Why media education in schools needs to be about much more than ‘fake news’
Only 2% of children have the skills needed to identify a credible news story, so schools and governments need to do much more. Frances Yeoman and Kate Morris explore the information crisis in this crossposting from The Conversation.
The 2019 general election is already being remembered as the one where misinformation went mainstream. It was, of course, already on the political agenda after the 2016 referendum and US election, with growing numbers of academics and parliament sounding the alarm over foreign actors using so-called “fake news” to disrupt the democratic processes.
But what was seen over the election period was not the work of fringe actors. Instead, major political parties appeared to adopt tactics previously associated with shady players operating at the edges of the information ecosystem. No major party was entirely innocent, as evidenced by First Draft’s Cross Check project. But the Conservatives’ campaign repeatedly adopted controversial tactics. Tactics such as having its press office pose as a fact-checking service and editing BBC news footage to imply that prominent journalists supported the party’s line on Brexit.
Voters, the evidence suggests, were caught in a storm of misleading Facebook posts, memes and tweaked videos. This was a covert propaganda campaign and its impact has yet to be established.
Research from the Reuters Institute for News has shown for some time that growing numbers of people in the UK access their news online – 74% in 2018. Over a third (39%) get news via social media.
It would be good if kids (and adults alike) watched ‘The Newsroom’ series, I think it should be mandatory in terms of understanding ethics or behind the scenes news activity.
Thankfully for those also seeking further information there are free MOOC courses on line covering ‘News Literacy’ in the digital age. Information is key and it is becoming more and more readily available.
It’s important equally that people are educated on how social media works, fuelling ones own internal biases by showing them content based on things they chose to engage with as opposed to objective truths.
It’s not just fake news that kids need to be made aware of – it’s most media and popular culture.
I’ve been giving media literacy presentations to thousands of young people around Australia for over a decade. With an extensive background in media, I have a fair idea about how images and messages are manipulated. The kids don’t.
you lost me at Google-funded partnership between the Guardian Foundation, pure left wing propaganda.