Media literacy and you
Tips for navigating the disinformation jungle

Do you happen to know what your daily screen time is? Although we can see this information on our smartphones, we don’t often calculate the time spent in front of other devices such as our computers or televisions. This past month, I taught a class on media literacy. Why choose this subject? According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, children ages 8-12 in the United States spend four to six hours a day watching or using screens, and teens spend up to nine hours. For adults, that number is similar to that of teens, although it lessens with age. In a world where technology is becoming more ingrained into our daily lives, media literacy is now more important than ever.

What is media? What is literacy? And what is media literacy? The National Association of Media Literacy (NAMLE) provides us with the definitions for these terms. NAMLE defines “media” as all electronic or digital means and print or artistic visuals used to transmit messages. This includes print, broadcast, audio, film, photography and digital media. “Literacy” is the ability to encode and decode symbols and to synthesize and analyze messages. “Encoding” refers to the symbols, meanings and information meant to be carried through the media of choice. “Decoding” refers to how the message is interpreted, often reflecting a person’s experience and knowledge with deciphering the encoded symbols. It is important to note that media literacy is not “anti-media.” It is supported by and develops one’s critical thinking. In turn, this can influence how one navigates the world and their relationships within it.

 For one of the exercises with my students, I asked them a series of true or false questions borrowed from the New York Times Learning Center. One was, “It’s easy to look at stuff on social media and take it as it is and not question it.” Most voted false. Another was, “Older adults are more likely to struggle to recognize fake news than young people and are also the most likely to share it.” Most voted true. A later question was, “Most young adults talk to their parents and guardians about what makes media sources trustworthy.” They all voted false. This made me ask them: “If you feel like older adults are more likely to struggle with fake news, then why are young adults not speaking to them about it? Do we have a responsibility to older adults if we know we can provide them with useful information?”

For some, it seemed like they had never made the connection before. For others, they shared that the adults in their life seemed too proud to be taught by teenagers, making it difficult for the students to teach them about any subject. Are they correct? Are we, as adults, too proud? At the same time, it seemed like this pride was also below the surface in the students’ responses. They, too, felt like they knew better than to fall for something false on social media.

To me, it seems like the answer is found through communication between both parties. The wisdom that comes with age can work in tandem with a life born alongside the internet. It made for an interesting dilemma and showed the students that media literacy is not a simple subject. It is interdisciplinary, drawing in thinking often used in communications, psychology, art, philosophy and ethics.

We then touched upon methods for evaluating the quality of online content, whether through established news sites or social media hubs like Youtube and Tiktok. Created after a 2017 study of high school students, Professor of Reading and Digital Literacy at the University of Rhode Island Julie Coiro identified these methods and the questions they raise so we may all be less susceptible to false information. The considerations in evaluating online content include:

• Relevance: Does the content stay relevant to the information that you’re reading or learning about?

• Accuracy: Does the information contain factual details or updates that can be verified through outside resources?

• Bias: Does this article lean toward any viewpoint, and why might it do so? What are the effects of that bias? Not only that, how does our own bias influence how we view this information?

• Reliability: Can you trust the information based on the history of the author and the publisher?

Using these tools, anyone can become more discerning of the content that they come across, whether that be a great Aunt’s account of a story she saw on Facebook or the articles coming from your news source of choice. I had to remind my students, and myself, that these methods aren’t meant to make us unsure of what to believe and to send us into an existential spiral, unable to know what is true and what is not. They are meant to help us take a pause. And in that moment, we get to be intentional about the information that we consume and how we communicate it. Perhaps it’s us, humans, that are the greatest media of all.