In recent years, an expansive network of “media literacy” organizations has quietly achieved major, statewide policy victories across the country, reshaping K–12 curriculum and state education standards.
Media literacy has become a top priority of the global censorship industry, including the U.S. federal government under the previous administration. Media literacy initiatives were funded by the State Department, DHS, DHS’s disaster management sub-agency FEMA, and USAID through BBC Media Action, the nonprofit arm of Britain’s state broadcaster.
The purpose of media literacy (sometimes called “digital literacy,” or “digital citizenship”) in schools is to train schoolkids to reject certain information sources. Organizations that write media literacy curricula include notoriously pro-censorship, partisan outfits: the Southern Poverty Law Center, NewsGuard, and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue to name a few.
Newsela, a major ed-tech platform and provider of “media literacy” lessons, was also caught by an undercover investigation smuggling critical race theory lessons back into schools.
At the center of the movement to pass laws at the state level mandating media & digital literacy training in schools are two groups: the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) and the News Literacy Project (NLP).
Federal Ties
Under the previous White House administration, there was a joined-up effort between the federal government and the non-profit sector to push media & digital literacy at the state level. This is reflected in NAMLE and NLP’s work with the previous administration, and its ties to former government officials.
NAMLE’s 2024 summit with Arizona State University featured Nina Jankowicz, former head of DHS’s Disinformation Governance Board. Her presence is a signal: the NAMLE network is not merely educational—it is structurally tied to the federal disinformation-governance apparatus.
At the summit, ASU’s Alan Arkatov urged participants to “take off the gloves” and “vaccinate the public” against disinformation—public-health metaphors repurposed for information control. They echo the language of “psychological inoculation,” used by other digital literacy advocates such as Google Jigsaw, Microsoft, and BBC Media Action.
The U.S. State Department also directly promoted NAMLE’s work through its international exchange program, framing the partnership squarely in terms of the federal government’s former priority to “counter disinformation.”
Throughout the inaugural virtual seminar week, the 55 alumni participants had the opportunity to connect with thought leaders and experts in media literacy and to learn more about the U.S. Department of State’s programs that reflect a commitment to countering disinformation and increasing media literacy education in their countries and world regions. Participants heard from experts from the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), as well as representatives from within the private sector at Facebook, Tumblr, and NetFamilyNews who spoke about their respective organization’s media literacy education initiatives and strategies for tackling misinformation.
NLP, meanwhile, has received four grants from the federal government, primarily for its international work:
- $6,300 from the State Department in September 2019 to March 2020 to deliver lectures in New Zealand on misinformation and media literacy.
- $3,514 February 2020 to March 2020 to deliver lectures on misinformation and media literacy in Samoa.
- $3,325 to conduct trainings and media literacy to high school teachers in Spain.
- $20,300 in September 2019 to design, plan, and implement five professional development sessions for educators in Singapore on news literacy to counter misinformation.
NLP’s board also includes Peter Kadzik, who ran the Office of Legislative Affairs at the Department of Justice from 2013 to 2017, and managed the Senate confirmations of Loretta Lynch as U.S. attorney general and James Comey as FBI director.
The Knight Foundation
NLP also has a notable nonprofit supporter: The Knight Foundation, a major bankroller of the censorship industry and a onetime partner of USAID in international influence operations.
- In 2019, the News Literacy Project announced it had received a $5 million grant from the Knight Foundation to expand its programs. The Knight grant was part of a larger $300 million, five year initiative for the foundation
- NLP said it will expand into NewsLitCamp, to allow educators to visit a newsroom to learn how social media impacts news
- Knight provided $250,000 in initial funding for NLP, which provided on-site programs for middle and high school classes
- Since 2016, the group offered an online program called Checkology to reach more schools on news literacy
At the time, it was portrayed as the “fight against ‘fake news’ in the classroom.”
From The Federal Government to the States
President Trump’s executive order to restore free speech and end federal censorship, combined with the shutdowns or curtailing of censorship hubs such as USAID and the Global Engagement Center, largely ended federal support for online censorship initiatives disguised as “countering disinformation” or promoting “media literacy.” But efforts continue at the state level, with “media and digital literacy” advocates like NAMLE and NLP proving particularly successful.
New York: NAMLE’s own director drives a legislative campaign
NAMLE Executive Director Michelle Ciulla Lipkin personally organized New York City educators and partnered with the bill’s sponsor to push forward Assembly Bill 8347. Media Literacy Now—NAMLE’s close ally —handled the formal lobbying. NAMLE leadership, not merely NAMLE-aligned advocates, helped push the state-level campaign.
Delaware: NAMLE and NLP written directly into state law
Delaware’s SB 195 names both the National Association for Media Literacy Education and the News Literacy Project as authoritative organizations in the statute itself, embedding their frameworks into state education policy. NLP later highlighted Delaware as a national leader in its movement literature.
California: NLP claims AB 873 as a “movement win”
California’s AB 873 mandates media-literacy integration into core subjects. NLP publicly celebrated this as a major victory and pointed legislators and educators toward its own curriculum products—effectively merging policy, advocacy, and market influence.
Utah, Nevada, Wyoming
NLP is active in all of these states, holding “reoccurring partnership meetings” with school district partners every two months.
As of 2022-23, NLP also had 16 ambassadors in 16 cities across the nation, claiming to have “helped connect over 4,000 teachers with NLP’s resources and programming.”
The effort was framed as an attempt to contain disfavored information: “support[ing] community organizing efforts to fight misinformation and pursue a mutual objective of creating a more news-literate generation of news consumers.”
