Introduction
This series (introduced here) is about exploring solutions to disinformation. We face a difficult challenge. We need multiple, coherent plans that mutually reinforce each other if we are to make any progress in “flattening the curve” of misinformation.
This month, I’m looking at the role of media literacy.
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The troubling story that wasn’t
The footage emerging from Washington DC on January 6, 2021 was frightening. Glued to screens, we watched in horror as an anti-democratic mob was unleashed upon the Capitol, fueled by a narrative that simply wasn’t true; the belief that Trump legitimately won the 2020 election.
As more and more videos came to the fore, a troubling story emerged: the role of police officers in the violence. They seemingly opened gates and offered tours for the band of marauders. One officer in particular stood out. Later identified as Lt. Tarik Khalid Johnson, he became the focus of anger for people all over the world. Images showed him donning a red Make America Great Again baseball cap and leading the mob through the Capitol building.
The phone call seemed to be coming from inside the house, but all was not as it seemed.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, a lot more was going on here. In fact, “The MAGA cap was a ruse that was part of an unusual plan to rescue more than a dozen trapped police officers... One witness said the lieutenant’s action enabled a set of doors to the Capitol to be closed, shutting off an entry point to more intruders.”
How quick the evolution from villain to hero. In our collective rush to judgement, it’s easy to believe a false narrative. Especially when you see the evidence before your very eyes. There are countless examples like Lt. Tarik Khalid Johnson, and they happen all the time. The lesson, that we need to slow down in the era of information disorder, is central to media literacy.
Information overload = information chaos
Be honest. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? You check your phone, don’t you? I do too. It’s okay to admit it. And, if I dare ask you another personal question, what’s the last thing you do before sleep? You probably check your phone.
From that first moment of the day right through to the last moments before sleep, we live online. We are accessible. We are consumers. We are bombarded with information. Notifications from WhatsApp or iMessage, Twitter or TikTok, Facebook or Messenger, news apps, exercise apps, nutrition apps, sleep apps.
A steady drumbeat of notifications through the day marks the passage of time. As we brush our teeth, sit on the toilet, eat breakfast: the internet screams at us. It demands our attention. Right now. Every second. It’s normal to feel overwhelmed. And so it becomes very easy to simply share what we see. It feels nice to pass on funny videos or important information to our loved ones. Sharing is easy. So tap that button. Be useful for the people in your life.
Except, when we’re in a constant state of information overload, and time seems to pass by so quickly, we are often not sharing consciously. Sometimes we pass on useful insights, but just as easily we can pass on misinformation.
I’ve been working closely on issues related to online verification, hoaxes and fakes for over 10 years. On an almost daily basis I’ve been watching misinformation flow through the internet like water. Despite that, I too find myself sometimes struggling about what to believe. People far more expert than me have been fooled into sharing hoaxes. Why? Because we’re human. And the system we have makes it easy to get it wrong. It can be tricky to tell if something is genuine or created to mislead or exploit, or even more difficult, whether there is a whole backstory or set of motivations we simply don’t know about, like the police officer in the red MAGA cap.
So the role of news literacy, media literacy, digital literacy, information literacy, whatever you want to call it, is clearly critical in today’s world.
In trying to flatten the curve of misinformation, media literacy has a central role. If we can educate people about how to think critically, about how misinformation gets created and shared, then we can ensure that citizens self-correct any such problems before they spread. In the information age, it is crucial that we all have the skills to critically evaluate content as we come across it - whether it’s from a newspaper, TV report, tweet, or WhatsApp message.
If we can commit to a massive investment in this we can get ahead of the next false narrative. Before the latest meme goes viral, millions of us will have decided not to share it, and in doing so deprive the content of the attention it desires. Speed is one of the key problems with our information structure, and we can all play our part to slow things down once we know some simple tips and tricks.
As we shall soon see, there are limitations to media literacy as a tactic to combat misinformation, but let’s stay with the strengths of this theory for a bit more and explore what it means to be media literate in 2021.
