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Given that they grew up with social media, it seems almost inconceivable that many young people today can not differentiate between “real news” and “fake news” on social media platforms. There’s clearly too much misinformation and disinformation going viral these days, because young teens are not even able to spot the most obvious examples.
The problem of media illiteracy
In one example, researchers showed thousands of people photos of what they said were examples of “voter fraud” in the United States. As it turns out, the photos were actually photos of voter fraud in Russia. But a miniscule number of people were able to figure that out. According to the researchers, less than 1% of people could spot the fake news.
There are a number of possible reasons for this, of course. Most people only read the headlines these days, so if a headline says there’s “voter fraud,” then there must be voter fraud, right? In an effort to share content as quickly as possible, many young internet users skip reading the article entirely. As long as the content can get them clicks and engagement, then they’re more than willing to share it with all of their followers.
Another problem is that many young people get their news entirely from social media these days. They didn’t grow up reading newspapers or watching the nightly news around dinner time. For them, news is much more fluid. It happens on a rolling, 24-hour basis, so the idea of waking up early to catch up on the news doesn’t make sense anymore.
But that’s too bad, since it means many young users really can’t make sense of complex situations that can’t be easily explained by a clever internet meme on Instagram or TikTok. Take the current war in the Middle East, for example. When shown photos of hospitals in Gaza, or images of troops fighting on the front line, students no longer have any sort of context to make sense of it all. If they depend on social media hashtags for meaning and context, how can you possibly expect that they’ll be able to make sense of a tense, wartime situation?
Media literacy classes could be the solution
From my perspective, the only real solution to this is requiring teens and young students to take some form of a media literacy class. Right now, there are four different U.S. states that have some form of a media literacy requirement, and it makes a lot of sense.
If we want the next generation to be informed about how to analyze serious topics like pandemics, wars, and the economy, then we need to give them the tools to do so. One term that seems to resonate with a lot of people is “pre-bunking.” You can think of this as what happens before “debunking” is required. It means spotting fake news before you fall into a trap of believing it.
It’s all about understanding the authenticity of a source, the context of a situation, or the validity of certain evidence. In the case of the “voter fraud” example referenced above, it might be as simple as stopping for a second to analyze an image. The Russians have a completely different alphabet than we have in the United States, so if you can’t recognize what’s written on a building or a street sign, that might be a good clue that you’re not in Kansas anymore.
Time to add media literacy to the curriculum
The best part about media literacy training is that it can be easily combined with other course subjects, such as history, economics, social science, or geography. Right now, for example, most young Americans probably couldn’t find Ukraine on a map. But if they took a minute to become more informed about the geography of Eastern Europe, they would understand that Ukraine is literally on Russia’s doorstep. That might help them understand why the Russians view the struggle in Europe in existential terms.
Unfortunately, social media has created a lot of very bad habits about how we look for, process, and act on information. Some simple media literacy training at an early age would make a huge difference in this regard.
