Reflections on Living with a Journal Topic for a Year: The Human-Algorithmic Question: A Media Literacy Education Exploration

A Letter from Karen Ambrosh, Managing Editor of The Journal of Media Literacy

In January of 2022, Belinha, Melda and I began the conversation of how we would build the next journal issue around Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence. Understanding that algorithms are the building blocks to machine learning and artificial intelligence was the first step. Often these terms are used interchangeably by those of us new to the world of computer science. It was through this exploration that it became clear how important computational thinking skills are in the age of the algorithm. Those of us in the field of media literacy need to draw those connections for our students and expand our own skill sets to be better prepared for not just the future, but for present day interactivity.

The more I read about algorithms and artificial intelligence, the more I noticed how often fear was an underlying sentiment. This, of course, grows from a general cultural conditioning often found in science fiction works. I know I have been influenced by films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey from 1968, the Terminator series from the 1980s, and Minority Report from 2002.  We have been conditioned to think algorithms are complex and out of our control. Overcoming this ingrained view of technology will take work on our part. It is essential for all of us to understand the relationships between engineers who design algorithms, machines that can learn and make new algorithms, and how we are impacted by these processes. 

The only way to do the work of expanding our skill sets and addressing the fears and biases we have within ourselves is to jump in and attack these topics. Collaborating with the Greenfield High School English Department on a unit on Information Ecosystem and Manipulation, in February, I presented a media literacy lesson to all of their classes as a demonstration of how to analyze different types of media products all related to the topic of fear about Artificial Intelligence. I did this with the dual purpose of promoting a global conversation I arranged for our students to be able to talk with Greenfield Alumnus, Sean MacAvaney, associate professor of machine learning at the University of Glasgow, Scotland and Alexandre Le Voci Sayad, Journalist, Educator, Novelist, and Researcher in Media Literacy and Artificial Intelligence. To prepare for the conversation in March, we asked students to read a Great Decisions magazine on Artificial Intelligence and watch a YouTube video Artificial Intelligence: The Global Race for the New Frontier from the Foreign Policy Association, or watch a Frontline documentary In the Age of AI. The students were engaged and asked probing questions of our speakers. It was a great beginning for bringing these issues to the forefront.      

IC4ML hosted conversations with our Advisory Council and our network of collaborators last January and April. Through this process of tapping into our collective expertise, we came up with a more expansive view of the directions we needed to take with this topic. Through the lens of media literacy, we need to ask questions such as: How can we conceptualize, analyze, evaluate or process the impact of algorithms, machine learning, and artificial Intelligence locally, culturally, and globally? What are the ethical uses? How do they relate to other domains? We need to understand how young people think about the scope of AI, algorithms, and the costs involved. As media literacy educators, we need to address issues of justice related to data or lack thereof which is a growing field, the complexity of disinformation whether in the automation of information or even the automation of climate disinformation, and the role of AI in education.

The collection of articles currently in this issue show how responsive and adaptable media literacy researchers and educators are in addressing the ever-changing role of technology in our society. The call for Algorithmic Literacy to be included in K-12 curriculum is astoundingly clear. Frameworks for implementing simple and direct lessons are underway. As an educator and librarian, I am grateful for the generosity of these authors who have put in the work necessary to take a topic that could easily still have me mired in fear and confusion and have found a way to make it transparent so that I, along with my colleagues and students, can move through it confidently with agency over how it impacts our lives.