Political Digital Literacy: What It Is and How We Can Teach It

• In Event: Active Learning Strategies to Combat Misinformation among Undergraduates

Abstract

In the era of nearly ubiquitous digital communication, widespread mis and disinformation, and increasingly overt challenges to democracy, it is critical to identify and spread skills and knowledge to empower the public to interpret political information and engage thoughtfully in their political and democratic communities. Political science courses offer great opportunities for this type of knowledge and skill building. Toward this end, we ask two fundamental questions. First, what are the characteristics of effectively using digital tools to understand and participate in political and democratic processes? And second, how do we teach these skills and competencies?

There has been substantial scholarship on information literacy (Polizzi, 2020), digital literacy (Leaning, 2019; Guess & Munger 2022), and what have been referred to as “internet skills” (Hargittai & Micheli, 2019). The evolution of digital communication has played a role in the intensifying spread of mis and disinformation, the changing structure of political news, increasing polarization, and the fraying of our democratic institutions. Therefore it is particularly important to explore digital literacy and skills specifically within a political context, which makes up what we label political digital literacy. Political digital literacy is an important subset of information literacy, that combines digital literacy, political literacy and civic knowledge. Put simply, Political digital literacy is the ability to effectively and efficiently use digital tools to gather, evaluate, share, and create political information.

Beyond exploring and clarifying political digital literacy as a concept, we propose guiding principles for how to identify and teach these skills. These principles are constructed from both a student and instructor perspective. The experiences and needs of students can serve as guideposts for political digital literacy education. Data from student interviews and surveys from both introductory and upper-level political science courses highlight the digital and political skills, knowledge, frustrations, and needs of students entering our classrooms. Early findings suggest that as the current generation of students begin to engage with politics, often initially during high school or college, the first places they consult are social media platforms and common online resources. From Congressional candidate Instagram accounts, to the politics trending page on Twitter, to the top results from a google search, there is a vast amount of political information online, which students overwhelmingly turn to, primarily on phones or mobile devices. All of this makes discerning factual and useful political information difficult. Students can clearly benefit from political digital literacy education, to learn what misinformation and disinformation are at their core, and the methods on how to fact-check political news and information, how to find trustworthy sources, and how to become civically empowered by digital tools instead of mislead by them.

Finally, with these student-centered needs in mind, we offer pedagogical strategies and activities that have been used by faculty to build political digital literacy. Activities are outlined that can be used to make skills and knowledge central to political digital literacy more visible, build skills to identify false or misleading political information, and how to build a toolkit of trustworthy digital platforms and resources. We believe that these pedagogical strategies can help to build tangible practical tools necessary for navigating the challenges and taking advantage of the opportunities of the evolving political environment online.

Authors

• Ben Epstein, DePaul University

• Delaney Kaufman, DePaul University