Basic tips of media literacy
A basic tenet in media literacy is that today’s information flows so fast that it’s difficult for accuracy to thrive. Slowing down, taking a deep breath, counting to 10: all these simple ideas can be tools we use every day before hitting that share button.
Peter Adams, who works at the News Literacy Project as the Senior Vice President of Education, made a connection between this and the pandemic in a March 14 segment of NPR’s All Things Considered. Here is how he described it: “The equivalent of taking 20 seconds and washing your hands is very much the same in the information space where if you take 20 seconds, investigate the source, do a quick Google search, stay skeptical, we can eliminate a great deal of the confusion and misinformation out there.”
The other key practice is lateral reading. If you are reading widely from a number of sources, you are better protecting yourself from the architects of false information. Is the source an outlet you understand well? If it’s from the New York Times, sure, it mightn’t be perfect all the time, but they have high standards and I expect their information to be broadly accurate. If it’s from Joe Bloggs who just forwarded a me meme via WhatsApp, I should be a lot more skeptical.
I’m based in Ireland so I’ve been watching the Be Media Smart campaign from Media Literacy Ireland, which encourages us to consider three stages in the process: Stop, Think and Check.
In the Stop stage, you should read more than the headline. Don’t assume that a picture or photo is giving you the whole story. And know that just because information goes viral or is trending, that doesn’t mean it’s accurate.
In the Think stage, you should think about what the information is for - is it meant to tell us news, persuade us of something, or entertain us? Consider your own biases - we are more likely to believe information that conforms to our belief system but that doesn't mean it's right, and if it doesn't, that doesn't mean it's wrong either. Finally, see if the information is being reported anywhere else.
In the Check stage, look at the web address - sometimes disinformation is spread from dodgy sites. Find out who the author, producer or publisher is - who is behind the message and do you know what their intentions are? Look at the detail to check for accuracy - are there typos, does the piece stand up to scrutiny (are there inaccuracies you can see or does it quote "experts'' who may not actually be expert)? Finally, you can always check fact checking databases like TheJournal.ie here in Ireland, or for global fact checks try AP and Reuters, for US fact checks try Snopes or Politifact, for the UK try FullFact. There are many, many more: check out the International Fact Checking Network, which ensures standards are high in the industry. Any verified signatory to the IFCN’s code of principles can broadly be trusted.
Consider the case of Emma González. She was a survivor of the mass shooting in Parkland high school in the US, and afterwards rose to prominence as a voice for gun control. With fame, sadly, came attacks. Disinformation peddlers photoshopped images of her ripping up shooting range targets to make it look like she was actually ripping up the Constitution.
Unfortunately, the images spread quickly, but a quick search of a fact checking site, for example Snopes, tells you the true story behind this seeming scandal.
Mike Caulfield, a professor at Washington State University Vancouver, has developed a technique he calls SIFT: Stop; Investigate the source; Find better coverage; Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context. You can read more about it here, and he has developed a three hour online course here.
In a similar course called Mediactive from Arizona State University, the instructors suggest that, “Anyone who is curious about media should frequently ask questions like these, especially about what they encounter in social media: How did this get here? Why am I seeing this? Why is this advertisement next to that article or post in my timeline? Why is it recommended that I read this article or watch this video?”
Dan Gillmor, who along Kristy Roschke is behind the Mediactive course, said in a book of the same name that he believes there are five principles to critical thinking about media:
Be sceptical. Of everything.
Exercise judgement. Some outlets deserve our trust more than others.
Open your mind. Avoid echo chambers. Read widely.
Keep asking questions.
Learn media techniques. See how easily content can be manipulated. Learn how journalism works.
Dan wrote in the book in 2009, "As news accelerates faster and faster, you should be slower to believe what you hear, and you should look harder for the coverage that pulls together the most facts with the most clarity about what's known and what's speculation.
