Three-Part Webinar Series Designed to Inform, Educate and Guide Communications Professionals

PRSA, the nation’s leading professional organization serving the communications community, and the News Literacy Project, the nation’s leading provider of news literacy education, have partnered to create a series of webinars exclusively for PRSA and PRSSA members.

Under the heading of “Are You as News Literate as You Can Be,” these three sessions are designed to strengthen communications professionals’ effectiveness in counseling clients, improve their ability to recognize and battle disinformation, and incorporate news literacy into their overall strategies and daily practice.

“We are all in the news business, whether we’re acquiring it, understanding it or communicating it, and there’s no such thing as too much knowledge about how it shapes everything we do,” said Dr. Felicia Blow, APR, 2022 PRSA Chair. “Working with The News Literacy Project to create these webinars is a great example of the exclusive benefits we are consistently providing our members.”

The webinar schedule is:

• Session One (Oct. 4, 3-3:45 p.m. ET), identifying different information sources and how each has a unique purpose in the information landscape.
• Session Two (Oct. 11, 3-3:45 p.m. ET), homing in on learning a nuanced approach to news media bias and the surprising ways it can creep into news coverage.
• Session Three (Oct. 18, 3-3:45 p.m. ET), helping members understand misinformation and the motivations behind its spread.

Each webinar will be led by John Silva, senior director of professional and community learning for the News Literacy Project. Silva spent several years in corporate telecommunications before deciding to become a teacher. He has 13 years of experience as a middle and high school social studies teacher with Chicago Public Schools, and first became involved with news literacy in 2014, when his students engaged in NLP’s original classroom program.

“News literacy helps people understand how to separate fact from fiction,” Silva said. “We believe communications professionals are uniquely positioned to help combat mis- and disinformation through their work, so we are thrilled to provide training in these essential skills to the people who are in the business of sharing information.”

These webinars are a crucial part of PRSA’s commitment to tackle, address and combat mis/disinformation, the centerpiece of which is the Voices4Everyone strategic initiative.

For more information on the webinars, click here.

About PRSA

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) empowers its members to succeed at every stage of their careers through a wide breadth of professional development, networking and leadership opportunities. Guided by its Code of Ethics, PRSA is collectively represented by 110 Chapters and 14 Professional Interest Sections, as well as on nearly 375 college and university campuses in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Argentina, Colombia and Peru through its student organization, the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). PRSA’s signature events include the Anvil Awards and ICON, the premier annual gathering for communications professionals and students. For more information, visit www.prsa.org.

About the News Literacy Project

The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan national education nonprofit, provides programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information and equal and engaged participants in a democracy.

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