Denis Smith, a former official of the Ohio Department of Education, wrote this post in 2017, when the major concern of many was how to teach students to recognize “fake news.”
The villain of the piece is the internet, where anyone can post anything without fact-checking or any kind of filter.
He wrote about a conference on media literacy where Frank W. Baker was the keynote speaker.
Baker was the keynote speaker at the conference, whose title, “Popping the Fake News Bubble: Engaging Students in 21st Century Media and Information Literacy,” reflects the concerns librarians have in teaching students to be critical readers and viewers, consumers of what they are exposed and respond to in the modern world.
While we are now constantly hearing the term fake news, Baker said, the larger problem is a lack of critical thinking on the part of those exposed to media, whether that might be print, advertising, videos, commercial art, and other images that surround us every day. One study, for example, found that, on the average, we are exposed to more than 5,000 visual images daily, many of which have to be examined carefully because of the decisions and choices that accompany media.
The fake news bubble that Baker asked his audience of library/media specialists to address in their work with students is found in the fact that more than half of Americans now receive the majority of their news and information from Facebook and other social media. Never mind that readers of those platforms may not realize that there are usually no filters that provide discernment, and perhaps no editors or gatekeepers at work to mold the accuracy and appearance of media content, concepts, and ideas.
An example of “fake news” content. This meeting never happened. It is a doctored photo.
Yes, the internet is free and unfettered, in stark contrast with more traditional media. But young and old alike need to understand and accept the lack of constraints and therefore develop the critical thinking skills necessary to carefully evaluate media. As a case in point, the “Pizzagate” gunman, who brought an automatic weapon to a Washington restaurant after reading on the internet that it was part of a sex-trafficking ring with ties to Hillary Clinton, was sentenced on June 22 to four years in prison.
With Pizzagate and the manufacture of other infamous fake news products, one thing is certain: The internet is not The New York Times…
It is not an overstatement to say that in the last year, our country has experienced a digital Pearl Harbor, and all of us, particularly our elected officials and community leaders, must acknowledge the crisis we face in expanding our definition of literacy and educating all citizens to develop and expand their critical thinking skills as digital citizens, to use Baker’s term.
In spite of the arduous task ahead in getting these three players to address our national literacy crisis, Baker is optimistic that there is one group already in place to do the work at hand.
“I am excited that today’s librarians are embracing media and visual literacy themselves,” he said. “I believe the more tools and skills they have in their toolboxes, the better they will be equipped to demonstrate and justify the vital importance of their jobs.”
The sad irony, as Smith points out, is that many schools do not have librarians, whose jobs were sacrificed to cut budgets.
https://hartmannreport.com/p/how-does-america-solve-its-fake-news?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
Staffing schools with qualified librarians and having a curriculum for media literacy that has components in grades 5-12 is critical.
The idea that anyone gets their news from Facebook :-(.
Facebook should be required to flash a surgeon general warning “News you see on this sight may be fake and dangerous the the country’s collective health and democratic functioning. Ignore any news you see and consume your news from a vetted source.”
perhaps in the future librarians will be “certified” on their way to become librarians for having learned how to spot false information 🙂
This is happening in real time in the Boston area. It involves a group that has gotten their word out on social media.
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2021/07/03/rise-of-moors-moorish-american-arms-wakefield-standoff-i95/
strange and disturbing
A good library, with a good librarian, meets the mental, emotional, and academic needs of young people. A good library has good books. I suppose having some keyboards and screens is good too, but I have mixed feelings about digital literacy. There’s literacy, and then there are digits. Not sure they have anything to do with one another. I don’t deal with digits too much, but I know what literacy is. The highest level of literacy is being such a good reader that you seek to read.
When I talk about digital/media literacy I am referring to curriculum that educates students about how to handle the overwhelming information they will encounter on the internet and social media. We need to well equip 5-12 grade students how to sift through fake vs real information and to well understand that when they are using social media they are being manipulated.
This may or may not fit into part of a librarians role – but it is should be part of the overall school curriculum at every grade 5-12.
I agree, unfortunately. It’s unfortunate that we can’t find a way to make the internet safe for avid reading without censorship. It’s not safe, not even for scholars (scholars meaning accomplished academic professionals, not charter school students). That’s why I like books and periodicals so much better. Well, that’s one of the reasons.
Having a school library and librarian are excellent and essential at all grade levels. A beautiful thing to behold. I set up a mini-library in my classroom but it could never replace the school library/librarian, not even close.
Agree. A good children’s / school library is a magical place.
I cannot count the number of times I have referred someone, usually, an alleged brain-damaged lunatic Trumpish conservative, to a reliable traditional news source and they rejected it if they thought it had a liberal bias, but no one on the right ever seems to reject an alleged news site that reports biased news and even lies if it is a conservative site.
It’s as if lies and bias from conservatives are okay but it doesn’t matter if liberals or progressives lied or not, as long as they were biased, even slightly.
Biased news does not mean it’s a lie. Bias is determined by the use of loaded words that favor the left or right in the political spectrum. We do not have to lie to be biased.
To a Trumpist, an honest but biased liberal/progressive is a hundred times worse than a conservative that lies every time he/she opens their mouth.
When I debate someone on Quora or another site about a news source I used to support my views, I often include what Media Bias/Fact Check has to say about that site.
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/search/
The “lunatic” conservatives I have debated seldom cite sources or provide links and the few that have, I check through media bias/fact check and let them know what that site has to say about their source.
They usually ignore me and change the topic or never respond.
that is a great link, thanks Lloyd. I’ve been using this one I think is good too: https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings
The conference mentioned in the article was a joint venture between Ohio’s school (K-12) library association (OELMA) and academic library association (ALAO). We have been teaching media literacy along with technology and information literacies all along. Sadly, at a time when these information are increasingly critical due to the nature of online information, school library programs are being decimated. The loss of this particular type of learning opportunity is detrimental to society.
During this past year’s contentious political season, a group of former students had a discussion of fake news in a social media forum. I was tagged in that discussion when one former student questioned why people didn’t validate information sources before using them. This question was followed by a comment that these people obviously didn’t have Mrs. Logan as a teacher or they would know how to evaluate sources.
Having professional teachers with degrees in information science who teach information, technology and media literacy makes a difference.
Agree wholeheartedly. Very sad to have heard of school libraries or at minimum their librarians disappear in many places due to cost-cutting. Also the hijacking of libraries for weeks at a time as supplemental testing locations for the annual accountability ritual. Ignorant moves at a time when ignorance seems to be growing by leaps and bounds.