until the midterm elections, c-span is like this evening in indianapolis for a debate between democratic senator joe donnelly, republican mike braun, and libertarian lucy brenton. the pesach begins at 7 p.m. eastern reiki are on c-span. your primary source for camping 2018. joining us is alan miller. he is the founder and ceo of the news literally -- literacy project. good morning. talk to our viewers about the news literacy project. guest: we are a national nonpartisan educational nonprofit that works with educators and journalists to teach middle and high school students how to know what to believe in a digital age and give them the tools to be engaged participants and democracy. i was a journalist for 29 years. 2008i started nlp in

before alternative facts and fake news became part of the highest, our goal is to give the next generation the tools to know what news and information to trust, to share and act on. host: when a person receives news about politics of social media, what makes you assume they would not be able to see if it is true? from many studies and our own experience that while students may be digital negatives, they do not have the ability to did english -- distinguish credible information from misinformation and information that can inform them versus persuade them and to mislead them. they need to think like determine what

is verified information that becomes the basis for the interactions. host: as far as your program, what are the skills to teach them to achieve that? guest: we have resources we have created. classroom, which you can check out at our website. it is a cutting-edge engaging online platform with lessons that teach students foundational skills in terms of verifying information about the first amendment, about world press freedoms and gives them the tools to make judgments about everything they see, read and hear in terms of its credibility. host: is this theoretical or a real-world application? what has been the success rates as far as getting students to recognize the information they receive? guest: this is very much in the real world. we are enriching students where they live on their devices.

our programs work. we do assessments to determine the impact. students are more confident about the ability to create credible information. they have greater knowledge about the first amendment, the role of prepress and the democracy. they correct mistakes. host: give me an example. as far as your program is concerned, how the student achieves these things. guest: the technology is available to educators. reachounts of educators 100 10,000 students in every state in the u.s. they use it in the classroom. they show the students lessons as a group. students can do the lessons at home and discuss them. we have other resources we have created as well including the weekly newsletter that takes a look at rumors, hoaxes and

conspiracy theories in terms of links and discussion prompts. we have got multiple resources we are using working through educators to reach the next generation and to give facts a fighting chance. talk aboutuests will these topics and if you want to ask him questions, you can do so. republicans: 202-748-8001 democrats: 202-748-8000 independents: 202-748-8002 what is a telltale sign students should question what they are reading? to see if the information is providing for them to make up their minds. if it is intended to provoke emotion, to insight or persuades. that is a red flag. who created the information? is it from a reputable source?

what of the sources? we teach them about anonymous sources. what is the documentation? is there information for them to make up their own mind? is it elemental fairness? is there bias? we talk about confirmation bias, which is what they bring to what they are reading so they can have distance. host: when it comes to bias, how do you teach students to flesh that out? guest: we have a lesson on bias themchnology and we teach -- what are the signs in terms of the language, images, is the information presented in a dispassionate neutral tone? or is it intended to provoke or insight --incite? are there multiple points of view provided? we give them the tools to make those assessments. and to understand that

everything is not driven by bias , but they should look forward to everything they are viewing. tot: when you are talking the students, are you focusing on mainline publications? how much that versus online publications, opinion sources? do you teach skills? foundational --. difference between news, opinion, propaganda based on its primary purpose. we want them to make those distinctions. we do not steer them to any particular source, platform, nor do we do them away. we want to give them the tools to make those judgments themselves, to reach them at a point where they are creating the habits of -- that will last them a lifetime. --t: the students themselves what are they telling you as far as where they are getting information from?