There are two more things I want to mention when talking about the basics of media literacy. One is the power of emotions. Media literacy teaches us to be wary when you see news that is pushing emotional buttons and making us feel something very strongly - whether that’s sadness, anger or even joy. In that moment, our psychological guard is let down, and we may let the emotion take over.
This can also lead to the final phenomenon I want to mention here, which is confirmation bias. Particularly in a busy world, we need to make quick decisions and move on with our lives. But confirmation bias means that I might not let anything into my worldview which doesn’t already equate with what I believe. If you want to have a truly informed mind, you must acknowledge that confirmation bias exists for you just like it exists for everyone else, and find the appropriate moments to challenge yourself and your pre-existing ideas.
Media literacy and misinformation
When it specifically comes to misinformation, it’s worth being aware of the various different terms and types. Non-profit organisation First Draft pioneered the work in defining this field after the phrase “fake news” became co-opted by authoritarian leaders around the world to shamelessly crack down on a free press.
First Draft and various others in the industry helped us move on from the term “fake news” and instead use the more precise terms disinformation, misinformation and malinformation.
From First Draft:
"Disinformation is content that is intentionally false and designed to cause harm. It is motivated by three distinct factors: to make money; to have political influence, either foreign or domestic; or to cause trouble for the sake of it. When disinformation is shared it often turns into misinformation. Misinformation also describes false content but the person sharing doesn’t realise that it is false or misleading. Often a piece of disinformation is picked up by someone who doesn’t realise it’s false, and shares it with their networks, believing that they are helping… The third category we use is malinformation. The term describes genuine information that is shared with an intent to cause harm. An example of this is when Russian agents hacked into emails from the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign and leaked certain details to the public to damage reputations.”
The seven different content types of dis and misinformation as defined by First Draft are: satire, misleading content, imposter content, fabricated content, false connection, false context and manipulated content. All are swirling around the internet at frightening speed every second of every minute of every day.
Media literacy initiatives teach valuable, life-long skills
There are a number of ways we can try to improve the societal standard for media literacy. One of those, obviously, is in the classroom. Practices vary globally, but teachers and educators getting involved in imparting wisdom like we have seen above can be very powerful.
Aside from traditional schooling, there are other initiatives experimenting with instruction. For example, Poynter’s Mediawise For Seniors course is aimed at people over 50 who want to improve. Based in the US, but available online and hence globally, the course is a relatively cheap ($30) way of accelerating learnings in this area.
Older people vote at a higher rate than younger populations. Therefore they have a big impact on democracy, and with rising age expectations all the time added to slower birth rates, at least across the West and many parts of Asia, this group is likely to grow in significance.
But older people also have less experience online. They have had to adjust to a new information age as the internet has grown in importance around them. Some adapt quickly, others need help. Initiatives to teach technology literacy can be particularly useful for this cohort. By focusing on misinformation, the Poynter course provides a highly specific form of this.
Poyner describes a number of learning outcomes for the participants, so the goals are that they will be able to:
Spot the seven types of misinformation and explain why someone shared them
Verify the images and videos you encounter on the internet
Identify and consume online news responsibly
Fact-check social media posts using the tools and techniques professional fact-checkers use
Report false information on each social media platform
Operate as a good digital citizen and explain to others the pitfalls of sharing misinformation
Teach loved ones how to fact-check on their own.
There is a lot of debate within the field of misinformation as to whether older people are more prone to believing and spreading false narratives. Because we are talking about a complicated, messy world, it’s hard to provide statistical analysis to prove the case.
It’s fair to say that age can be a factor here, but before we go blaming all the granddads, more research is also showing that younger people can be susceptible too. Previous theories went that young people who grew up with the internet, and as serial producers of content online, are intimately familiar with how easy it can be to manipulate and distort. But particularly as we have seen with the rise of TikTok, those assumptions have been challenged.
Hence the creation of another course from Poynter, called Mediawise for Gen Z. According to them, despite being digitally savvy, a lot of teens find it difficult to handle digital information. We can’t assume, as we sometimes do, that all young people are masters of the medium. Remember how tough it can be growing up as a teenager, and how easily influenced some teens can be. Add in smartphones and algorithms and, clearly, we’re asking a lot from our young adults.
