Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026

The annual Reuters Institute Digital News Report report, which has international comparisons and short overviews of individual countries, identifies that "Social media and video networks are now the most widely used sources of news globally, ahead of both TV news" "Around a quarter (27%) of respondents globally get some news from news-focused individual creators or influencers, and almost half (46%) get some news from creators of any type." Online news video is the majority mode of consumption. 
Reuters notes a paradox, in that use of platforms and influencers is growing, but there is also distrust and awareness of the possibility of misinformation. "Trust in news has fallen in 29 of our 48 markets this year" - the lowest sinnce they started this publication. 
Use of AI has also grown "The use of AI chatbots for news is growing quickly but not as quickly as AI use for other purposes: 10% of people use AI chatbots for news, up from 7% last year. Usage is predominantly by those most interested in news and is more concentrated among younger audiences (16% of under-35s report using AI chatbots for news)." Interestingly, they identify that interest in "news" generally has fallen in many countries. 
There is lots of good detail in the report. The researchers adminstered surveys online internationally, and the methodology section lays out the limitations. 
Egan, J. et al. (2026). Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2026
Photo by Sheila Webber: wild urban poppies, June 2026

New articles: News literacy; Media literacy; Fact checking; Disinformation

The latest issue of the open-access Journal of Media Literacy Education (volume 18 no.1) comprises:
- Building resilience: The influence of the format on the effectiveness of news literacy messages by Patrick F. A. van Erkel, Peter Van Aelst, David N. Hopmann, Claes H. de Vreese, and Joren Van Nieuwenborgh
- Promoting News Literacy with epistemological beliefs, IFLA checklist and AI: Insights from a teacher training program in Italy by Flavio Manganello
- Don’t tell me how to fact-check; show me, and let me try! A media literacy intervention with sixth-graders by Thomas Nygren and Carl-Anton Werner Axelsson
- Productive Disruptions: An equity oriented framework for civic media literacy in the digital era by Carlos Jimenez, Lynn Schofield Clark, and Johnny Ramirez
- The Creative Participation pedagogical approach to media literacy education by Amanda Levido
- Teacher reflections on media and information literacy in Vietnamese K-12 schools: Current practices, challenges, and pathways for improvement by Tinh T.T Le, Minh Tran, Anh Dương, Huong T. Pham, Vy Tran, and Daniel Jackson
- From Y to Z: A cross-generational examination of new media literacy and online information searching strategy by Taibe Kulaksız, Ali Geriş, and Sena Özşirin
- From consumers to creators: Social media information literacy of university students by Thuy Thanh Bui, Quyen Trang Mai Nguyen, Tu Thi Thanh Nguyen, and Minh Cao Luu
- Leveraging critical social media literacy to safeguard youth against violent radicalization and extremism by Muhammad Akram, Adeela Arshad-Ayaz, and Muhammad Ayaz Naseem
- Didactic aspects of education of primary teachers with a focus on strengthening their media literacy and fighting disinformation. Experience from the Czech Republic by Kamil Kopecký and Veronika Krejčí
Go to https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle/vol18/iss1/
Photo by Sheila Webber: border at the botanics, June 2026

Where do Americans turn first for information about breaking news?

An interesting report from the Pew Research Center - Where do Americans turn first for information about breaking news? - one striking think (highlighted in the report) is the difference between age groups e.g. 31% of 18-29 year olds going first to social media for breaking news vs. 6% of those aged 65+. 
I've linked below to the summary story, and there are links (at the bottom of the article) to the methodology, to the questions and to the descriptive results. 
The latter includes further interesting questions e.g. 67% had at some point stopped getting news from a specific source and 60% had reduced the amount of news they got overall. There is also a question about "do you consider this research" with options such as comparing sources, Googling, discussing with friends. 
St. Aubin, C. (2026, March 24). Where do Americans turn first for information about breaking news? https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/03/24/where-do-americans-turn-first-for-information-about-breaking-news/
Photo by Sheila Webber: magnolia tree, March 2026

