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National Federation of Press Women Conference

Denver, Colorado

September 12, 2025

Beyond Bias

Peggy O’Neill-Jones, Ed.D.

oneilljp@msudenver.edu

Professor Emeritus, Journalism and Media Production

Executive Director, Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources

Metropolitan State University of Denver

Kelly Jones-Wagy

kjones-wagy@cherrycreekschools.org

Overland High School

National Board-Certified Teacher

MSU Denver-Journalism and Media Production, Affiliate Professor

2019 Colorado Civic Educator of the year

2019 Street Law Teacher of the year

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Media Literacy

Develop a general studies course that addresses media literacy in a 21st century media context.

Process for evaluating a primary sources

Same thinking process applies to online media is a source

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perspective
author’s intent
audience
bias

Primary Source Analysis

https://www.loc.gov/item/2012647459/

OBSERVE

REFLECT

QUESTION

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Critical Thinking Through 21st Century Media

Course Description

Through the lens of 21^st century media, this course teaches students to be critical media producers and consumers through critical thinking and inquiry learning skills.

It reviews the similarities and differences between traditional and 21^st century media, with attention focused on bias, perspective, author’s intent, audience, social and ethical responsibilities, and the impact on a media communication process.

21^st century media will be examined through both primary sources and current media to provide historical context for understanding media communication. (General Studies, Arts and Humanities)

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Learning Objectives

Examine factors such as perspective, bias, author intent, audience, and cultural impact.

Demonstrate the ability to locate, evaluate, and apply research sources in order to …evaluate descriptive evidence

How to evaluate traditional and 21^st century media and the impact on media communication.

Demonstrate ability to ethically use 21^st century media through citation, attribution, and copyright.

Locate research that reflects how 21^st century media is used in various media communication contexts and for multiple media communication purposes.

Use inquiry and critical thinking strategies to examine primary source media for author intent, audience, and media communication effectiveness.

Identify ways in which 21^st century media can be evaluated for authenticity, validity, and reliability.

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Course Modules

Library Sources and Databases

Author Intent, Reliability and Credibility

Visual Literacy

Media Literacy

Critical Thinking and 21st Century Media

Obstacles to Critical Thinking

Primary Source Analysis

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Scholarly Media Analysis

Distinguish the difference between scholarly and popular media

Research databases for two sources

Analyze quantitative, qualitative methods of research

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Popular Media Analysis

Find three popular media sources

One video, one text, one choice

Analyze author intent, biases, intended audience, evidence and reasoning for each source

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Media Literacy - Final Project

Create an argument using curated evidence to explain how

media has changed the way

the chosen topic is discussed.

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Media Literacy in Classroom

Locate, evaluate, apply reliable evidence

Variety of sources-online, print, and non-print

Analyze propaganda, censorship, and bias

How media impacts policy

Social Media use in campaigns

Learn to ask meaningful questions

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Meet students where they are

They are on social media so we need to make sure that they understand what’s going on

Mainstream media is not the enemy, we need to stop assuming we know the bias based on the network

Understand the difference between being cynical and skeptical of information

If they aren’t paying for the product, they are the product