Introduction to News Media Literacy

Our media ecosystem today is increasingly messy. It's a mix of professionally produced and user-generated content that often blurs together on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. The rapid rise of artificial intelligence has added yet another layer of complexity, making it even easier for misleading or fabricated material to appear credible. Michael A. Spikes of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism explores how this blending of sources—and now AI-generated material—creates a “blurring of the lines” between types of content, making it harder to know what to trust. You'll gain practical skills for assessing the credibility of information from different outlets and strategies for building a set of reliable sources you can return to regularly.

Michael Spikes, Ph.D., has been teaching, writing about, and developing curriculum on news media literacy for more than 15 years. Currently, he is a professor of practice and the program director of Teach for Chicago Journalism at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Before joining Northwestern, Michael was a project manager for the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University. 

This event is part of the Civic Empowerment Series 2026, in partnership with Schaumburg Township District Library, Vernon Area Public Library, Blue Island Public Library, Highland Park Public Library, Aurora Public Library District, La Grange Public Library, Fox River Valley Public Library, Algonquin Area Public Library District, and Oak Park Public Library. 

Register and receive a Zoom link for this event.

For questions about this event, call Schaumburg Township District Library at 847-923-3347.