is it political or other things? guest: they are getting most information through social media. .hey get news disaggregated it is accompanied along with everything else. they are often on snapchat and and they and twitter are on their devices a tremendous amount. we are reaching them where they live and the ability to discern the information becomes a survival skill. it is teaching literacy for the 21st century. take a source like a snapchat posting and pull information from it in order to determine whether or not a story is credible. things aere are basic student or anybody can do. you can look at comments to see if there are questions raised about a post. you can cut and paste information and see if it has been challenged elsewhere or if

organizations have looked at it. if it is an image, do a search and find what the context is and where it originated. you can check out our work. -- guest's we have calls. this is from missouri, democrat line. you are on with our guest. go ahead. caller: thank you. people running for senate in missouri. neither has signed anything that can say anything they want to a method is signed. taxthing about our guest that they do not want to talk about that they are trying without not it, independent audits on our transportation system, we as voters are

absolutely going to vote on something we know nothing about. that is ridiculous. there has got to be independent audit on everything we sign for. that is my comment. anything -- any of that apply? i think these skills are applicable. the viewer raises a good point in terms of the need in an election to check facts. islive in an age where there more good incredible information available than in time in history online. it is incumbent upon the individual voter to search for that information and check their facts before they go to the polls. host: berkeley springs, west

virginia. carl. republican mine. -- line. caller: i was watching cnn and this guy, whatever his name is, made the statement that president trump is evil, a racist, a white nationalist. can you fact check that? is he mean to little kids? can you fact check that? guest: i do not know what he said in this case. clearly a there is lot of opinion that gets infused with news coverage in cable stations.

is one of the things we encourage students to distinguish between fact and opinion. these are things you can disagree about in some cases and , where there are facts, fact check those as well. host: what is the grade you work with? -- we work with middleton high school students, six-12 grade and we have homeschoolers and afterschool programs and libraries that are using the platform. host: you talk about social media. powerful isow information when it comes to that rate range? how powerful is television versus social media? part: we find for the most students are getting their news through social media. they live on their devices.

when we askt that students questions about television news, what often comes up are the that tire shows. they watch the daily show and john oliver. those shows and they feel they get the news from them. in thethose shows platform because they are interesting as a blend. there is a component of news. there is a component of opinion but those shows are entertainment but they treat them as news -- entertainment. host: they treat them as news. guest: against them to focus on news related topics. quick tort was always say he was not a journalist. they are fundamentally entertainment vehicles. host: democrat line from washington, d.c. you are on. caller: i had a question and comment. like fact checking, i feel

a lot of our major news outlets do not give us all the information and feed into our confirmation bias. when i say our, i mean democrats , african-american and my whole life i was taught democrats are the lesser of evils but i have a problem with how the 2016 election went down and i wonder if you could clear up something about the pied piper strategy because i do not see it being addressed. it is weird. i feel like we're accusing russia of doing what the democratic party did. they made sure the worst of the other side was who we focused on. ted cruz, donald trump and ben carson. further, howyou go do you want him to apply that specifically? wondering, did you see this taking place in 2016 where the media talked about

trump until he became the candidate? he did not have money and now they are trying to say it is russia's fault. have you fact check that? mr. miller? guest: it is a very broad question. media, in terms of the we have to be careful in talking media".the it is a broad term. news organizations covered the campaign, have been covering what is revealed about russian information subsequently and the ongoing mueller investigation. it on an ongoing basis. with what theiar caller is referring to in terms of the pint pepper strategy.

63% of people worldwide agree the average person cannot tell good journalism from rumors are false. how does that hit you? part of thewas motivation in my starting the project. i felt news organizations in general did not do a good job telling the public what we did and how we did it. i think it left them quite vulnerable to attacks and to self-inflicted wounds. it is a major incentive for us. we are about creating a mixed generation of informed consumers that will demand quality journalism and creating an informed and engaged participant -- participants eat and democracy. it was a motivating factor in to give people the

ability to know what to trust and to look for reputable quality sources of news and information as the basis for their decisions and action. host: your organization says 80 percent of americans let fake news confuse them. have you describe fake news? guest: it is -- this is not our survey. it is important. you raise a good point in terms of talking about fake news. the term has been weaponized. we think more in terms of misinformation. hoaxes, conspiracy theories created for a profit or ideology or to cause mischief. we prefer to use those terms in talking about the things that

