Susan Minichiello

The Sift: ‘Equal time’ rule debate - The News Literacy Project First Amendment debates over ‘equal time’ rule, science influencers combating misinformation online, amateur sleuths in Nancy Guthrie case, and AI slop of puppies.

📺 Should all broadcasters who make use of public airwaves be forced to give all political candidates in an election equal time on air? Why or why not?

👆🏾 Just 1 prompt educators can use for having a discussion about the "equal time" rule.

🔗 This + much more in The Sift newsletter.

Join me next week for this webinar!

Buddhist monks persist in peace walk despite injuries as thousands follow them on social media A group of Buddhist monks is persevering in their peace walk across much of the U.S. even after two participants were injured when a truck hit their escort vehicle.

🙏🏼

apnews.com/article/budd...

Abraham Quintanilla Jr., Music Producer and Father of Selena, Dies at 86 As a teenager, he hoped to make it big in the Tejano music world. He realized that dream through his daughter.

Abraham Quintanilla Jr., the music producer who turned Selena y Los Dinos, his small family band, into a Grammy Award-winning act, died on Saturday at age 86. He managed his daughter Selena’s career as she ascended to the peak of the Tejano music world, but he was a polarizing figure to some fans.

Parents, families, anyone who interacts with young people: You should subscribe to Scroll Smarter!

Check out this month's issue produced by @susanmini.bsky.social & her brilliant team!

#NewsLiteracy

Great internship opportunity to work with my awesome colleague @susanmini.bsky.social & her team on taking NLP's impactful newsletters to the next level!

#Interns
#EduSky

The Sift: Journalists exit Pentagon - The News Literacy Project Journalists reject the Pentagon’s new press policy, people swapping smartphones for dumbphones, and an AI-generated opossum scared off by Halloween decor.

📰 This week's edition of The Sift covers 2 big #journalism stories with ideas for discussing them with students:

- A majority of news outlets rejected the new #Pentagon press policy
- #Indiana University accused of censoring the student newspaper

🔗 Read & subscribe: go.newslit.org/Sift20Oct2025

Illustration of a surprised cartoon person looking at a phone screen displaying a jester version of themselves with "It's AI you!" text. Bright, playful tone.

In this week's edition of The Sift newsletter:

✨ OpenAI's new social app Sora: Context + discussion questions for the classroom

✨ The impact of AI-generated videos of doctors, journalists + other professionals

🔗 Read & subscribe:
go.newslit.org/Sift6Oct2025

#EdTech
#AILiteracy

The Sift: Confusion, rumors follow Charlie Kirk killing Confusion online after Charlie Kirk’s death, global press freedoms decline to lowest levels in 50 years, and wellness influencers sharing conspiracy theories.

In this week's issue of The Sift:
✨ How confusion spread online after Charlie Kirk's death
✨ Daily Do Now slides with First Amendment Q's + more
✨ The decline of global press freedoms

👉🏾 Read & share with a teacher friend: go.newslit.org/Sift15Sept2025

#EduSky
#EdTech

Happy to share!

Share The Sift with a #teacher or three in your life!

Kudos to the awesome team of @hannahcov.bsky.social @pamelabrunskill.bsky.social @peteradams.bsky.social @susanmini.bsky.social @lourdesvenard.bsky.social & others on a tremendous first issue of the school year.

The Sift: AI & social media impact on teens How social media and AI affect teens’ mental health, tips for news avoidance, a roundup of Taylor Swift rumors, Joe Rogan’s climate misinterpretation, and a Mountain Dew ban rumor debunked.

🚨 Educators: Don't walk but run to that subscribe button because ... The Sift is back!

💡 Featuring our popular Daily Do Now slides, RumorGuard examples + top news literacy topics, this week's edition explores:
- AI & teens' mental health
- News avoidance & more

⤵️ Read & subscribe

#NewsLiteracy

The Sift: AI & social media impact on teens How social media and AI affect teens’ mental health, tips for news avoidance, a roundup of Taylor Swift rumors, Joe Rogan’s climate misinterpretation, and a Mountain Dew ban rumor debunked.

After a summer hiatus, The Sift newsletter is back!

Each weekly issue has:
• Updates on news literacy topics
• Ready-to-go teaching slides.
• Classroom-ready discussion prompts
• Teachable examples of viral misinfo

Check out the first issue of the school year:
newslit.org/educators/si...