News literacy at school

Petrus, C. (2026, February 4). Birmingham librarian on mission to teach news literacy to elementary students. WXYZ Detroit. https://www.wxyz.com/news/birmingham-librarian-helping-elementary-students-develop-news-literacy.
A news story about a school librarian in Birmingham, USA.
Photo by Sheila Webber: my last red devil apple, on a Williamson's bluebird plate, January 2026

Co-Creational News Media Toolkit

A publication from the Public Interest News Foundation (which monitors/ promotes independent news sources) is the Co-Creational News Media Toolkit 
"The toolkit is built around four modules of news media – governance, content creation, fact checking and impact – combined with four principles – participation, truth-seeking, accountability and care." 
For each of 16 elements there is a short explanation, some tips on application and an example. 
Go to https://toolkit.publicinterestnews.org.uk/resources/
Photo: Centre for Ageing Better Age-Friendly image library: Couple outdoors: Credit: Peter Kindersley https://www.agewithoutlimits.org/image-library

Place of googling in writing news stories

Rupar, V., Myllylahti, M., Jones, H-G., Li, W., Mohaghegh, M. & Parisa, P. (2022). Googling it: While news search results can affect newsrooms’ perception of social issues, journalists mainly rely on it for complementary information. Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture, 13(3), 253-273. https://doi.org/10.1386/iscc_00064_1 (open access).
I thought this was interesting as evidence in the scope of online news coverage sourced via search engines, as well as giving insights into journalistic practice "Our study highlights the significant role of search engines, particularly Google, in shaping the journalistic newsgathering process and, consequently, public understanding of social issues. The computer-assisted analysis of Google’s ‘recession’ news selection revealed distinct patterns in the distribution of news content and geographical bias towards the United States within the selection algorithm. Ethnographic research at one Auckland newsroom revealed that Google Search is a fundamental tool for journalists, albeit used primarily for basic information-gathering and fact-checking rather than in-depth investigative work." (NB, although the "publication date" is 2022, it says the article was actually received in 2024, and this is the latest issue of the journal).
Photo by Sheila Webber: the crocus circle, March 2025

AI performance at citing news

Jaźwińska, K. & Chandrasekar, A. (2025, March 6). AI Search Has A Citation Problem. Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/we-compared-eight-ai-search-engines-theyre-all-bad-at-citing-news.php Spoiler alert "We Compared Eight AI Search Engines. They’re All Bad at Citing News."
"We randomly selected ten articles from each publisher, then manually selected direct excerpts from those articles for use in our queries. After providing each chatbot with the selected excerpts, we asked it to identify the corresponding article’s headline, original publisher, publication date, and URL" They were excerpts that would have found the right item with a Google search.
Also, this caught my eye: Scott, L. (2025, March 18). The Last Days at Voice of America. Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/first_person/last-days-voice-of-america-voa-trump-kari-lake.php
Photo by Sheila Webber: a few crocuses, March 2025

#NewsLiteracyWeek

It is National news literacy week in the USA 3-7 February 2025 sponsored by the News Literacy Project, The E.W. Scripps Company and USA Today (being pedantic, isn't that less than a week?) Anyway, the website has some resources worth a look, including lesson plans, videos and a couple of free webinars run during the week
Go to https://newslit.org/news-literacy-week/

PIL climate study

Project Information Literacy has started a new project, focusing on information about climate change "a large-scale survey of U.S. residents between 16 and 85 years old to delve into how their encounters with climate change news and information — and the behaviors that manage those encounters — shape Americans’ disparate responses to the worldwide climate crisis." It started this autumn with a survey of 4500 members of the general public in the USA. There is more information here https://projectinfolit.org/faq-pil-climate-study/