are out there to deceive and mislead. guest.lan miller, our new jersey, republican mine. caller: i have seen the most egregious thing going on in the media is the use of anonymous sources and sources close to the president, etc. there should be some law against people using those kinds of tactics and if not, shouldn't those things be dismissed out of fact they are the anonymous and we do not know if that is true or not? guest: the viewer raises a good point. i know this from my experience as a journalist. there are times when anonymous sources are vital. when there is information that is in the public interest and there is no other way to provide that. i think in those cases and they should be rare, journalists

should be as transparent as possible about the source without disclosing it and the , hopefully having multiple sources and having done everything they can to document that information without relying on anonymous sources. .hey are clearly overused they are subject to abuse. if you look at major journalistic scandals, jason blair and jack kelly and so on, anonymous sources were at the heart. we teach students that is a red flag when the sources are not named. you are asking the viewer, the reader to trust that information without having the basis to know where it is coming from. it is a key point. host: when the new york times published that op-ed about what was going on in the white house, it was printed anonymously. do you think that was the properties of an anonymous source? host: we used that as a two tuple moment. -- a teachable moment.

there was debate as to whether that was the proper thing to do. one can make -- argue both ways in terms of whether that was important information for the public to know. whether they should have insisted that person the name to that. from our point of view, that is one of the things that is a great, rich topic for the classroom. host: independent-minded, mitchell from washington, d.c. caller: good morning. i want to emphasize the work you're doing and thank you for doing this important work. i have one question. it was over lurked. -- overlooked. one of the colors mentioned a public policy and how things need to be audited. what is your view one audits in general? how important they are?

the kind of information derived from audits? the kind of information that is derived from audits? the nonpartisanship? that sort of thing. we would like to hear your comments. a lot of organizations do not like to be audited from an outside person and deny that ability for people to get an inside look into what is going on, and i think that audits would help and i do not think the under generation fully understands the needs of the sense of urgency. i would like to get your comments. i think having independent, third-party reviews of organizations, of government, .f policies is vital

as a journalist, i made great use of inspector general's in terms of the federal government. in the gao. the viewer makes a good point about how important, how vital having independent reviews and assessments and examinations of programs and institutions is. live in a day where we have websites like snopes and put effects. many cable news do their own fact checking. guest: those organizations perform a vital function. they are independent. they are transparent and accountable if they are doing reputable work. they do not ask you to take work at their word. they provide the basis for the determination so you can check that out yourself. they tend to be transparent

from.where the -- comes when they make mistakes, they correct them. they play an important service. host: some information that was found said there was 80% of middle school students said they cannot of the difference between sponsored content and news. how are social media companies doing now in terms of two years ago when making those trek -- those things transparent? guest: the social media companies have taken actions since the 2016 election. they could continue to do more and are aware of the need to do so. ultimately, the key is it comes down to us. for uss a responsibility to be up standards for facts and to ask ourselves with everything we see -- is this something i should trust?

is it something i should act on? it is one thing -- the misinformation, there is no barrier for entry for those creating it for profit or to cause mischief, but it cannot in depth,lt on fiction edition live sunday from noon until 3 p.m. eastern and be sure to watch in-depth fiction edition next month when author brad milt's or our guest. be our meltzer will

guest. sunday, seven years ago the people of the united states as set out what they thought was a great liberal campaign. line, we along the lost the objective. on hisd levering lewis biography of wendell wilkie. libertarian, al man of a civil rights conviction that would have matched say and obama, perhaps. liberal a man who was a accessiblesame time to the role of government in the economy. , only to a great degree. i know all the things were

appealing about him. there is a part in the book where we have roosevelt asking wilkie to consider be his vice president when he is going to overthrow henry wallace and he wants somebody new, typical fdr and wilkie says no. >> sunday night at eight eastern on q&a on c-span. with the midterm elections just days away, watch the competition for the control of congress on c-span. , the candidates and debates from key house and senate races. sourcespan your primary for campaign 2018. with seven days left until the midterm elections, the candidates in indiana's senate race are participating in a debate. next you will hear from democratic senator joe donnelly, republican mike braun and libertarian lucy brenton.