Scroll Smarter Our free monthly newsletter gives parents and caregivers quick, helpful tips to make sense of today’s information overload. You’ll get smart, family-friendly tools to help your kids think more clearly...

Spent the day working on the first issue of Scroll Smarter,
@newslit.org's newsletter for families. So excited for it to come out next week!

Here's info + subscription form (it's FREE 😀): newslit.org/scroll-smart...

🔥 Got any burning #NewsLiteracy questions?

Send 'em our way & they may be answered by our team of educators & journalists in Scroll Smarter, our NEW family newsletter.

➕ If your question is picked, you’ll win some NLP swag!

🔗 Submit yours: go.newslit.org/QuestionsNLP

What Happens to Public Media Now? Republican-backed funding cuts go way beyond NPR and PBS. Radio and TV stations from Alaska to the Allegheny Mountains may never be the same.

NPR and PBS are the two most recognizable recipients of money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. But the recent Republican-backed cuts to public media will hit outlets in poorer and more rural areas of the country the hardest.

NLP has an awesome new newsletter in the works!

Scroll Smarter will provide tips and tools for families as they navigate the news, social media & AI.

It only comes out once a month, so it won't clog up your inbox.

Please share widely with all the parents and caregivers in your life!

The Sift: Final issue: Top clicks in 2024-25 A roundup of the most popular stories and News Literacy Project resources in The Sift newsletter for educators during the 2024-25 school year, including topics like AI deepfakes and misinformation.

One of my favorite Sift issues is the yearend roundup we do!

Always fun to see what news stories and resources educators reading this newsletter enjoy the most. Most clicked story this year was about how memes are used to spread misinfo + tips for countering them.

More here:

Soooos good! If only they could've included "Let's run away together" too! Such a fabulous musical.

1/ For ProPublica’s “Life of the Mother” series, winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for public service, we reported on five pregnant women who died after not receiving timely medical care in states with strict abortion bans.

These are their stories 🧵

The Sift: Special issue: Teach about press freedom This special issue of The Sift newsletter honors World Press Freedom Day by sharing three ways for educators to teach about press freedoms.

⚠️ The past year was the first time the global state of #PressFreedom was categorized as a “difficult situation” by @rsf.org in its annual index of 180 countries.

🔎 Read our special issue of The Sift that lays out 3 ways to teach about this important topic: go.newslit.org/Sift5May2025

The Sift: Special issue: Teach about press freedom This special issue of The Sift newsletter honors World Press Freedom Day by sharing three ways for educators to teach about press freedoms.

#Educators: Don't miss today's special issue of The Sift dedicated to press freedom featuring:

- A breakdown of the just-released @rsf.org index
- Teaching slides with 5- to 10-minute exercises to do
- Dig Deeper think sheets, a reading list ➕ more!

🔗 go.newslit.org/Sift5May2025

#PressFreedomDay

'Blindsided': Press Democrat staff stunned as hedge fund takes over newspaper Press Democrat journalists shocked after hedge fund Alden Global Capital buys Sonoma Media group.

This is horrible. Please don’t gut my local paper 😢

www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...

A panel of speakers at the 2025 Newsletter Conference in an auditorium.

Excited to be at the Newsletter Conference today!

Really sad to hear this.

This is my local paper. I worked here for a few years & am a longtime subscriber. Reading the printed Sunday paper is part of my family’s weekend routine. Having a robust, locally owned paper was a source of pride for our community.

I hope the paper doesn’t get gutted 😥

AAPI Heritage Month Media | @NewsLitProject | Flipboard During Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we are shining a light on influential AAPI journalists and news media throughout U.S. history.

This #AAPIMonth, learn about Asian American & Pacific Islander journalists from U.S. history with our @flipboard.com collection: bit.ly/AAPIJournali...

And now, a note on Bill Owens who, until this past week, was the executive producer of 60 Minutes.

We’ll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.

Check out today’s issue of The Sift newsletter!

California is now 4th-largest economy in world, surpassing Japan The data for 2024 found that California had a nominal gross domestic product of $4.1 trillion, behind only the United States, China and Germany.

California is awesome.

www.sfchronicle.com/california/a...

lol