[MUSIC] Every hour of every day, we are bombarded by vast amounts of information. Some has made the world a better place. Think of all of the advances in health, education and social engagement made possible by the Internet and, more recently, by social media. But much of that information can mislead us. And misleading information can cause great harm. For example, over the past decade misinformation about vaccines has lead to the re-emergence of childhood diseases that had almost been irradiated, like mumps and measles. Today Islamic extremeness use propaganda on social media to lure thousands of young people to Syria to join ISIS. The digital era confronts us with four critical challenges. The first, the amount of information that floods over us each day, which makes it difficult to sort out the reliable from the fabricated. The second, new communication technologies make it possible to create, then virally spread, content that appears authoritative, but is not. The third, the conflict between speed and accuracy. Accuracy is losing. The fourth challenge, the Internet and social media feed our preference for information that supports our beliefs. The latest technologies like smartphones have transformed our society profoundly. They have made it possible for everyone with access to the Internet to publish information. They have empowered individuals around the globe to share information with others. They have added immensely to human knowledge. But, as Uncle Ben told Peter Parker in Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility. A healthy civil society can exist only if the public is well informed with accurate information. If people can be easily mislead, the consequences can be dangerous. As communication technologies advance, we need to develop a new kind of literacy, and critical thinking skills that address the four challenges, and beyond. We call such critical thinking skills and techniques, news literacy. News literacy matters because we should know how to recognize the difference between journalism and other kinds of information and between journalists and others who disseminate information. We should be able to quickly identify the difference between news and opinion. Individuals with good news literacy skills can analyze the difference between assertion and verification, and between evidence and inference. The news evaluation techniques we developed help you deconstruct news reports based on the quality of evidence, and the reliability of sources. News literacy skills make it easy for you to distinguish fact and fiction, and between news media bias and your own bias. We believe learning how to apply these principles across all news media platforms in your everyday life enriches our society, and holds journalists accountable to the public they serve and inform. [MUSIC]