As one of the consortium partners, Sound and Vision believes that news literacy is key to participating in today’s society. Read more about our mission!
The rise of new technologies, social media platforms, and citizen journalism has disrupted the traditional relationship between journalism and news users. Today, citizens are increasingly seeking and sharing information themselves to form opinions on social issues. This has led to a deluge of information in the form of conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and disinformation, making it difficult to distinguish reliable news sources from unreliable ones. This has challenged the legitimacy of journalism, and people are finding it harder to trust established news outlets.
News literacy is key to participating in today’s society. Without access to reliable news services, we cannot form fact-based opinions, participate in social debates, or influence democratic decision-making. The lack of news literacy is an underlying problem that needs to be addressed urgently. While training on disinformation remains important, we need to focus on creating a generation of critical news consumers.
The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision is an institution that actively promotes media and more specifically news literacy and encourages active citizenship and participation within the media landscape. Through various workshops, training courses, and products for students, adults, and teachers, the institute encourages reflection on media consumption and production. Its approach is based on the principle of ‘ME-THEY-WE,’ where people reflect on and become aware of what they watch, like, share, and produce themselves (ME), how media and news are made (THEY), and how this information affects society and public opinion (WE).
As part of its commitment and search for tools in order to promote news literacy, the Institute is a consortium partner of NewsArcade, a European project that merges journalism with gamification. The project aims to create critical news consumers by engaging them in a playful search for news literacy. The project is aimed at young people who are interested in news and want to learn more about how it is produced. The game’s wireframe is currently under development. Sound and Vision is providing advice to achieve learning objectives, promote news literacy, and keep an eye on the educational applicability of the tool for teachers.