Enhancing College Students' Critical Thinking Through Classroom News Literacy Intervention

Abstract

In our interconnected world, people are witnessing a dramatic increase in access to information and communication. Nevertheless, discerning trustworthy sources, validating information, distinguishing between fact and opinion, determining what content to share, and navigating other related challenges have become increasingly complex. Therefore, people should acquire the knowledge, skill, belief, and behavior to consume and create news informedly and ethically. As young individuals transition into adulthood, they begin to take charge of their life decisions. At this juncture, they must acquire news literacy skills. Thus, the au-thors developed an intervention to enhance news literacy among this age group in a College of Science and Technology employing the student's media competence (SuMeC) framework. Following a three-month training period, the participants' literacy proficiency was assessed through assignments using the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy. The study adds new dimensions to the existing research pool by focusing on how and to what extent college students apply the competencies in everyday life. The findings demonstrate that the intervention effectively integrates news literacy skills among them and the intervention sets an example of how to generate news literacy skills among students in Indian settings.