SA government to roll out newshounds in every primary school

Australia’s most trusted media literacy resource for primary school kids, Newshounds, has received a welcome boost with the announcement of a four-year funding deal by the South Australian government.

The collaboration between the South Australian government and Squiz Media – creators of Newshounds – will see South Australian kids become the most media literate in Australia.

Newshounds teaches kids to 'Stop, Think and Check’ before believing everything they see online.

“In a digital age, learning to think critically about what they see online is just as important a life skill for primary school kids as reading, writing and arithmetic,” said Newshounds Director, Bryce Corbett. “The South Australian government has been the first to recognise this, and we’re delighted to be partnering with them in this world-first educational initiative.”

Under the terms of the partnership, announced in last week’s State Budget, the Newshounds media literacy program will be rolled out to every South Australian primary school.

“With misinformation rife on the internet, we now live in an age where media literacy is an essential life skill,” said Premier Malinauskas. “It has become just as important to teach children how to spot dangerous disinformation online as it is to teach them to read and write. That’s why we are funding this media literacy program to roll out in all our primary schools.”

South Australia’s Education Minister Lucy Hood said: “Our Government is proud to open up this program to every primary school student in the state and we will continue to look at innovative ways to support children to combat dodgy disinformation.”

South Australia’s elevation of media literacy as an essential life skill will make it the first state in Australia to do so.

“Premier Malinauskas and his government were the first in Australia to call for a social media ban for under 16s,” said Mr Corbett. “Now they’ve become national leaders again, recognising that a ban will only ever be as effective as the education that precedes it.”

Newshounds is a world-first media literacy program for children in Years 3–6. The plug-and-play classroom resource is led by the cartoon detective dog, Squiz-E the Newshound, who teaches kids to sniff out mis- and disinformation on the internet. It works on the principle of teaching kids vital critical thinking skills before they get a smartphone in their hands.

In its existing format, Newshounds is already in more than 5,000 classrooms around Australia.

A new-and-improved Newshounds – with an emphasis on artificial intelligence, improved classroom resources and enhanced teacher instruction – will be designed specifically for South Australian classrooms and rolled out exclusively to schools across the state later this year.

Newshounds is an initiative of Squiz Media – publishers of The Squiz daily news podcast and newsletter, News Club, and Squiz Kids – Australia’s premier daily news podcast for kids.

The Squiz Kids podcast is a kid-friendly take on the daily news – listened to by over 160,000 kids and their families every day, including in some 5,000 primary school classrooms around the country.