Background
The American Library Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Education & Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Communication Studies Committee developed information literacy competency standards for Journalism undergraduate students, graduate students, and professionals. The Communication Studies Committee (Missy Murphey, Kate E. Adams, Natasha Cooper, Amanda Hornby, Cathy Michael, Heidi Senior and Monique Threatt) developed the standards collaboratively over a two-year period. Committee members conducted a literature review and consulted with professional journalism organizations from 2007-2009, met with Communication and Journalism faculty in 2007, attended the 2007 National Communication Association conference, attended ACRL discussions related to information literacy competency standards in the disciplines and met with an ACRL Information Literacy consultant in 2008.
The Communication Studies Committee wishes to thank the following faculty for their contributions
to the standards: Kathy Campbell and Stephen Ponder, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon; and David Ortiz, Cascadia Community College Media & Communication Studies faculty; Lynne Flocke and Barbara Fought, S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University.
Introduction
The Information Literacy Competency Standards for Journalism document aims to adapt and apply the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards,http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm , to Journalism and related disciplines, including Mass Media. The intended audience for the standards are Journalism educators, professionals, undergraduate and graduate students and librarians.
Information literacy is defined as the ability to recognize when information is needed and the ability to locate, evaluate, effectively use and ethically apply the needed information. The information literacy competencies for Journalism also…