Photo by Sheila Webber: snowman, December 2023

Podcast: Let’s Talk About Media and Communication

A podcast from Cogitatio Press is Let’s Talk About Media and Communication. This is part of this Portuguese publisher's communication strategy, in which they invite an author from one of their journals (all open access) to talk about their article.
In the latest podcast Mathias-Felipe de-Lima-Santos talks about Google News Initiative: A double-edged sword for journalism (arguing it could undermine independent journalism: this is the article they are talking about). This is the podcast's home page https://www.cogitatiopress.com/wp/topics/mac
Photo by Sheila Webber taken in Second Life - the podcaster, November 2023

Breaking the news

The Breaking the News exhibition is now open at the British Library (physical location next to St Pancras Station in London) until 21 August 2022. It is a priced exhibition (unless you are a BL member, which costs £80 a year - that's different from being a Reader who can use the Library) They say "This exhibition prompts big questions about the news we consume: How do your opinions and beliefs influence the news you choose? When does news become propaganda? Why do we devour crime stories and sensationalism? Who decides which stories to suppress and which to spotlight?" There's examples and a fuller description (plus links to the accompanying events programme and ticket page) at https://blogs.bl.uk/thenewsroom/2022/04/breaking-the-news.html Below is the promotional video. 

New articles: Workplace IL; Information behaviour of people with aphasia; News literacy; Virtual communities; Model of information seeking

There is a new issue of the open access journal Information Research (volume 27 issue 1). It includes
 - Muhammad Asif Naveed, and Muhammad Kamran. Workplace information literacy: the case of investigation officers from Punjab Police, Pakistan.
- Kanwal Ameen and Salman Bin Naeem. Post-truth era: news behaviour and news literacy skills of university librarians
- Naresh Kumar Agarwal. Integrating models and integrated models: towards a unified model of information seeking behaviour
- Birgit Kvikne, and Gerd Berget. "My words were completely gone." A qualitative study of the information seeking behaviour of people with aphasia
- Hsiu-Hua Cheng, and Chi-Wei Chen. Why people lurk in theme-oriented virtual communities: integrating achievement goal theory and cognitive dissonance theory.
Go to https://doi.org/10.47989/irinfres271

Photo by Sheila Webber: Daffodils, March 2022

Interview with winners of 2021 Ilene F. Rockman publication Award

Alison J. Head, Barbara Fister, and Margy MacMillan won the 2021 Ilene F. Rockman Instruction Publication of the year Award for their report, Information Literacy in the Age of Algorithms: Student Experiences with News and Information, and the Need for Change. There is an interview with them here: https://acrl.ala.org/IS/2021-rockman-award-winner-interview-alison-j-head-barbara-fister-and-margy-macmillan/
Photo by Sheila Webber: first asparagus from the farmers' market, 2 weeks ago, another lovely bunch today.

Recent books: Epitexts; Online learning; School collaboration; News literacy

Books from publisher Libraries Unlimited over the past months include:
- Bober, T. (2021). Building News Literacy: Lessons for Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in Elementary and Middle Schools. ISBN 978-1-4408-7515-1
- Harada, V.H. & Coatney, S. (2020). Radical Collaborations for Learning: School Librarians as Change Agents. ISBN 978-1-4408-7238-9
- Mune, C.D. (2020). Libraries Supporting Online Learning: Practical Strategies and Best Practices. ISBN 978-1-4408-6175-8
- Witte, S., Gross, M. & Latham, D. (2021) [Due out later this month]. From Text to Epitext: Expanding Students' Comprehension, Engagement, and Media Literacy. ISBN 978-1-4408-7749-0
Photo by Sheila Webber: Lost item series, colourful plastic trolley, February 2021.