I asked Alex Mahadevan, Senior Multimedia Reporter at Poynter, about the differences between the two courses. He told me,
“The basic lessons are the same, as learning to be a critical consumer of digital information is really a universal skill.... But, yes, we needed to tailor examples and delivery for each generation. For Gen Z, we do a lot of fact-checking across Instagram and TikTok. We will show a TikTok with false information in it, then explain the tools and techniques professional fact-checkers used to debunk it. We do the same for seniors but with an example from Facebook.”
The News Literacy Project, a non-profit based in the States, is another organisation working on this. They physically go into classrooms and provide programs for teachers to help young people engage critically with the news they see.
They provide seven tips for when you come across information:
Be aware of your emotions
Pause
Decide if it is user-generated content, an unfamiliar source, a recognised news source
Take 60 seconds to check the comments, read the post carefully, search elsewhere for more coverage
One more minute to investigate the source
Build savvy habits like following fact checkers, learning best practices, taking note of unreliable sources, developing a critical eye, looking for transparency
Deepen your expertise over time by learning digital verification skills, helping to protect others and seek out reputable journalism.
The News Literacy Project also provides an online virtual classroom called Checkology.
There are countless other examples. One for parents is called Cybercivics, which is intended to help children build a healthy relationship with technology. All should be part of our matrix of solutions.
Case study: Finland
But is there any evidence to support more investment of time and money in schemes like these? An example that is frequently promoted is Finland, as has been reported by The Guardian and CNN.
Finland shares a border with its Scandinavian cousins Sweden and Norway to the west and north, but also with Russia to the east. Over the 20th century, Finland managed the difficult task of retaining its own sense of identity, culture and language, while the Soviet big brother to the east grew into one of the world’s superpowers. Particularly after World War Two and during the Cold War, the country had to carve out a niche for itself so that it didn’t jeopardise its independence or economy by having friendly relations with its Western-friendly neighbours and its Communist ones.
So Finland has adopted a perspective that allows it to see multiple interests and its own, and implement a strategy to succeed as its own, small but resolutely independent, country. Quite a feat.
Since 2014, the country has prioritised standards in media literacy for its education system. By adopting a mass inoculation of citizens with insights to media manipulation, the country reaps the benefits. These learnings are embedded throughout the education curriculum.
From The Guardian piece mentioned above, which profiles a Finnish teacher Kari Kivinen: “In maths lessons, Kivinen’s pupils learn how easy it is to lie with statistics. In art, they see how an image’s meaning can be manipulated. In history, they analyse notable propaganda campaigns, while Finnish language teachers work with them on the many ways in which words can be used to confuse, mislead and deceive.”
The country has been rated as Europe’s most resistant to misinformation.
Other ways to teach media literacy
Successful as it may be, not all countries have the same resources or willingness to act as Finland.
So perhaps a big part of this will be individuals who take it on their own initiative to learn and be challenged. This is something that all of us, even the most media literate, will need to check from time to time. Are our habits helping us understand the world better? Are we truly informed? Yet more initiatives are out there to help aside from the courses mentioned already.
First Draft developed an SMS course in advance of the US election, where you could receive text messages with little prompts to aid in your understanding of voting misinformation.
A growing and exciting area here is gaming, which can bring a bit of fun to our media literacy efforts. A group called DROG has developed a number of games which the creators refer to as like taking a “psychological vaccine” to protect against misinformation.
One of the most popular is called Get Bad News. As the player, your role is to create as much mayhem by spreading disinformation across (pretend) social platforms. The game encourages you to get better and better at being divisive, spreading hoaxes, impersonating famous accounts, all so that you gain followers and become influential. It’s a nice insight to the reality of how these operations work. It helps players understand the motivations and tactics of the disinformation spreader.
