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Michael A. Spikes : Faculty Experts

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Michael A. Spikes

Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, School of Education and Social Policy

Lecturer, Department of Journalism
Director, Teach for Chicago Journalism

About

Areas of Focus

  • News media literacy education
  • Media literacy education
  • Misinformation and disinformation studies
  • Social media
  • Audio/radio journalism and podcasting
  • Design of learning environments

Work/Research

  • Media literacy interventions
  • News media literacy in classrooms and learning environments
  • Youth journalism and media production

Career

Spikes has been teaching, writing about and developing curriculum on the subject of news media literacy and media production for more than 15 years. Currently, he is the director of the Teach for Chicago Journalism project and a lecturer at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
He is also the co-founder of the Illinois Media Literacy Coalition, a collaborative of Illinois educators and scholars working to improve and build models for media literacy education in public schools in response to recent legislation mandating media literacy education in Illinois high schools. The coalition’s Framework for Media Literacy Education has been recognized by the Illinois State Board of Education as a key resource for teachers. For this work, Michael has been recognized with a 2022 Illinoisan of the Year award from the Illinois News Broadcasters Association.
Spikes has previously held roles as a project manager for the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University, a media studies teacher in both public and public charter schools in Washington D.C., and was a member of the educational advisory team at the Newseum. He also has held roles as a media producer and editor for NPR, PBS NewsHour and the Kellogg School of Management.