In recognition of the 2024 edition of Global Media and Information Literacy Week, PressReader is publishing a three-part series of blog posts on media literacy education, with a particular focus on teaching media literacy skills to elementary- and high-school students.
In our previous articles, we looked at why K-12 educators, including teachers and school librarians, should incorporate media literacy instruction into their curricula and lesson plans, and explored the resources available for them to do so.
For this final installment, we'll consider the ways that developing media literacy skills can prepare students for the world beyond the school setting.
See also:
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Media literacy and civic engagement: empowering citizens to participate in democratic discourse
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Why libraries should include media literacy training for adults
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Information literacy and critical thinking: libraries help fight misinformation
Media literacy is a lifelong path
According to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report titled "Global citizenship education in a digital age", it has become more important than ever for educators to focus on shaping the next generation of global citizens:
Today we face major challenges including the rapid spread of violent and hateful ideologies, human rights abuses, conflicts, refugee crises, and mounting insecurities related to climate change. Education must support learners to develop empathy and care for people and the planet, and in doing so, to become change agents to transform societies.
The real value of media literacy education is that it gives young people the tools to thrive outside the classroom or school library. Media literacy empowers individuals to recognize misinformation when they encounter it in the wild, and sets them on the lifelong path of responsible global citizenship.
Active participants in democratic processes
UNESCO initiated Global Media and Information Literacy Week in 2012. According to the organization's Media and Information Literacy Policy and Strategy Guidelines, media literacy education can result in increased citizen participation in society, which can lead to the following positive outcomes:
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More active and democratic participation: UNESCO cites scholarly research suggesting that in addition to having positive effects on academic outcomes, information literacy and media literacy predispose citizens towards taking a more active role in society. Media and information literacy (MIL) “is a basis for freedom of expression, access to information and quality education for all,” the guidelines read. “Without MIL competencies, citizens cannot be well informed because they do not have access to information and are not empowered to process and use it.”
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Awareness of ethical responsibilities for global citizenship: Media literacy deepens citizens’ understanding of such fundamental rights as freedom of opinion, expression and communication, and the balance between these rights and ethical responsibilities at the personal and societal level. By linking these responsibilities with the concept of global citizenship, media literacy education empowers all citizens to respect and promote the rights of others.
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Enabling diversity, dialog and tolerance: MIL encourages greater engagement with society, which makes it a powerful tool to enable intercultural dialog, tolerance and cultural understanding across different sectors of society and among all age groups.
Don't overlook digital citizenship
UNESCO also informs us that in 2023, 79% of the world’s youth between the ages of 15 and 24 were using the internet, and getting most of their info online, whether through social media or on digital news platforms like PressReader.
In our connected modern world, we can't overlook the fact that global citizenship also means being a good digital citizen, which MediaSmarts defines likes this:
Digital citizenship is the ability to navigate our digital environments in a way that's safe and responsible and to actively and respectfully engage in these spaces.
The Council of Europe has a more expansive definition, adding that citizens today inhabit a world that has become "a complex entanglement of physical reality, technologies, digital media and social networks" that presents us with new challenges and opportunities.
Digital citizens participate responsibly
In this context, digital citizenship refers to "the capacity to participate actively, continuously and responsibly in communities (local, national, global, online and offline) at all levels (political, economic, social, cultural and intercultural)":
Digital citizenship, therefore, encompasses:
competent and positive engagement with digital technologies (creating, working, sharing, socializing, investigating, playing, communicating and learning);
participating actively and responsibly (values, attitudes, skills, knowledge) in communities (local, national, global) at all levels (political, economic, social, cultural and intercultural);
being involved in a double process of lifelong learning (in formal, informal, non-formal settings); and continuously defending human dignity.
Promoting media literacy in a world of AI
In 2024, our information about the world comes to us through an increasingly complex media landscape — one made even more challenging by the rise of generative artificial intelligence. Teaching students to be wary of what they read and watch sets them up to engage with media content as critical thinkers.
