Journalism Essentials: A Limited Series on Media Literacy

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The Learning Network

Journalism Essentials: A Limited Series on Media Literacy

Our first bite-size teachings on fundamentals from The School of The New York Times look at journalism’s role in society.

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By

Theodore Kim

April 15, 2026,

1:54 p.m. ET

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Loren Elliott, a contributor to The New York Times, photographing the wildfires in Southern California in 2025. The Times covered the news using a variety of formats.

Credit...

Emily Baumgaertner/The New York Times

Greetings. My name is Ted Kim, and I oversee the

newsroom’s early careers team

at The New York Times. My colleagues and I often talk to students and teachers across the country about our changing industry as well as careers in journalism.

As questions about misinformation and A.I. have become more persistent, The Times has increased opportunities for outreach and education, including at

The School of The New York Times

, a summer program for high school journalists. (I should mention that the school is a licensee of our company and not a part of our newsroom, though we do help shape the school’s curriculum.) We are grateful that our colleagues at The Learning Network are giving us space to answer the most common questions that we encounter.

I’ve visited with thousands of students. What I’ve found is that small bites of wisdom about what we do and how we do it not only can help people understand journalism better, but also can inspire whole careers in news. So we’ve brought some of what we’ve learned to you to bring to your classes.

The newsletter includes short teachings that are meant to help you discuss journalism as it exists today. Near the bottom, we’ve shared a suggested activity. We’ve tried to make the teachings useful and digestible, and they are backed by our many years of expertise.

Our first lesson gets at the very mission of The Times:

What is journalism?

Image

Credit...

Mark Abramson for The New York Times

At its core, journalism is about informing people so they can better understand the world around them. This information is told through stories. Those stories, in turn, come in many mediums: words, audio, video, photographs and graphics. Some of the biggest stories are told in many of these ways:

Articles (digital and print) and newsletters

Television and streaming video (on news sites and YouTube)

Vertical video and stories (for TikTok, Instagram and news apps)

Radio and podcasts

Photos and documentary videos

Motion graphics and maps

Let’s look at one example: the wildfires that tore through Southern California in early 2025.

Journalism comes in many forms.

The Times has covered the fires in a variety of formats. Certainly, we published many

articles like this one

:

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