📰 News or Rumour? Media Literacy

Hello! Every day we see lots of things on phones, on television and in newspapers: news, adverts and rumours. Are they all true? Today we will learn to tell them apart.

One child says, “There are two cats at school.” A friend hears, “There are five cats.” The third child tells everyone, “There are twenty cats!” As a rumour is passed on, it grows and changes.

When you meet a news story, ask five questions: Who is saying it? What happened? When did it happen? What is the source? Is there proof? If we can find the answers, we can trust the story more.

There are two messages. The school office wrote one, and its name and date are clear. We don’t know who wrote the other, and it has no date. We trust information with a clear source more. If the source is not clear, we check it first.

Some headlines are very exciting: “Shock! Chaos in class!” But when we read the text, we find out that the pupils just painted a classroom wall together. A headline wants to catch your eye. The text tells you what really happened. So always read the text too.

An advert wants to sell something: “Super trainers! Today only!” News wants to tell us what happened: “Our school has a new library.” Adverts are not bad. But we need to know what they want.

What gets left out when we crop a photo? In this hall most of the chairs are empty. But with the yellow frame, the hall looks full! A cropped photo tells us a different story. We need to look at the whole photo too.

Sam is sitting alone at break time. Ada thinks, “Sam doesn’t want to play.” But that is only a guess. Deciding about someone before you know them is called prejudice. Ada goes over and says hello. Sam was just a bit shy! Putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes is called empathy. When we talk, we understand each other better.

Before you press Share, stop and think. Have I found the source? Is there proof? Does it upset anyone? If the source and the proof are fine and nobody gets upset, sharing is safer. If we are not sure, we ask a grown-up.

Summary: when you read a news story, ask five questions: who, what, when, source, proof. Read past the headline to the text. Look at the whole photo. Get to know people and show empathy. Think before you share. Now try it in Birlikte Yaşam!