In a follow up research paper, the creators of the game said that they found, “initial evidence that people’s ability to spot and resist misinformation improves after gameplay, irrespective of education, age, political ideology, and cognitive style”.
Another from DROG is called Harmony Square. Like Get Bad News the creators found that "the game confers psychological resistance against manipulation techniques commonly used in political misinformation: players from around the world find social media content making use of these techniques significantly less reliable after playing, are more confident in their ability to spot such content, and less likely to report sharing it with others in their network."
Another example is Go Viral! which was developed between the University of Cambridge and the UK Government in partnership with DROG to combat COVID-19 misinformation. Of course, the WHO has warned about an “infodemic” to partner the pandemic.
The beauty of these games is they are quite short - usually between five and 10 minutes - and they are easy. They’re a bit of fun, but they impart a serious message. Of course, more independent research needs to be done to gather how effective this strategy is, but it’s nice to see innovation in the field.
Incidentally, if you’re enjoying these and want to do even more, check out Factitious, in which you are presented with sample news reports and have to think through whether they are real or not. Some of the results may surprise you.
One that provides insight into how disinformation spreaders make money from all this is called Fake It To Make It.
The News Literacy Project developed an app called Informable for similar purposes. If you’re into “brain training” apps, it might just be the thing for you.
Campaign in poetry
Another way we can increase media literacy is through old-fashioned campaigns.
As mentioned earlier, Be Media Smart was one such campaign championed by Media Literacy Ireland and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. By finding supporters including Twitter Ireland and academics, and having the national broadcaster RTÉ play ads across TV and radio, the campaign offered some help to those who were struggling to understand what was real at the outset of the COVID pandemic.
I asked Martina Chapman of MLI about why the campaign worked well. An insight from her was that, “We were very flexible in how the campaign assets and message were used. We trusted MLI members to know how to reach their audience and we asked them to deliver the Be Media Smart message in whatever way would resonate with their networks and audiences. Local radio is a great example of this.”
I asked Martina about advice she might have for others trying to build such campaigns and a core point she made was about simplicity and positivity:
“We used a relatively simple call to action: Stop. Think. Check. In terms of language we deliberately did not talk about fake news or misinformation because we didn’t want the focus of the campaign to be narrowed to the news agenda or politics. Instead, we wanted a message that was applicable to all MLI members and all kinds of information and content. So we talked about ‘accurate and reliable information’ and focussed on making informed choices – whether those choices were about politics, health, finance or other aspects of life. I believe that is also really important to not just focus on the problem. If you’re going to raise awareness of a problem or issue, then is it essential that you empower people to take some kind of positive action to counter the problem. Otherwise, you risk frightening people into denial or leaving them feeling like the problem is so big it is out of their control and they ignore it. By giving people practical advice, tools and signposting to further sources of help, you are providing them with a way of taking the first step on a journey.”
Some countries have adopted a National News Literacy Week. These campaigns can certainly help spread the message that people need to be skeptical of what they see and hear.
The main lesson: don’t believe everything you see on the internet
Let’s return to why we need that skepticism.
Online, if the information you are reading is from a stranger, you don’t really know who or what is behind it.
One possibility is that it’s a “bot”. There can be a lot of misunderstanding around what a bot is or is not, and we don’t have time and space to devote our full attention to it now. But it is important to be aware that certain accounts might not be fully authentic, that is to say, fully human. They could be run by software. A human may well be directing that software and a network of bots, and their reason for doing so is likely to be self-interest, whether that be financial or otherwise.
There are tools that can help you figure out if the source you are seeing is a bot. There is Bot Sentinel, for example, which will analyse an account for you and provide a score of how likely it is to be a bot. Botometer is a similar tool from Indiana University, who are also developing a tool called BotSlayer.
For now, the main thing to understand is that not everything you see online is necessarily from a person. Sometimes bots are used for humorous purposes or in other harmless ways. But sometimes there is nefarious activity behind them.
