Media literacy project concludes
A special project I’ve been spearheading this fall has introduced media literacy to Kansas City area students from Center Middle and Center High School students from Kansas City, and college students from Johnson County Community College (Overland Park, KS) and Park University (Parkville, MO).

The project culminated yesterday with a Media Literacy Summit on Zoom wherein students presented their research on media literacy and its importance. The presentations were excellent, and indicated an abundance of critical thinking that will be necessary if the students are to become sophisticated media consumers. 

As part of the project, the students submitted articles that were compiled into a magazine, The Misreport-A Study of Media Literacy
(https://issuu.com/peacejournalism/docs/the_misreport_digital-web) and a podcast (https://soundcloud.com/user-961623623/media-literary-podcast). Both of these products were excellent.

The project, titled, “Media Literacy for Students: Lessons from Covid-19,” included a media literacy workshop in September (Details--http://stevenyoungblood.blogspot.com/2020/09/media-literacy-seminar-launches-into.html). The project was sponsored by a Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund Rapid Response Fund/U.S. Department of State grant, given to me as an alumnus of the Fulbright program.

Dr. Jill Biden
The recent Wall Street Journal op-ed questioning Jill Biden’s use of the Dr. in front of her name has created a great deal of heat, most of it coming down on the Journal. 

Rather than pile on (which would be easy), I would simply ask these peace-journalism themed questions about the op-ed:

What was the purpose of the op-ed? Was it to shame or embarrass?
Does it deepen partisan divides?
Does it offer solutions? (Though I’m not sure what the problem is).
Would this column have been written about a man?
Does this discussion divert attention from more important issues?

On the last question, my colleague Laurie Gunderson replied on Twitter that the op-ed does not divert attention from important issues since “belittling accomplishments of women is worthy of focused discussion.” I agree.