Media Literacy

The challenge of quality information in an online world

Sylvia Zemke, Nov. 2020

What is Media Literacy?

The Center for Media Literacy offers this definition:

Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy. (Center for Media Literacy, n.d. Media Literacy: A definition and more)

Why is Media Literacy Important?

The year 2020 has seen the rise, not only in global health concerns, but also in attention to the existence of "fake news". While the term has been around since the late 19th century, it has gained popular usage and prominence since the beginning of the Trump presidency in 2016. The Collins Dictionary named "fake news" the word of the year in 2017 and their lexicographers claimed usage of the word increased by 365% from 2016 to 2017 (Notley & Dezuanni, 2019).

It appears there is a mainstream awareness among American adults that media sources can contain bias and potentially spread misinformation, but information can be deemed "fake news" without any real critical thinking, investigation, or credibility checks. Suddenly, anything can be labeled fake news simply because it doesn't corroborate ones preconceived ideas, a tendency known as confirmation bias. On the flip side, there are media sources and channels that intentionally spread disinformation or conspiracy theories. These sites can take advantage of an uninformed and media illiterate population.

If adults find it difficult to sift through websites, news sources, and media outlets, how much more difficult is it for children? The myth of the "digital native" has been debunked (Kirschner & De Bruyckere, 2017). Just because the youth of today were born in the age of the internet, does not mean they are somehow born with the ability to navigate, analyze, and evaluate everything they encounter on the web. Educators, parents, and adults have a responsibility to become media literate, and to teach these media literacy skills to the next generation. Handing them loaded devices without teaching them how to make sense of what they will encounter, is both irresponsible and dangerous.

A PEW Research Center report revealed that 64% of the 1,002 Americans they surveyed found fabricated news stories a cause of confusion.
Furthermore, 23% said they had (knowingly or unknowingly) shared a made-up news story.
(Barthel, Mitchell, & Holcomb, 2016)

What do we know about Media Literacy Education?

Media literacy education has been peripheral to the core curriculum in schools around the globe for the past 80 years (Notley & Dezuanni, 2019). Because the basic tenants of the curriculum were developed prior to the age of the internet, many of the practices have been slow to adapt to the unique challenges of social, networked, and digital media. Further, while the Common Core Standards have explicitly included digital literacy, assessments to determine students' digital information seeking skills are still lacking (Kohnen & Mertens, 2019).

Recently, more research has been conducted to understand the ways that students and young people interact with digital media, how and to what extent they determine source credibility, and the effectiveness of media literacy educational strategies. Some studies have shown that "interventions and direct instruction can help students improve their ability to reason about information credibility," and that students "appear to benefit from explicit instructions that direct them to look for certain pieces of information in order to assess credibility" (Kohnen, Mertens & Boehm, 2020). A 2019 study among middle schoolers revealed that a co-instructed, 90 minute, curricular intervention teaching lateral search strategies could effectively produce improvements to students' credibility judgements (Kohnen, Mertens & Boehm, 2020).

Lateral search strategies are based on the research of Wineberg and McGrew (2019) who examined the search behaviors of three groups of people: historians, Stanford students, and expert fact-checkers. The study revealed that the vertical search methods (reading down a webpage, for example) used by historians and students failed to produce accurate credibility judgements. The historians and college students failed to identify a reputable website from a disreputable one. "In contrast, fact checkers read laterally, leaving a site after a quick scan and opening up new browser tabs in order to judge the credibility of the original site. Compared to the other groups, fact checkers arrived at more warranted conclusions in a fraction of the time" (Wineberg & McGraw, 2019).

Researchers Kohnen and Mertens (2019) argue that while explict teaching of skills and strategies is important, K-12 information literacy instruction should also focus on helping students build "expert information-seeking identities" that are based on the competencies that generalists such as journalists, authors of nonfiction books for children, and librarians all share in common. Patterns in these three groups and their ways of being, knowing, and doing create optimum traits for discerning credibility in information-seeking. Modeling and reinforcing traits like curiosity, skepticism, and persistence build students' identities as information-seekers and, according to the authors, could form the basis for a online information literacy curriculum.

Implications for Educators and Parents

Educators and parents have a big job to do. Navigating the ever-changing digital landscape is a new pursuit that requires skill and discernment. Fortunately, there are researchers, organizations, and professionals who are dedicated to the task of defining and designing media literacy education for the 21st century. As adults responsible for teaching young people how to make sense of what they encounter through media sources, we can lean on these researchers' findings and models.

Author and high school librarian Angie Miller (2018) speaks about the changing role of the librarian (and really, all adults who work with children): "We are experiencing the new librarian shift. We are no longer providers and curators of information; we are guides for the mountains of information our students must trek through. We are the oxygen masks for every news excursion. "

The Loertscher model provides questioning strategies and is an excellent starting point for the evaluation of media.

Graphic from an upcoming book by David V. Loertscher http://www.davidloertscherlibrary.org/

References

Barthel, M., Mitchell, A., & Holcomb, J. (2016, Dec. 15). Many Americans believe fake news is sowing confusion. PEW Research Center. https://www.journalism.org/2016/12/15/many-americans-believe-fake-news-is-sowing-confusion/

Center for Media Literacy. (n.d.) Media Literacy: A definition and more. https://www.medialit.org/media-literacy-definition-and-more

Hodgin, Erica. (n.d.). Misinformation in the information age: What teachers can do to support students. Social Education., 82(4), 208–212. https://www.socialstudies.org/social-education/82/4/misinformation-information-age-what-teachers-can-do-support-students

Kirschner, Paul A, & De Bruyckere, Pedro. (2017). The myths of the digital native and the multitasker. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 135–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.06.001

Kohnen, A. M., Mertens, G. E., & Boehm, S. M. (2020). Can middle schoolers learn to read the web like experts? Possibilities and limits of a strategy-based intervention. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 12(2), 64–79. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle/vol12/iss2/6/

Kohnen, Angela M, & Mertens, Gillian E. (2019). “I'm always kind of double‐checking”: Exploring the information‐seeking identities of expert generalists. Reading Research Quarterly, 54(3), 279–297. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.245

Miller, A. (2018). There’s so much there! Helping kids conquer the internet and save democracy. Knowledge Quest, 47(1), 24–30. https://eric-ed-gov.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ1190642

Notley, Tanya, & Dezuanni, Michael. (2019). Advancing children’s news media literacy: learning from the practices and experiences of young Australians. Media, Culture & Society, 41(5), 689–707. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718813470

Unicef. (2020, Aug. 26). Covid-19: At least a third of the world's schoolchildren unable to access remote learning during school closures, new report says. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/covid-19-least-third-worlds-schoolchildren-unable-access-remote-learning-during

Wineburg, S & McGrew S. (2019). Lateral reading and the nature of expertise: Reading less and learning more when evaluating digital information. Teachers College Record (1970), 121(11). http://www.tcrecord.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/library/content.asp?contentid=22806