"AI has increased the amount of false content that's spreading online at any time, and that makes it harder for us to know what's true and what isn't," Matthew Johnson, director of education at MediaSmarts, told PressReader recently. "Even more, the fact that we know things like deepfakes exist makes it easier for us to discount things we don't want to believe: if we don't want to believe an image or a video is true, it's easy to find evidence that it's a deepfake (even if it isn't.) That's why it's more important than ever to use companion reading skills like tracking something to its original source, finding out there's good reason to think the original source is reliable, checking to see what other sources we already know are reliable have to say, and using fact-checking tools like Snopes."
Fake news is proliferating online
To get a sense of just how quickly the problem of AI misinformation is proliferating, consider that to date, the team at NewsGuard has identified 1,090 unreliable AI-generated news and information websites — up from only 49 in April of last year.
These websites, NewsGuard notes, typically have generic names (such as iBusiness Day, Ireland Top News and Daily Time Update), and appear to the average consumer to be established news sites or credible sources.
This obscures that the sites operate with little to no human oversight and publish articles written largely or entirely by bots — rather than presenting traditionally created and edited journalism, with human oversight. The sites have churned out dozens and in some cases hundreds of generic articles, about a range of subjects including politics, technology, entertainment, and travel.
These articles often include false claims about political leaders or relating to celebrity death hoaxes, fabricated events. Some articles present old events as if they have just occurred.
AI check: How to spot a bot
This reality means it is more important than ever to teach students how to use their critical thinking skills when engaging with media messages.
In an article for the BBC Future Now blog, freelance journalist Alex O'Brien notes the following:
Here is the real challenge for humans as AI-produced writing spreads: we probably cannot rely on tech to spot it. A skeptical, inquisitive attitude toward information, which routinely stress-tests its veracity, is therefore important.... The war on disinformation has already shown us that automated tools alone do not suffice, and we need humans in the loop.
O'Brien also offers a few tips on bot-spotting, including:
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Verification: "Can you verify and check the sources? Can you check the evidence — both written and visual?" O'Brien suggests cross-checking and looking for supporting material from other reputable sources.
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Examine the text: Take a close look at spelling, grammar and punctuation. O'Brien writes: "If the spelling and grammar is not appropriate for the publication or the author writing it, ask: why?" If the copy quotes people or institutions that do not seem to exist, that's a dead giveaway, as are outdated references. As O'Brien notes, AI is often still limited in terms of what information it can access, and it may not be up-to-date when it comes to current news.
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Check the tone: Often, AI-generated text simply doesn't read as if a person wrote it. Giveaways might include stilted linguistic patterns or abrupt changes in tone or voice.
Information literacy in the workplace
Another key factor to consider as we teach the next generation of workers is that the benefits of media literacy also extend to the labor market. A June 2024 report from the UK-based Internet Matters notes that while hard digital skills such as coding are still in demand, there is a growing need for media literacy skills such as critical thinking.
"This is proving to be even more pressing with the evolution of generative AI which has the potential to disrupt both how content is produced, but also how we learn and problem solve," the report states.
Internet Matters cites a study by the National Foundation for Educational Research, which found that one of the most in-demand skills needed in the 2035 workforce will be information literacy, "the ability to gather, process and use information, including in a digital context".
Media literacy starts at home
Internet Matters also points out that, while schools and libraries play a major part in creating a media-literate population, media literacy really starts at home. Parents and guardians are the first line of defense, with teachers and librarians in supporting roles.
Schools can also perform an important role in bridging the gap with home, and in ensuring that all children have appropriate boundaries and protections outside the school gates. This is particularly important for vulnerable children who are at the greatest risk of harm online. Few parents will have received formal media literacy education through their own time at school, which makes parental outreach by schools all the more important.
A lived and dynamic process
What is the ideal age to start teaching kids about media, culture and critical thinking? According to MediaSmarts' Johnson, the sooner the better.
"It's never too early!" he told us. "As soon as kids start noticing and asking questions about the media they use and see around them, we can encourage them to think critically."
Nor does media literacy education end with high-school graduation.
One of UNESCO’s Five Laws of Media and Information Literacy states: “Media and information literacy is not acquired at once. It is a lived and dynamic experience and process. It is complete when it includes knowledge, skills and attitudes, when it covers access, evaluation/assessment, use, production and communication of information, media and technology content.”
