtual classroom, and the organization has engaged over 50,000 educators in all 50 states and more than 120 other countries. All told, educators using NLP resources and programs in the last year reached an estimated 2 million students.

NLP is poised to take on a more significant national presence as more school districts begin requiring news literacy education and as it continues to expand its work to reach adults. This strategic direction will enable NLP and its staff to focus on teaching people of all ages the news literacy skills they need to fully engage in the civic life of our country in meaningful and informed ways.