Digital Native News Media: Trends and Challenges

Volume 8 issue 2 of the open access journal Media and Communication was devoted to the theme of Digital Native News Media: Trends and Challenges (by which is meant news media that are "born digital", not media aimed at digital natives, looking particularly at hispanic contexts). The articles include: 

-Information Quality in Latin American Digital Native Media: Analysis Based on Structured Dimensions and Indicators by Claudia Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Diana Rivera-Rogel and Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez 

- Cross-National Similarities and Differences between Legacy and Digital-Born News Media Audiences by Alfonso Vara-Miguel 

- Business Model Innovation in News Media: Fostering New Relationships to Stimulate Support from Readers by Giuliander Carpes da Silva and Gabriela Gruszynski Sanseverino 

- Why Do Digital Native News Media Fail? An Investigation of Failure in the Early Start-Up Phase by Christopher Buschow 

- Behind the Comments Section: The Ethics of Digital Native News Discussions by Orge Castellano Parra, Koldobika Meso Ayerdi and Simón Peña Fernández 

- Media Roles in the Online News Domain: Authorities and Emergent Audience Brokers by Sílvia Majó-Vázquez, Ana S. Cardenal, Oleguer Segarra and Pol Colomer de Simón 

- Between Self-Regulation and Participatory Monitoring: Comparing Digital News Media Accountability Practices in Spain by Pedro-Luis Pérez-Díaz, Rocío Zamora Medina and Enrique Arroyas Langa 

 Go to https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/issue/view/174

Photo by Sheila Webber: crib (the basis of which is a set I was given by an aunt when I was about 7), December 2020

Recordings from the Critical librarianship and pedagogy symposium #CLAPS2020

This year's Critical librarianship and pedagogy symposium took place online between the 1st and 17th September 2020. There are some pre-recorded presentations and some session recordings available. Recordings include: Do I have to have a librarian come to my class? Power imbalances and power moves in library instruction (Roberto Arteaga & Christine Moeller; Casting a critical eye on "fake news" literacy and post truth pedagogy (Carrie Wade); Knowledge justice (Sofia Leung), see also https://www.sofiayleung.com/thoughts/knowledgejusticekeynote ); Scaffolding your instruction with epistemology (Kirsten Dean). 

Pre-recordings include: Support beyond the studio: critical pedagogy in art librarianship (Michele Jennings); Information has value: a Marxist approach (Dave Ellenwood); Assessment is constructed & contextual: a faculty-librarian pilot to explore critical approaches to curriculum and assessment (Nicole Branch, Loring Pfeiffer, & Julia Voss); 

The schedule with abstracts and links to recordings is here https://clps.arizona.edu/registration-schedule and the Youtube stream with recordings is here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFiSK6NJJvNsrYlzg49_E4w/videos 

A couple of presentations from the lightning session (which weren't recorded and aren't linked on the website are An appeal to Kairos: building a sustainable assessment practice (Sheila Garcia: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14fAGueYvMbKh8w5gnXx1agsBdjHTbljrvsMDB1yADAE/edit#slide=id.g35f391192_00 ) and Data literacy and feminist epistemology (Scout Calvert http://calvert4.msu.domains/presenting/datalitfmstepist.html#/)

Photo by Sheila Webber: the friendly cat likes my feet, September 2020

Learning resources and teaching material for COVID19 mis/information

Following up on the last post about the Project Information Literacy report, they have published some associated learning and teaching resources as well: 

1. PIL's list of Covid-19 misinformation resources has selected resources under the headings. Resources for building activities: Readings: Podcasts: Videos: Resources related to photos, charts, and graphs: Background resources. These are chosen for a North American audience, but include some non-US materials. In fact one class exercise could be remaking the list so that it was better tailored to a particular set of students. https://projectinfolit.org/pubs/covid19-first-100-days/supplementary/misinformation-resources.html

2. Ideas and prompts for learning and teaching with a focus on Visual messaging of the coronavirus news story. There are discussion prompts, lists of probing questions and activities for each of the following aspects: Context; Inspect; Affect; Effect; Investigate, Reflect, Create. https://projectinfolit.org/pubs/covid19-first-100-days/visual-messaging/learning-resources.html 

Photo by Sheila Webber: restricted parking, August 2020

Covid-19: The first 100 days of U.S. news coverage

There is a new 2-part report from Project Information Literacy: Covid-19: The first 100 days of U.S. news coverage. 

