Roy S. Whitehurst

Roy S. Whitehurst is a former CIA analyst and instructor. He spent 30+ years evaluating written information, photos, videos, and other media collected by the CIA and then taught media literacy skills to new CIA analysts.

Roy argues that anyone—not just CIA analysts—can build their skills at evaluating the accuracy, credibility, logic, and argumentation of posts on social media. He believes that these skills are critical for us to engage in civic discourse and build a stronger democracy.

Roy is the author of the new book, “Teaching Media Literacy with Social Media News: Practical Techniques for Middle and High School Classrooms.” The book, which shows middle and high school educators in civics, English language arts, and social studies how to teach the skills to their students, can in fact teach all of us.

Roy maintains a website, medialiteracysleuth dot com, where he periodically posts evaluations of social media, including trending pop culture media and media appropriate for use in civics, ELA, and social studies curricula.