What is Newshounds?

“The students really went deep into discussing media literacy and misinformation and really had thorough understanding by the end of it.”

Matt Hull, 5/6 teacher and assistant principal, Abbotsford Public, NSW

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Information is coming at our kids at a faster rate than ever before.

There’s never been a more important time to teach kids to be critical consumers of media.

Introducing Newshounds: an eight-part media literacy journey designed specifically to teach primary-school students how to recognise misinformation and disinformation when they come across it.

Join Squiz-E the Newshound as he sniffs out fishy stories on the internet and teaches kids to STOP, THINK and CHECK.

Devised by the award-winning team behind Squiz Kids Today, Australia’s premier daily news podcast for 8-12yos, the Newshounds media literacy program gives educators and parents essential tools to teach this increasingly important life skill - and spark vital conversations along the way.

At this time Newshounds is free to schools in both Australia and New Zealand.

 

What is it?

Newshounds is an integrated series of eight podcasts that is hosted by the award-winning Squiz Kids team and accompanied by videos, student workbooks, a comprehensive teacher manual, classroom posters, parent information packs, and more.

 

How does it work?

Designed with teachers in mind - and therefore formulated for use in a classroom setting - Newshounds follows a board-game format. Students listen to the podcast and complete activities in the accompanying student workbook (available in both print and digital formats).

 

Squiz-E the detective dog awards students a badge each time they complete a session - including a magnifying glass ‘to examine their own media habits’, a torch ‘to shine a light on the truth’ and a set of handcuffs ‘to arrest misinformation’. In essence, students become equipped to identify and therefore arrest misinformation.

 

By the end, they’ll be fully-fledged Newshounds with all the tools they need to navigate the murky world of misinformation. 

 

 

Teacher Testimonials

"It gave everyone a perspective on how to navigate the media-drenched world. Some real-world skills that they can take away for their lives beyond school.”

“It actually tied in perfectly with the reading unit we were doing, looking at bias and perspective.”

“I now have students who are more considerate of what they see online and question, “Is this true?” It has helped with our research tasks as we look into reliable sources”.

“My class were engaged throughout the process and really enjoyed creating their group podcasts.”

“I thoroughly enjoyed participating in this program with my students. The approach to media literacy was very clear and well paced allowing my students (and myself) to grasp the ideas behind each step.”

The missing literacy component to our curriculum—links speaking and listening, reading and composing with a real-world scenario/examples (media consumption)”.

After taking part in the Newshounds pilot:

  • 100% of teachers said they felt more confident discussing and teaching media literacy
  • 100% said they’d noticed a change in their students’ ability to think critically about the information they consume 
  • 100% said students were highly engaged in the curriculum
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If you are not too sure if Newshounds is for you, take a look at the sample material below.

 

Instructions:

1. Check out the podcast sample on misinformation, below

2. Follow along with that session's student workbook pages

Step 1: Check out a Podcast Sample

Step 2: Download Student Workbook Sample 

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Newshounds is proudly supported by the Google News Initiative.