Written by Bella Mongillo and John Inglis |

Eleven years ago, Alan Miller started a nonprofit organization called The News Literacy Project. The News Literacy Project created a virtual classroom called Checkology, a platform that teaches students about the importance of news literacy. On Tuesday, March 19th, Director of Communications for the News Literacy Project, Carol McCarthy, came to The Morgan School to observe how Morgan’s Spring Journalism class uses the program.

Carol McCarthy has years of journalism experience. She previously worked as an editor of the New London Day and also worked in the communications department at the University of Rhode Island. She thinks that it is important for teens to be taught about news literacy because “everyone gets their news from social media.” She also claims that social media is full of false reports that can easily fool anyone, which is why we should be taught to be able to tell “fake news” from real news.

Morgan’s journalism class uses Checkology periodically during the semester by completing lessons, either individually or as a class, such as “Practicing Quality Journalism” and “Arguments and Evidence.” According to the Checkology website, Checkology helps equip students “with the tools to evaluate and interpret the news and learn how to determine what news and other information to trust, share and act on.”

For those who are interested in going into the journalism field, Mrs. McCarthy would like students to “keep a curious mind,” and to know that it is a good career due to the difference they could possibly make in their society; they most likely won’t have the same topic to report twice, which keeps it interesting.

Carol McCarthy has also written an article about Morgan’s Journalism Class on the News Literacy Project website.