The spread of information continues to grow at an exponential rate. Access to this information becomes more easily attainable. Yet here we find history being rewritten by some John Doe that decided to change the story. Do you believe him?
As consumers of the internet and the many excellent benefits it provides, we also fall into some realities that are not so welcoming. As mentioned in my blog, “it does not come easily organized due to the limitless access it offers and the open source, creative production of media content that has allowed “fake news” and sites that use cookies or search trend algorithms as ways to lure the users into misguided or potential misinformation as discussed in the articles by Danah Boyd and Carole Cadwalladr.” The result of this are a generation of students and learners struggling to draw the line of what is real and what to believe. How can we fix this?
There is no clear path on the right method, approach or direction to take to resolve the concerns of media literacy. I agree with David Buckingham that there should be fundamentals, but that we also need to take this further and go beyond how to operate the technology and look to how to interpret the information. The fundamentals that I believe are important include common terminology, rights of use, and basics on navigation. From there we need to take an analytical approach to teach them how to find and evaluate supported and credible information. This could be strengthened by presenting the reality of the concern with media literacy we see today.
Interestingly enough, after reading each of my peer’s blogs, I find that we all have a variety of perspectives on approaches to take, each of which offer great added potential. I do believe one common important aspect of media literacy that we all acknowledged, is the importance of thinking critically, and analyzing and interpreting media to be able to separate real from fake.
Below is the summary of my group’s blogs regarding this topic:
Liesa Yeargan:
Fake news and propaganda sites have created a continuous stream of misinformation that floods the internet. This information is often inaccurate or biased and can lead to risky social trends and credulous views. Liesa’s blog brings forward examples of these concerns with the “Google search trap” and the dangerous trend where people were eating tide pods. Misinformation does not just impact social problems, but has become a growing concern in educational systems. Looking into these concerns, we find that a large missing piece of the puzzle is the lack of media literacy. In order to understand how to address the concerns, we must be able to understand what defines media literacy. Some believe that if something is on the internet, then it must be true. How does one justify this?
Liesa believes that it becomes important to “understand distinction between credible and non-credible information,” but also to analyze opinion from fact, and fact from fiction. Although it is not easy to create one defined method to resolve media literacy concerns, she offers up her own approaches which I believe provide great steps to take. This includes verifying credibility of resources, analyzing the information presented through the citations and sources within the content, and backing this all up by linking 2-3 additional resources that agree with the information.
She finalizes her points by reinstating the reality that is present with the existence of the internet, “As media consumers in the Web 2.0 era, the responsibility ultimately lies with each of us to review and discern what is fact and what is fiction.”
Paulette Minacci:
Social media sites such as Facebook are providing a platform of information sharing that is often found poluted with fake and biased articles around a user’s personal interests and beliefs. The problem becomes the fact that the user is unaware of the credibility of the source and the biased positions of some of the articles. Knowing that this problem exists with adults on social media, how can we take this into the classroom to help our students become better evaluators of media content?
Camila Domonoske’s article shared this concern with research studies that proved to show “shocking” results in the students’ inabilities to determine fake from real. An excellent point that Paulette states is “As teachers, we need to develop students’ ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media by teaching these “cyberkids” to think critically and thoughtfully when maneuvering through the new media world of today.” We cannot simply just expect students to be handed over the access and know exactly what to do with it.
Her blog does an excellent job of providing some ways where assisting to resolve media literacy can be achieved as a teacher/educator. She mentions the importance of establishing fundamentals in media literacy as a way to assist students with navigation. This could include providing content to help improve identifying fake or misinformation. She also suggests introducing a survey at the beginning as a way to understand each learner’s knowledge, experience and interaction with media. The results of the survey could enhance the learning experiences that are presented through a more customized approach. She also introduces the idea of continuous engagement and feedback from the students/learners. This creates an engaging environment that can be modified when and where necessary. Her suggestions to improve on media literacy focus on the importance of thinking outside of “our comfort zone” and finding ways of remaining current in the classroom to better promote students as lifelong learners.
Tatiana Efremova
Tatiana’s blog introduces a global perspective of media literacy and the cultural bias that is shaped by media. It is true that Globalization is happening and as she states, “…we, people, are becoming the citizens of the world.” What many fail to see is the cultural biases that influence our views and beliefs because of our tendencies to believe what we see or hear without finding supported facts, looking to credibility of our resources, or even searching outside of our country’s common resources.
Tatiana states, “Technology can enable us to become well-rounded, well-educated citizens that are experts on many subjects outside their formal education. But just access to this technology isn’t enough, one needs to develop media literacy to receive all the benefits this technology can offer, while avoiding the harmful effects it can also bring.” She discusses the importance of the need to educate our young learners how to effectively navigate and interpret media and how to determine right from wrong, real from fake, fact from fiction and biases that “cultivate negativism.”
This is important to her from her personal experiences with the class that she teaches. She is teaching Russian. In her class, she often guides her students to research through a variety of “verified resources” from differing countries. This approach is to understand the different sides from different countries and how that can influence their knowledge and perspective of a subject. Through class collaborations and discussions her students engage in critical thinking and address in part some of the concerns over media literacy. Tatiana shares her personal experience with her approach and the positive feedback that she has received from past students that have taken her class. She provides an excellent example of a way to overcome the concerns we face with media literacy today in the classroom.