Oct. 14, 2021 —  The Society of Professional Journalists recognizes Northern Kentucky University’s panel on misinformation and fake news as the regional campus program of the year. The program, co-sponsored by NKU’s SPJ chapter, was honored as part of Region 5, which includes Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.

In March, NKU held the “Unblurring the Lines Between Fact-based News and Misinformation” panel to provide students with skills to differentiate between misinformation and fact-based news and understand the process to fact check information. The program was also shared online through the Informatics+ ClassCast program, an initiative to make teaching public. 

More than 70 people attended the virtual forum that featured students and faculty members discussing misinformation in society. Lynn Walsh of the Trusting News Project and Walter Smith-Randolph, formerly a journalist of Local 12 News and part-time NKU faculty member at NKU, led the discussion on ethical guidelines for building trust and information literacy strategies for distinguishing credible journalism from misinformation. Michele Day, NKU journalism professor, moderated the discussion.

“In today’s chaotic media landscape, determining the credibility of information is more challenging than ever,” said Day. “This program explored ethical practices that build trust in journalism and information literacy strategies that help media consumers distinguish credible journalism from misinformation.”

The panel was a part of NKU’s GEARUP with Information Literacy. GEAR stands for Gather information, Evaluate information, Apply information, Respect information. The GEARUP initiative aims to teach students, develop faculty and facilitate organizational change. More information on GEARUP can be found here on its website.