Report 1 includes "interactive data visualizations showing the results of a computational analysis of 125,696 news articles from 66 widely-read national, metropolitan, and digital-only news websites. A follow-up analysis identifies the top 12 news outlets producing the most coverage (N=74,737) of Covid-19. ... Certain stories were amplified and re-circulated across news sites and on social media, thus creating a network of diverse contributors to this vast news ecosystem." 

"In Report 2, a content analysis of 532 randomly selected news images from the top 12 outlets examined the visual representation of the coronavirus story. Five dominant visual themes – fear, hope, loneliness, determination, and grief – emerged from the sample of news images analyzed. ... Applying a critical lens to how the news constructs our understanding of events develops information agency and makes individuals more discerning news consumers. Teaching and learning for librarians, educators, students, and journalists that make use of interactive news datasets and information visualizations from the series are included for building students’ news and visual literacy skills." 

Head, A., Braun, S., MacMillan, M., Yurkofsky, J. and Bull, A. (2020). Covid-19: The first 100 days of U.S. news coverage: Lessons about the media ecosystem for librarians, educators, students, and journalists. Project Information Literacy Research Institute. https://projectinfolit.org/publications/covid-19-the-first-100-days/
Photo by Sheila Webber: someone else's vines, September 2020

Recent articles: news consumption; use of research databases; visual analysis

Some articles from the last few issues of priced journal Journal of Information Science:
- Tang, R. & Oh, K. (2020). University students’ mobile news consumption activities and evaluative/affective reactions to political news during election campaigns: A diary study. Journal of Information Science, 46(4), 476-495. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551519845855
- Islam, A. & Sheikh, A. (2020). A study of the determinants of postgraduate students’ satisfaction of using online research databases. Journal of Information Science, 46(2), 273-287. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551519834714
- Greyson, D, O'Brien, H & Shankar, S. (2020). Visual analysis of information world maps: An exploration of four methods. Journal of Information Science, 46(3), 361-377. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551519837174
Photo by Sheila webber: pink rose, August 2020

New articles: Students friending lecturers; Gender equality; SEO and news media

Available in both Spanish and English, the open access journal Comunicar has published its latest issue, vol 63, no 2, 2020. It includes:
Ser o no ser amigos de los profesores en redes sociales: Las perspectivas de los estudiantes universitarios/ To-friend or not-to-friend with teachers on SNSs: University students' perspectives by Zeynep Turan, Erzurum (Turkey), Levent Durdu, Kocaeli (Turkey) & Yuksel Goktas, Erzurum (Turkey). https://doi.org/10.3916/C63-2020-08 "The most prominent finding is that the students were mostly opposed to their teachers’ sharing their political and religious views; however, they were in favour of teachers sharing information about their personal life. Despite some students displaying some hesitation, especially concerning the level of respect between them, the majority of students had a positive outlook towards teacher-student friendships. The students indicated that being friends on SNSs would increase their motivation towards the course."

SEO y cibermedios: De la empresa a las aulas/ SEO and the digital news media: From the workplace to the classroom by Carlos Lopezosa, Barcelona (Spain), Lluís Codina, Barcelona (España), Javier Díaz-Noci, Barcelona (Spain) & José-Antonio Ontalba, Valencia (Spain). https://doi.org/10.3916/C63-2020-06 "this study explores perceptions and applications of search engine optimization (SEO) in the online news media and identifies the future training needs of journalists in this sector."

Igualdad de género y TIC en contextos educativos formales: Una revisión sistemática/ Gender equality and ICT in the context of formal education: A systematic review by María-Paz Prendes-Espinosa, Murcia (Spain), Pedro-Antonio García-Tudela, Murcia (Spain) & Isabel-María Solano-Fernández, Murcia (Spain). https://doi.org/10.3916/C63-2020-01 "Among the main results, we highlight that most of the good practices in the different educational levels are related to the use of web 2.0. and STEM competences. Finally, we recommend the design of proposals that work on gender through ICTs, with the “smart classroom" as an interesting suggestion that is part of the emerging pedagogies."
Photo by Sheila Webber: a shy violet in the curb, March 2020