Stony Brook Boasts First Center for News Literacy In The Country

By Michael Kelly

On Sept. 26, Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism announced its intentions to create the country’s first Center for News Literacy. The main goal of the initiative is to turn the public into “discriminating news consumers,” said Howard Schneider, Dean of the School of Journalism and executive director of the center. “That’s the heart of the center.”

The center was made possible with a $200,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, which will cover the expenses of the project for the first year. After the first year, the center hopes to get more money through various grants it will apply for, as well as other sources that have an interest in promoting news literacy.

The Ford Foundation is a nonprofit organization, which looks to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. Their grant comes on the heels of a four-year grant given by the Knight Foundation, worth $1.7 million. The Knight Foundation grant was used to create one of the U.S.’s first courses in news literacy.

The news literacy course was designed to help students critically analyze the news media, and decide for themselves what news sources are accurate and reliable, according to the School of Journalism’s website.

“In the end, the only way to sustain quality journalism is to create an audience for quality journalism,” Schneider said.

The Center for News Literacy will act as a clearinghouse for journalism programs, finding out from different journalism programs throughout the country what practices and courses are working best for them, and bringing them all together. The center wants to become the “central place in the country” for information on journalism programs and methods that have been proven to work. They then would give the information out to schools with journalism programs already, and also to new journalism programs to help them get started.

“If you’re a new program, you don’t want to start from scratch,” Schneider said.

Jim Klurfeld, the editor of the editorial pages at Newsday, was named the Interim Director of the Center of News Literacy. He recently joined the School of Journalism as a visiting professor, and in a press release was praised by Stony Brook University President Shirley Strum Kenny for having a journalism career that had exhibited a “commitment to truth and accuracy.”

"Jim is going to be the person to run the center day in and day out,” Schneider said. Schneider went on to describe Klurfeld as an “outstanding journalist,” and said that he has “a very strong interest in news literacy.”

The most immediate projects of the center will be to create a website, a news literacy curriculum for the high school level, and to organize a large conference, which would bring together journalists and scholars from across the country to discuss their views on news literacy. The conference is hoped to take place next fall.