Abstract We are now living in an age of “fake news,” which is not a new phenomenon, but its current iteration has highlighted the various dimensions of how people interact (or do not) with information - information consumption is so much more than people's immediate cognitive processing. This video essay will address some of the colloquial language that can be applied to … [Read more...] about The Colors of Disinformation: Disinformation and the Literacy Landscape
Fake News
Beyond Fake News: The Crucial Role of Solutions Journalism in News Literacy Education
In today's complex and potentially harmful media environment, there is a growing recognition of the critical importance of news literacy education. Learning how to reliably navigate news and information, in our hyper connected world, has become an urgent and indispensable modern life skill. Considering the growing threat posed by misinformation online, traditional news literacy … [Read more...] about Beyond Fake News: The Crucial Role of Solutions Journalism in News Literacy Education
Social Media as a Primary Vehicle for News
In our growing age of technology and increasing dependence on our devices, individuals have turned to digital news rather than broadcast or print to be informed about current events. “In these days of pandemic, protests, economic recession and angst among the world’s population a recently issued report shows that consumers continue to shift away from traditional media sources … [Read more...] about Social Media as a Primary Vehicle for News
Media in America… The Road Ahead of Us
Media is all around us at all times. Every screen we have is a source of information: from the big screen on your wall, to the small screen in your pocket. According to corparitech.com, “the average American spends 7 hours and 11 minutes looking at a screen every day” (CompariTech). We are more surrounded by media than ever. Simultaneously, public trust in media is falling … [Read more...] about Media in America… The Road Ahead of Us
From practice to policy? What lies beneath
Can media literacy policy be developed to deliver social justice, to empower the most vulnerable subalterns so that they can feel represented? There are technological, ideological, and socio-political structures that govern media messages and this creates the paradox that media literacy cannot study what remains unarticulated. An upcoming virtual global summit holds the rich … [Read more...] about From practice to policy? What lies beneath
The Harm and Cost of What Misinformation/Fake News Is Doing to Us as a Nation
We live in a world with misinformation, and fake news exists and is at an all-time high. From social media to the internet as a whole, the number of people making fake accounts with false information to get views and money is rising rapidly. For example, on a website like Wikipedia, you can edit and put whatever information you want, and an unsuspecting visitor to that page … [Read more...] about The Harm and Cost of What Misinformation/Fake News Is Doing to Us as a Nation
How Fake News Leads to Conspiracy Theories
Besides being potentially avoidable tragedies, what do the Nashville Bomber, Russian Trolls, Black Lives Matter, Covington Catholic, Pizzagate, Sandy Hook, Anti-Vaxx, Capitol Riot, and COVID Conspiracies all have in common? They’re all instances where a lack of media literacy led to destruction of property, health, or life… and, they were all … [Read more...] about How Fake News Leads to Conspiracy Theories
My Introduction to Media Literacy
I first came across media literacy not as an advocate nor as a teacher but as a high school senior in 2017. My junior year of high school coincided with the 2016 Presidential election. Buzzwords like “fake news” and “disinformation” saturated the pixels on my computer screen, and questions about journalistic integrity and objectivity permeated the very ink of the articles I … [Read more...] about My Introduction to Media Literacy
Media Literacy, Security, and Youth Engagement with Global Current Affairs: The Case of Deterrence
This paper explores the relationship between media literacy, youth global engagement, storytelling, and contemporary security, using the case study of Deterrence, a web documentary in eight episodes co-created with students at Bournemouth University. The paper starts by making the case for factual, interdisciplinary knowledge as a pillar of media literacy. I argue that, … [Read more...] about Media Literacy, Security, and Youth Engagement with Global Current Affairs: The Case of Deterrence
Fake Climate News: How Denying Climate Change is the Ultimate in Fake News
Download full article pdf >> After the 2016 US-presidential election and Brexit referendum, fake news emerged as a quintessential democratic problem that media literacy was tasked to solve. The broad social concern about fake news acknowledges that the public sphere is a kind of commons that requires tending, and reminds us of the human (and civic) need for … [Read more...] about Fake Climate News: How Denying Climate Change is the Ultimate in Fake News
Deconstructing Free Enterprise and Reconstructing for Sustainability: Cultural-Ecological Propaganda Analysis for Educators
Abstract: In the spring of 2017, a conservative think tank mailed 300,000 copies of a book to US teachers and college faculty to encourage widespread uncertainty about climate change and promote neoliberal, free enterprise discourse in US schools. Teachers have been targets of free enterprise propaganda campaigns throughout the last century. This most recent event stresses the … [Read more...] about Deconstructing Free Enterprise and Reconstructing for Sustainability: Cultural-Ecological Propaganda Analysis for Educators