Illinois enacted the nation’s first public school media literacy law just shy of two years ago. Since then the press has mostly ignored it, teachers have struggled to figure out what it requires, educators have received little training and no one is checking to see if students are learning to be more media literate. I’m
Teachers came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, then they heard about the Illinois’ media literacy requirement. Raquel Bliffen, an English teacher at Mt. Vernon Township High School, said her reaction to the new requirement may have been tainted by her whole mindset since COVID-19, which is “kind of like one more thing.” “I kind of
A windy 27 degrees covered Bedford Park, IL as airplanes from nearby Chicago Midway Airport flew above John Hancock College Prep High School. The bell rang to start the day. In the year following a new Illinois law that requires instruction of media literacy at the public high school level, the state’s educators have been
Business journalism, if done well, is community journalism. The beats converge in stories about burgeoning small businesses, from a new grocery store that serves an underserved Hispanic community, to the giddy launch of a trading-card store. Business journalism seeks to answer the “why” behind the persistence of sexual harassment at restaurants. And it explores quirky
Photojournalist Tiffany Blanchette was standing with a family after their house had burned down just east of Kankakee, Il when the family’s lost cat appeared. Blanchette captured the touching scene with her camera. For Blanchette, 33, this was a particularly rewarding moment in her early career as a photojournalist. Another such moment was when a
