University program also states its commitment to ‘diversity, equity, inclusion and antiracism’

The Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University is currently offering a summer class titled “Persuasion and Propaganda” that promises to teach junior high and high school students about “fake news.”

The class will explore contemporary forms of propaganda, such as “bot-generated tweets, mudslinging political ads, misleading advertisements, and fact-distorting TV news reports,” according to the course description.

“Without an objective distance from current events—and with ever subtler techniques for influencing opinions—how can we tell what is ‘fake news’?” it states.

The class is advertised for students in eighth through 12th grades and is labeled as “advanced.” It’s one of a number of high school courses offered through the private university as part of its On-Campus Summer Programs.

However, the course description did not define “fake news,” and the Center for Talented Youth did not respond to The Fix’s questions about the course and the term. The center initially responded to The Fix by promising that someone would follow up, but no one did to the initial email or a second request for comment.

The course promises to help students to “become critical media consumers while learning to identify flawed premises and developing rhetorical strategies necessary to question and dissect conflicting messages.”

Students will then “construct and deliver [their] own persuasive arguments in written compositions, oral presentations, brief films, and public speeches.”

The term “fake news” is used by people on the left and the right, sometimes to call out media bias and other times to describe “news they don’t like,” DePauw University Professor Jeffrey McCall told The Fix in a recent interview via email.

When asked about the class, the communications professor said: “Fake news for most people is just news they don’t like. But, there is content disseminated as ‘news’ that is perhaps false or delivered without sufficient context.”

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McCall said teaching students how to read the news discerningly is a good thing.

“Ordinary news is content delivered accurately and independently. Propaganda is content delivered by powerful interests in government or other organizations for personal or organization gain,” he told The Fix.

“It really is a good idea to teach middle and high school students media literacy and how to be careful consumers of news,” he said, later adding, “The public discourse has become warped by citizen fears that they can’t get fair and accurate information.”

McCall blamed the journalism industry for the public’s distrust, noting that “too many reporters want to be activists and consequently blend facts and opinions.”

“This decline in journalism professionalism has discouraged news consumers, some of whom have become news bystanders and don’t follow the news at all. This is very bad for the public discourse that is essential for democracy,” he said.

At Johns Hopkins, the Center for Talented Youth describes itself as “a center for innovation dedicated to advancing the field of gifted education through our research on testing, programs, and other supports for academically advanced students.”

It offers classes for middle and high school students on a number of topics, including science, mathematics, literature, and history.

Other classes this summer include “The Global Environment” where students will learn about “record-high temperatures, rising sea levels, massive wildfires, superstorms, and other environmental disasters” and the “drastic measures” that scientists believe are necessary to stop them.

Another class, “Great Cases: American Legal History” has students consider “the role of race, ethnicity, class, gender, religion, socioeconomic status or other relevant identities in shaping access to, and protection by, the legal system throughout U.S. history.”

The center website also states its commitment to “diversity, equity, inclusion and antiracism” and ensuring that these values are “interwoven throughout all aspects of curriculum and programming.”

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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A smartphone displays the words ‘fake news’ across the screen; R. Classen/Shutterstock

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