Building news literacy: misinformation and disinformation

A global UNESCO survey found 85% of people are worried about the impact of online disinformation and 87% said disinformation would play a part in this year's elections. Help students build their knowledge of news literacy, misinformation and disinformation.

Published 24 May 2024

This lesson is more than 6 months old. Please check the facts before teaching to ensure they are up-to-date and still correct.

Students will work through real-life examples in the news to spot the difference between mis- and disinformation before deciding what "news-literacy actions" they could take to avoid being misled in future.

This resource was created as part of an online teacher-training course: Teaching the news. The course has been created by The Economist Educational Foundation with support from Infosys. The Economist Educational Foundation maintained full editorial control

About this lesson

Use this one-hour Headline lesson to help your students:

  • Understand the difference between mis- and disinformation
  • Use their knowledge to identify examples
  • Discuss "news-literacy actions" to avoid being misled in future

Part of a free teacher-training course

Access the training course, which includes explanations of how this lesson was created and tips for how to run it successfully, by setting up a free account on the learning platform Springboard. Learn more here.

This lesson develops the following skill:

Problem solving

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Intermediate: 
Exploring problems

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