Media Literacy Nonprofits: Curricular Combatants in the War on Dismisinfo

• In Event: The Question of Curriculum in (and for) a World of Disinformation

Abstract

Objectives
The purpose of the paper is to consider the role of media literacy nonprofits (MLNs) in the U.S.-based response to the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation (i.e., digital dismisinfo) across digital media ecologies. The inquiry asks, how do media literacy nonprofits influence curriculum and policy around digital dismisinfo in the U.S.?

Theoretical Perspective
This study draws on social network theory (Kadushin, 2012), specifically policy network analysis (Knoke, 2011), to investigate the role of MLNs in the U.S. response to digital dismisinfo. A policy network is an assemblage of public, private, and hybrid actors who interact directly or indirectly to influence the development and implementation of public policy (Galey-Horn & Ferrare, 2020). Following Williamson (2012), this study adapts policy network analysis to the field of education, understanding MLNs as networked actors shaping curricular and policy responses to digital dismisinfo through media literacy advocacy.

Methods and Data
This research emerged from an ongoing visual network analysis study working to detail the activities of and interactions between actors—primarily policy actors, platform actors, and pedagogical actors—responding to digital dismisinfo in the United States. This particular study focused on examining actors forming the MLN cluster of the larger network. An exploratory qualitative content analysis (Bengtsson, 2016) of each nonprofit’s website (n=14) was applied to understand (a) how such actors frame the problem of digital dismisinfo, (b) what curricular responses they advocate, and (c) their connections to other actors, specifically platform and policy actors. The content analysis included identifying features common across the organization's websites (e.g., “about us” pages); recording information about their structures, activities, and funders; and documenting curriculum materials related to digital disimisinfo (i.e., misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda).

Findings
The study’s central finding is that media literacy nonprofits are playing an increasingly important role in the U.S.-based response to digital dismisinfo by functioning as intermediary actors between policymakers and platforms. These organizations are led by a diverse range of people across business, academic, and political sectors, and they often receive considerable funding from the very platforms where digital dismisinfo spreads. Further, these organizations develop and promote media literacy curricula—sometimes original, sometimes adopted from other sources—often with little or no supporting research, and then deploy this curricula through their websites as well as through teacher professional development. Finally, these organizations engage in political activities by authoring and/or advocating media literacy legislation at the state and federal levels.

Significance
Media literacy nonprofits—influencing and subject to the influence of both platforms and politicians—occupy a unique position in the response to digital dismisinfo in the U.S. While these organizations engage in laudable advocacy for media literacy education, their interactions with platforms and politicians reveal a concerning possibility, specifically that media literacy initiatives in the U.S. function as a proxy war between politicians and platforms, who avoid regulatory engagement with each other by funding and advocating media literacy through MLNs.

Author

• Bradley Robinson, Texas State University
  Presenting Author