How a young man's efforts will help Illinois high school students learn about media literacy

Hajer
Braden Hajer Photo credit Jen Hajer

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A young man from Naperville believed "there ought to be a law" about something...and now there is.

Braden Hajer is a sophomore at the University of Chicago. Two years ago, when he was a student at Naperville Central High School, Hajer pushed to enact legislation that required media literacy education for all Illinois high school students.

"I think everybody can agree there is plenty of misinformation to go around," he said. "A lot people are very vulnerable to it."

Seth Brady was his Social Studies teacher. He told WBBM that Hajer completed a project for his class researching and investigating misinformation in the media and then decided to pursue a law that would mandate media literacy education for all Illinois high school students.

After drafting a bill, Hajer found sponsors for the bill in the Illinois House and Senate.

"We're dealing with a new media environment that's much different than it was 30 years ago," Brady said. "The components to that bill really help students understand and evaluate sort of accessing information-analzying and evaluating that information."

The media literacy bill was signed by Governor Pritzker in July and went into effect this school year and is proof that change can be enacted through hard work and relentlessness.

"This kind of action can be done," Hajer emphasized. "It's not easy. It takes a long time, but it can be done."

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