This spring, historian Amy Lutz invited this curious media literacy educator to visit the unfinished work space being meticulously prepared for a highly-anticipated re-opening of St. Louis’s Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum in November. Wearing a hard hat, glasses and closed-toed shoes for safety did nothing to diminish first impressions of the permanent exhibit space. Those…
An effort to discipline Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., for his statements about the 2020 presidential election has received a final rejection from state legal authorities, leaving the man who led the effort feeling “ripped off.” In two recent letters to Alan B. Hoffman, the retired St. Louis lawyer who led the group seeking punishment, the…
Democracy is under threat, and that’s where news reporting must be focused at the moment, said Margaret Sullivan, former media columnist for The Washington Post and public editor at The New York Times. “People recognize that there are election deniers out there. Of course, a bunch of them just got elected,” Sullivan said. “But this…
When the Biden administration first announced it would cancel $10,000 in federal student loans for many borrowers–a move now on hold after a federal judge last week declared it unconstitutional-Erin Woodiel, a photojournalist for the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, told readers what it would mean for her. In an article headlined “‘The weight is lifted’:…
The success of election-deniers in the Midterm Elections shows just how much work confronts us in our efforts to increase media literacy in the US. As happened in primary contests in August, candidates who promoted the Republican Party’s so-called “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen did well again, although the anticipated red wave did…