Despite all the good work being done to help you understand what is a bot and what is not, remember that the problem more often gets worse because of, well, us.
Plain old ordinary humans are responsible for most of the spread of misinformation. That’s the finding from a study by MIT, which also found that false news spreads much faster than the truth. That probably isn’t shocking news, but it’s worth remembering - we humans are responsible for the virality of falsehoods. Don’t blame the bots! And the impact of such falsehoods can have devastating consequences. Think of what Lt. Tarik Khalid Johnson and Emma González went through.
Humans are the ones who spread misinformation, but we also are the ones directing it. If you’ve never seen videos of click farms, check them out. This is a form of fraud - people are paid very low wages to constantly click links on multiple devices to artificially increase engagement, often with the goal of driving advertising revenue.
As well as directing it, humans are obviously the creators of disinformation themselves. Understanding their perspective is useful in building antibiotic resistance. There has been much coverage of Russia’s role in this regard, and it’s a given that we will always have a problem with state actors. But they’re hardly the only ones.
In 2018, the BBC profiled “the godfather of fake news”, Christopher Blair. In the article, Blair proudly explains how he literally makes things up and posts them online, and then watches as they spread throughout the internet. He refers to what he’s doing as art or satire.
In 2016, NPR tracked down a major spreader of misinformation, whom they identified as Jestin Coler, a regular guy living in the suburbs. His story highlights how some of these people are motivated by ideas around information vigilantism: “He says he got into fake news around 2013 to highlight the extremism of the white nationalist alt-right.”
Coler wrote in 2017 about how his site started to make him quite a bit of money (something we’ll come back to another month in a more in-depth feature on business models). For example, he said,
"While Google AdSense, arguably the highest paying ad network, has taken minor steps to disincentivize fake news sites, there are many ad networks willing and eager to take their place. Discussing specific financial benefits of creating fake news leads to more players entering the game. I know many of the players in the industry and can say without a doubt that money is the primary motivation.”
He goes into more detail:
"The goal of fake news with which I am most familiar—not state-sponsored propaganda, hyper-partisan content, or news that you don’t agree with—is money through ad sales. Stories that work best are those that are sensational in nature, but appeal to the consumer’s confirmation bias. In order to maximize pageviews and increase revenue, stories aim to create an emotional response to get readers to share content. That emotional response can be one of hope, inspiration, anger, fear, etc., but the end goal is the share. While reaching a single reader is nice, reaching that reader and their hundred(s) of contacts is far nicer.”
Hopefully all this illustrates the need for the skills we mentioned earlier. Stop. Think. Check. Read widely. SIFT. All are critical as we take responsibility to stop misinformation from spreading.
But we have to be careful that our use of skepticism doesn’t veer too closely to cynicism. This is something I asked Dan Gillmor about, and I loved his answer:
“We should all start by being skeptical of everything; that is my first principle of media literacy. But that doesn't mean being equally skeptical of everything. We need to exercise judgment, to use various tools (chiefly our brains) and tactics to find sources of information we can trust more than not. I have no absolute belief in any information source, given that human beings make mistakes. But I have a great deal of trust in some sources of information because I've learned that they work hard to get things right, with perspective and context. There's a huge difference between skeptics and cynics. Cynics, from my perspective, have given up. Being skeptical should mean working harder to sort things out, and help others do the same.”
The strengths of media literacy in tackling misinformation
Most people can agree that improving media literacy is a good thing. In the information age, personal and governmental investment in media literacy is good for all of us - for the state, for individuals, for businesses, for society at large. Today it is an essential life skill. Prevention is better than cure.
Perhaps the strongest argument for media literacy is that it puts power in the hands of us. As we consider solutions to misinformation, there’s something wonderful about feeling a sense of control. We can all play a part in reducing the spread of misinformation and flattening the curve.
Citizens learning how to make good choices with their information habits will empower them. It’s a good long term strategy. We are likely to see increased civic engagement as a result - consider the case of Finland with its healthy democracy and active citizenry.
