About NewsWise
NewsWise, run by The Guardian Foundation, is an award-winning news-literacy programme aimed at children aged 7 to 11.
Families play a vital role in supporting children’s understanding of news, but a survey of parents in 2019 found that more than 1 in 2 (55.1%) wanted more support to help their children understand the news (Picton, 2019).
The NewsWise family workshops were designed to support children aged 10 to 11 in Birmingham and the West Midlands to develop their ability to critically analyse online media and news and develop resilience to mis- and disinformation. The project trained local facilitators working in community settings to run engaging family workshops using high-quality resources to support media literacy activities, including:
- questioning sources
- distinguishing between fact and opinion
- learning how online images can be manipulated and how information can be targeted, and
- managing wellbeing in relation to news and online information.
Running between January 2023 and March 2024, the project trained 25 community facilitators, including librarians, community-centre workers and youth leaders and reached 116 parents and 321 children in 19 community settings.
About the evaluation
The National Literacy Trust conducted an external evaluation of the NewsWise family workshops project. The evaluation report focuses on survey data from eight facilitators, 68 parents/ carers and 149 children.
Key findings included:
Children reported improved media and news literacy knowledge and confidence:
- Most (93.5%) children agreed they knew more ways to check if media and news online was trustworthy after taking part
- Almost 9 in 10 (87.4%) said they felt more confident to question stories and information they found online
- The percentage of children who felt confident about spotting fake news increased from 40.9% before to 94.4% after the workshop.
Parents reported increased knowledge and confidence to support their children’s media and news literacy
- Almost all (96.6%) agreed they knew more ways to check the trustworthiness of media and news online
- The percentage who felt confident discussing news and information with their child increased from 57.9% before to 95.2% after the workshop
- 9 in 10 (88.5%) parents felt they had learned strategies for supporting their children’s wellbeing around media and news.
Facilitators rated the training as excellent.
Training was highly rated by facilitators, with all rating it ‘excellent’ and reporting that their knowledge and skills to engage families with media and news literacy had increased.