Perspectives on Media Literacy Education: Confronting the Rise of Fake News

• In Event: Poster Session: Political Science Education; Information Technology and Politics & Politics Literature, and Film
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Political Science Education

Abstract

Communication for Social Change (CSC) has become more and more interested in the specific concerns and issues of food security, rural development and livelihood, natural resource management and environment, poverty reduction, equity and gender, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) (Lennie, Tacchi, 2013). Paying special attention to Information and Communication Technologies, it is necessary that modern societies not only identify, but also facilitate and contribute to the acquisition of the skills and abilities required by the population at large, in order to use effectively and safely information and communication tools nowadays. Within contemporary policy debates, those and other skills, abilities and understandings have been brought under the heading of media literacy.

Certainly, the formula media literacy entails a set of skills that anyone can learn. Considering literacy is the ability to read and write, media literacy refers to the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media messages of all kinds (Livingstone, 2003). These are essential skills in today's world, since a great number of people get most of their information through complex combinations of text, images and sounds. Therefore, it is relevant to navigate this complex media environment, to make sense of the media messages that bombard us every day, and to express ourselves using a variety of media tools and technologies. Certainly, media literate youth and adults are better able to decipher the complex messages received from television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, billboards, signs, packaging, marketing materials, video games, recorded music, the Internet and other forms of media. They can understand how these media messages are constructed, discover how they create meaning, and even create their own media, becoming active participants in media culture.

This proposal intends to cast light on current educational policies and trends on media literacy, focusing on the efforts and legislative progress implemented in the USA. It is our understanding that this will help us implement new strategies in the class, so that students can process and assimilate information effectively confronting the rise of fake news.

1) in the first place, the activity, goals and vision of some outstanding American organizations and institutes in this field: the Center for Media Literacy (CML), the US Media Literacy Teaching Institute of Harvard University and similar institutes in other universities, the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), Universities which offer courses in news or media literacy and their scope (media literacy academic programs), the work of the national advocacy organization for media literacy education policy, Media Literacy Now, an organization that empowers grassroots efforts to provide media literacy education by providing policy and advocacy information, expertise, and resources to develop state laws that implement media literacy education;

2) in the second place, taking into account that media literacy success and realizations are tightly associated with educational policies and regulations, we will highlight recent literacy legislation introduced in USA states.

3) As a result of the precious study, we will propose good practices and tools for students confronting the rise of fake news, speaker Damaso Reyes, director of community partnerships and engagement at the News Literacy Project, agreed: “There is a cure — or, perhaps better put, there’s a vaccine — to fake news. That vaccine actually is news literacy education.”

Author

• Leocadia Diaz Romero