Media literacy matters in every language and every academic subject, says a former award-winning television reporter who now teaches bilingual students in Chicago.
Alba Mendiola left journalism for education five years ago. She teaches at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, where her bilingual students largely come from lower-income immigrant families.
After 16 years as a local Telemundo correspondent, Mendiola had a strong connection to her students鈥� communities. Now, she uses her old stories about immigration rallies and community events to teach her students how to process information in the news and on social media critically.
鈥淚 ask my students, 鈥楧o you want to be informed, or do you want to be influenced?鈥� 鈥� Mendiola said.
In her broadcast journalism classes, Mendiola teaches students reporting techniques in the hope that understanding the process will help them be more thoughtful consumers of information. She was recently honored by the News Literacy Project, an organization that promotes media literacy, as the educator of the year.
Mendiola spoke with Education Week about the importance of media literacy for today鈥檚 students.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Why do you think it鈥檚 important for students to understand media literacy?
If you teach elementary school, do you give a 4th grader a calculator to do math homework? You don鈥檛, because you need them to learn how math works.
I think many people say or think, 鈥榃hy teach media literacy?鈥� or 鈥榃hy do you teach journalism to students?鈥� And I will say, 鈥榃hy do you teach math to somebody who鈥檚 not not going to be a mathematician?鈥� or 鈥榃hy do you teach science to somebody who鈥檚 not going to be a scientist?鈥�
What鈥檚 important are the critical thinking skills they get from learning these subjects. 69传媒 just barely remember what landline telephones are. They don鈥檛 watch over-the-air television. They just get the information from their news feeds from their social media. Algorithms decide what they will read.
That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important for them to understand the information they receive. They need to identify what is misinformation; they need to recognize that we are all humans and we will have biases. They need to understand how reporters make ethical decisions as they report the story.
Once they understand that, then they can compare and go back to their TikTok and say, 鈥極h, is this a commercial, or is this somebody giving me advice?鈥� Or, 鈥楢re these facts or not?鈥�
You鈥檙e teaching them how to produce news stories, not merely consume news. Do you think that that helps them understand what makes a story accurate?
Absolutely. I think the learning is in the experience and doing things. I start my class by teaching them about news and bias how the stories are created. But then the last unit is, 鈥測ou鈥檙e going to create a podcast and you鈥檙e going to write a news article.鈥� And they also work on video projects.
I also bring hard copies of newspapers in and have them pick out what is a story, what is an advertisement, what is an opinion piece. You鈥檇 be surprised. Sometimes they don鈥檛 know.
You have a background in journalism. Does that change the way you approach the work? Does it give you more credibility with students?
It makes it more fun for them. I teach some of the lessons with my old stories [from a Spanish-language television station in Chicago], and they love to see them and say, 鈥淚 remember when that happened!鈥� I think that makes it more real for them.
Most of my students speak Spanish at home. I used to cover their communities, the Mexican and Latino communities in Chicago. So when I talk about certain topics they鈥檙e familiar with, they value that insight from me.
You鈥檝e said that teaching dual-language students about news literacy can help their larger communities.
Exactly. Most of my students were born in the United States, but their families are from Mexico and their family members might struggle with English. When they go to the doctor, [the students] are the ones who interpret for them.
[Families] also want to know what is happening in their little communities back in Mexico, and the only way to get that information now is through social media. I always say that nowadays, anybody with a cellphone thinks they can be a reporter. You can broadcast live from wherever you are, and just say whatever you want.
The has a lot of lessons鈥攊n English and Spanish鈥攖o teach the students critical thinking skills, how to navigate media, and how to verify information. In one lesson, they fact check articles about immigration, and they see how reporters can make assumptions when they don鈥檛 understand [the students鈥橾 communities.
Do you have any advice for other educators about why they should prioritize media literacy?
We think of media literacy as a separate class or something that should be included in journalism classes. But, from my point of view, media literacy can be woven into any class. You can have a math class, and the students can learn how the ratings are measured for television. In science, you can learn about how the weather is presented for local news.
My favorite is language classes. You can you can bring a lot of news stories in Spanish or French or German to help students learn about current events. You build vocabulary, but also understanding about how news is presented.
So there鈥檚 room in every class, I can assure you. In every level too: for little kids, for middle schoolers, for high school kids.
I鈥檓 very honored to receive this recognition. It鈥檚 important to share that media literacy is needed in every language. There鈥檚 a need for media literacy in every community in the United States.
