News v. public relations

Our second Tools of Truth lesson addresses fake news by helping communities differentiate between public relations and journalistic news. The entire package will be available Wed., Aug. 30.

The Tools Truth package consists of more than 20 lessons on how to deal  with fake news in four categories: censorship, satire, sloppy reporting and deceptive news.

This lesson on “News v. public relations” was developed by Kristin Taylor of The Archer School in Los Angeles and a SPRC committee member.

Taylor described the lesson as, “The community gets information about what is happening at school through different publications, but not all of these publications are journalistic. In this lesson, students will differentiate between student reporting and school public relations by comparing and contrasting student publications with school public relations content such as newsletters, school-created magazines or school websites created and maintained by adults in the community.”