Published , by Charles Singletary Jr
Published , by Charles Singletary Jr
Misinformation is extremely dangerous, especially to generations that have more access than ever before, and Apple has announced a new initiative aimed at a better-informed youth. The News Literacy Project, Common Sense, and Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori are the non-profit organizations Apple will be supporting to advance these efforts.
“News literacy is vital to sustaining a free press and thriving democracy, and we are proud to be collaborating with organizations on the front lines of this effort,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in the official release. “We’ve been impressed by the important work being done by the News Literacy Project, Common Sense and Osservatorio, empowering young people to be active and engaged citizens.”
The News Literacy Project is a nonpartisan national education non-profit working to empower educators to teach middle school and high school students the skills they need to be active consumers of news and grow into informed participants in US democracy. Common Sense educates through the support of K-12 schools, supplying educators with the things they need to empower the next generation of digital citizens. Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori is Italy's leading organization in citizenship education focused on media literacy projects.
“The lack of young people’s news literacy skills is a growing problem for our country. Revelations about the manipulation of news and the resulting impact on society have shed light on both the importance and scale of the issue,” said James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense. “We need to help our students not just seek out legitimate news, but also think critically about the broader world of media and ideas. Apple shares in our mission to raise a generation of children who will thrive as learners, leaders and, citizens in the digital age and Common Sense is delighted to be part of this important effort.”
“Our mission is to help young people develop critical thinking skills by comparing different sources of quality information,” said Andrea Ceccherini, founder and CEO of Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori. “At a time when fake news is spreading, we cannot give in to the idea that third-party fact-checking services are the only way to assess the reliability of news sources. We can exercise our own minds, and be masters of our own destiny. Our ambition is to help form more citizens, increasingly opening our society to a culture of civilized debate and confrontation, which is the basis of every healthy democracy.”
Tackling news literacy is a strong initiative from Apple, a company that has incredible reach and impacts the households of many with its many services and creations. With the rapid-fire nature of 24-hour news cycles and access to overwhelming amounts of information, the young and old could use help making sense of it all.