The Youth Café is honoured to be invited as part of the Steering Committee for the Media Literacy Week happening in October. The Media Information and Literacy (MIL) week is organized by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in conjunction with other organizations to commemorate the steps organizations and individuals are taking towards advancing media literacy for all.
A healthy approach towards information sharing in digital spaces is a practice that requires recognition of the shift in information use and sharing. It is about carefully choosing information to share and responsibly processing information. Media literacy is a habit that needs to be created and emphasized upon among kids, youth, and adults. It is easier to handle disinformation issues when people are accustomed to a culture of a healthy digital media literacy and respect in the digital space.
“With “information as a Public good” as this 12 months’ theme for World’s Press Freedom Day, it “underlines the undeniable value of validated and official guidance,””
The MIL week is an opportunity to broaden the discussion on media literacy past fake news and identification of authentic information. Often, we equate identification of fake news to media literacy while in reality it is only a segment in the broad topic. Bias, credibility, and references are all part of the media literacy conversation that should be understood.
The five standard media blocks
There are five standard media blocks during past Media Information and Literacy Week, which include access, analysis, evaluation, creation, and action when dealing with any information on the internet.
Access
The access of the information in media literacy refers to the ease of use of technology products. Understanding how the media and the internet works is still a challenge for many people. With improved additions of apps, icons, and functions, people are forced to quickly adapt. Adaptation may however not be easy for people who may not be well conversant with specific technologies or devices.
Even with the enormous benefits that the internet may bring forth, young people may fail to take advantage of such opportunities. The way people consume information is also related to the access they have and how they convey that information. Limited access means limited information is received, which may then limit decision-making.
Analysis
When the internet became widely available, billions of people gained access to a potent tool without the necessary training to navigate it. The anonymous, monetized, and viral nature of the internet makes it a cesspool for misinformation and conspiracy theories. It is perhaps no surprise that countries worldwide are facing information crises that threaten to destabilize their societies seriously.
In the short term, several steps can be taken to mitigate these crises. For example, Facebook has utilized artificial intelligence to flag false information and offer users more accurate content, but it remains a highly imperfect solution because they fail to address the problem at the root: Most people still do not know how to navigate the internet.
Evaluation
Since most people think of media literacy as merely learning to read sources and fact-check, promoting internet-literate practices requires a mental shift. Media literacy should be thought of as a national security priority and approached in a multimodal fashion. Rather than focusing solely on consumer written information more consciously, recognizing doctored pictures and videos is equally essential.
Many social media websites are built to show content that often affirms our own biases. By implementing comprehensive media literacy education, more people will understand that algorithms often recommend highly sensationalized and emotionally provocative content over factual accurate content. Outside school curriculum, misinformation and disinformation can be treated as an epidemic.
Creation
Adults often hold the impression that young people are well conversant with how the internet functions, as we are considered digital natives. And to a certain extent, we are. Our familiarity and comfort with the internet, however, also makes us susceptible to letting our guards down. Most of us are yet to learn the actual skills required to think critically about every part of the web we encounter, and that must change.
Developing an effective media literacy curriculum for youth is the way forward in teaching them how to conduct themselves on social media and create valuable and authentic content. Implementing media literacy campaigns in education to effectively resist malicious content online, is the first and most crucial step towards curtailing the spread of misinformation.
Action
There’s a very real issue when people, regardless of their age, are unable to tell the difference between facts and fictions online. Identifying online falsehoods could include tactics such as looking for the original source of a claim, doing a reverse image search, or Google searching to see if the claim has already been debunked and affirm whether other reputable sources are reporting on it. If we can all take some small steps just to understand what is actually happening and how it works, then we can clear up a lot of confusions and help to make it a better, happier, healthier place for everyone.
What does this mean for us?
With our own project on media literacy and civic reasoning ongoing, this opportunity means better articulation, support, and involvement of key stakeholders in the process. We also plan to have a media literacy week as well, in Kenya, where the experience will then inform of this international planning committee. With the elections year approaching, we trust that learning more about digital literacy will impact our attitudes and thought process as we participate civically.