More nuanced, critical thinking is inherently positive.
Furthermore, we know there are limits to other tactics to tackle misinformation like content moderation and fact checking. We simply need more people stopping and being aware of the possibility of satire or fabricated content or misleading narratives.
The weaknesses of media literacy in tackling misinformation
However, there are problems in relying on this. Media literacy alone is not going to stop misinformation from existing in the first place. We just hope it will lessen the viral lift.
We should also be careful about assuming every country is in the position that Finland is in. Some countries struggle with reading literacy rates, never mind media literacy. There are logistical difficulties that poorer countries will find, and even rich countries may struggle to find ways to pack all these lessons into an already-packed curriculum.
Media literacy is certainly a good long term strategy - but that means in the short term we have some very real, pressing issues of concern. Some of these I will be tackling in future reports like political/economic/social polarisation. Some solutions, like the role of technology, might help us make progress faster. Relying on media literacy alone means it could take years before we see progress, and in that time the problem will mutate and grow. Large portions of the citizenry could well live in an alternate reality filled with falsehoods, and it will be very difficult to bring them back to the real world.
Finally, this strategy puts all the burden on citizens. In doing so, it lessens the burden on corporations like large technology platforms, or VC-backed startups with millions in their back pocket. Their own investment in moderation, as well as thinking about redesigning their structures if algorithms and business models lead to the crumbling of democracy, are a part of this too. We’ll be coming to all those issues in future posts.
Where to next?
The nonprofit Media Literacy Now wrote a report in 2020 which offers a stark portrait of where we are:
“Deliberate and politically-motivated disinformation campaigns, often centerstage in media, are drastically shaping public perceptions and policy. Distrust of news has contributed to widespread cynicism. The growing belief that ‘nothing is true’ is a danger to our society, and most of all, to developing children and youth who are learning to discern what is real and true, and how to behave as engaged citizens, responsible consumers, healthy individuals, and informed creators of content”.
So what do we do from here?
For all the weaknesses just described, the case of Finland is a powerful example of the impact of education. The United Nations included digital literacy in its 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The European Commission's Report of the independent High Level Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation provided a number of recommendations. These included suggestions that "European institutions and national governments should recognize media and information literacy as core literacy, adding it into school curricula", training for teachers, and increased support for other types of media literacy initiatives. Courses from Poynter, or ones like Mediawise, along with games like Get Bad News, should all be part of the discussion too.
Media Literacy Now recommended in their report that lawmakers:
“institute media literacy education within state statutes and then oversee implementation. Permanent statutes establish that media literacy curriculum is considered an essential element in education and not dependent on temporary funding or individual champions. These policies will contribute to ensuring a future population that uses critical thinking skills with media-delivered information to make decisions: as citizens of a democracy; as participants in a modern economy; and for the health and well-being of themselves and their families.”
It remains to be seen whether we will see a government-oriented thrust forward in this regard, or whether it will be left to all of us as individuals to do our own research, SIFT, and try out courses and games to improve our own abilities.
No matter what happens, media literacy is the bedrock of our attempts to stop disinformation. Any improvements here are welcome and have a long tail benefit. The ideas behind media literacy should be part of our thinking as we look to other solutions too. When platforms label posts that contain misinformation, they are performing an act of media literacy. A more media literate public can calmly examine how and why algorithms and recommendations work the way they do, read widely, and come to their own informed decisions about the issues that affect their lives.
I think that’s a pretty good goal we can all get behind.
*
Having considered the strengths and weaknesses of media literacy, however, it’s clear that we will need more solutions.
One area that has been the subject of much discussion is fact checking. We’ll take a close look at that next month. Followed then by content moderation, technology, research and partnerships, the role of empathy, the debate around regulation, business models, the role of the media, experiments in new digital public squares, and the importance of reducing polarisation.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. What have I missed here in relation to media literacy? Are there other solutions not mentioned above that you think should be part of this? Do you have any research or reading material you’d like to share?
Thanks for taking part.