The Markup: How We Won the 2023 Media Literate Media Award

The Markup won the National Association for Media Literacy Education’s 2023 Media Literate Media Award, which recognizes people, programs, initiatives, and organizations in media that include media literacy in their work and make outstanding contributions with national reach.

NAMLE specifically recognized The Markup for creating actionable journalism for the public good. In late 2022, we published an article describing how we approach impact in our newsroom, which centers on being clear and deliberate about who we want to “equip with the tools, knowledge, and agency to create change.”

In the last year, The Markup has published clear ways for everyone—from those working at companies and institutions to high school and college students to fellow journalists—to take action using our journalism. Here are just a few examples:

• In 2023, Resolve to Fix Your Organization’s Meta Pixel Problem We explain how anyone, not just coders, can audit their organization’s use of Facebook’s pixel and see if it transmits sensitive information to the social media giant.
• Slow Internet? Find Out What Side of the Digital Divide You’re On We provide readers with a step-by-step tutorial on how they can test for disparities in internet speeds and pricing in their neighborhood. All that’s needed is a computer, internet access, a Google account, and some free time.
• Journalists: Investigate Homeless Vulnerability Scoring in Your City The Markup investigated how L.A. used its scoring system, but dozens of other cities and counties have used the same system, according to its creators. Here are our tips for looking into it.

To see more Markup tools and blueprints, check out:

• Tools: Our tools hold institutions accountable for the way they use technology, pulling back the curtain so readers can see for themselves how technology affects them.
• Story Recipes: How fellow journalists can use our work to find unique stories for the people and communities they cover.
• Show Your Work: Transparent methodologies that explain our data, processes, and analysis used in investigations.
• Level Up and Inside The Markup: Two series that share what we do and how we do it—from technical tutorials to our hiring process.

Congratulations to all of this year’s NAMLE Award winners.

Credits: The Markup

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Photo by Sam McGhee on Unsplash