EDUCATING THE PUBLIC THROUGH NEWS MEDIA: CASE STUDIES OF NEWS LITERACY IN THE NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE

Two decades of unprecedented changes in the media landscape have increased the complexity of informing the public through news media. With significant changes to the way the news industry does business and the way news consumers access this information, a new set of skills is being proposed as essential for today’s news consumer. News literacy is the use of critical thinking skills to assess the reliability and source of the information that people consume on a daily basis, as well as fostering self-awareness of personal news consumption habits and how it can create audience bias. The purpose of this study was to examine how adults experience the news in their everyday lives and to describe the nature of the news literacy skills people employ in their daily news consumption. This study purposefully selected four adults who have completed high school, and who regularly consume news information across a number of platforms, both traditional and digital. Two of the participants, one man and one woman, were over 50 years old. One other male participant was in his 30’s and the final participant, a young woman, was in her 20’s. They all utilized both traditional and digital media on a regular basis and all had differing skill levels when using social media for information. Their news experiences were documented by in-depth interviews and the completion of seven daily news logs. In their daily logs the participants differentiated news information from other information available on-line but the interviews revealed a contradiction between their intentions and their news consumption practices. All four participants had trouble distinguishing between news and opinion pieces in the news information realm. In addition all but one seemed unaware of their personal bias and any possible effect it was having on their news consumption. Further research should explore the benefits of an adult-centered news literacy curriculum on news consumers similar to the participants, and should examine the development of audience bias and its relationship to the daily exposure people have to the torrent of information that is available to them on a daily basis.

Applying life cycle assessment to analyze the environmental sustainability of public transit modes for the City of Toronto

One challenge related to transit planning is selecting the appropriate mode: bus, light rail transit (LRT), regional express rail (RER), or subway. This project uses data from life cycle assessment to develop a tool to measure energy requirements for different modes of transit, on a per passenger-kilometer basis. For each of the four transit modes listed, a range of energy requirements associated with different vehicle models and manufacturers was developed. The tool demonstrated that there are distinct ranges where specific transit modes are the best choice. Diesel buses are the clear best choice from 7-51 passengers, LRTs make the most sense from 201-427 passengers, and subways are the best choice above 918 passengers. There are a number of other passenger loading ranges where more than one transit mode makes sense; in particular, LRT and RER represent very energy-efficient options for ridership ranging from 200 to 900 passengers. The tool developed in the thesis was used to analyze the Bloor-Danforth subway line in Toronto using estimated ridership for weekday morning peak hours. It was found that ridership across the line is for the most part actually insufficient to justify subways over LRTs or RER. This suggests that extensions to the existing Bloor-Danforth line should consider LRT options, which could service the passenger loads at the ends of the line with far greater energy efficiency. It was also clear that additional destinations along the entire transit line are necessary to increase the per passenger-kilometer energy efficiency, as the current pattern of commuting to downtown leaves much of the system underutilized. It is hoped that the tool developed in this thesis can be used as an additional resource in the transit mode decision-making process for many developing transportation systems, including the transit systems across the GTHA.