We’re not doing sufficient to show media literacy

Credit score: Alison Yin/EdSource

Credit score: Alison Yin/EdSource

Carolyn Jones

March 7, 2023

Since I arrived in Albania in mid February, I’ve been pondering, discussing, considering and even dreaming about media literacy in all its nuances and dimensions. As a Fulbright Specialist, my process right here is to assist write media literacy pointers for Ok-12 faculties and universities, so the concepts that Individuals take without any consideration — equivalent to the worth of a free and impartial press — are ingrained into the subsequent era of this tiny Balkan nation on the Adriatic.

However I wasn’t ready for a query I received final week from an older professor at a college in Tirana.

I had simply given my spiel about pretend information and its corrosive impact on democracy in the US, when he requested in halting English:

“However we glance to the U.S. for management. If the U.S. can’t defend itself from pretend information, what’s going to turn into of us?”

I used to be speechless for a second, immediately conscious of the gravity of this mission. Albania has a vigorous media panorama, with dozens of newspapers and on-line information retailers, however it’s rife with pretend information and propaganda. It’s a problem for abnormal residents to get dependable data.

I advised him that numerous educators and advocates within the U.S. are working onerous on this situation, attempting to make sure all Individuals are savvy information customers. That they gained’t be fooled by pretend information, or share rumors and propaganda on social media. That they’ll search out balanced, truthful, thorough reporting.

However his query haunted me. We’re not doing sufficient, and the stakes are too excessive for a lackluster effort.

Thus far, 18 states (together with California) have enacted some type of laws selling media literacy in faculties, in keeping with the advocacy group Media Literacy Now. Solely three states, Delaware, New Jersey and Texas, require media literacy in all Ok-12 school rooms, with requirements built-in into current social research, well being or language arts curriculum.

In California, Senate Bill 830, handed in 2018, required the state Division of Schooling to attract up media literacy pointers and sources for faculties. The web page supplies a trove of curriculum {and professional} improvement alternatives, however nothing is required. It’s not possible to find out what number of California lecturers truly use these sources or what number of college students get any media literacy training in any respect.

In my expertise visiting school rooms within the U.S. in addition to Albania, college students welcome this data. They’re hooked up to their telephones and spend hours a day on social media. It’s their favourite subject. It’s how they interact with one another and the world. They’re keen to debate it, share concepts and assume past TikTok and Instagram.

Some faculties already know this. Fremont Excessive College in Oakland Unified, for instance, has had a media academy since 1986, the place college students study communications and digital abilities, together with filmmaking. San Rafael Excessive College in Marin County additionally has a media academy, which blends English, social research and media manufacturing. Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in Los Angeles Unified, named for the Wall Avenue Journal reporter who was executed in Pakistan in 2002, has a powerful concentrate on journalism and communications. It’s one of many top-performing faculties in California academically, with a commencement fee of practically 100%.

However media literacy shouldn’t be a distinct segment subject for choose faculties. Media Literacy Now advocates for all states to require media literacy in all grades. States ought to create requirements and mannequin curriculum, fund skilled improvement for lecturers, kind advisory councils and appoint central coordinators. Media literacy ought to be required for commencement.

“A high quality media literacy training teaches college students methods to assume extra critically, not what to assume. It’s not an additional, it’s an important factor of training,” the group wrote in its 2022 report on the state of media literacy within the U.S.

Defining media literacy can be a superb first step. After I received to Albania, I seen immediately that media literacy means one thing completely different right here than it does in California. Right here, it leans towards information literacy as a result of that’s the instant want: a public that may see via pretend information and propaganda and admire truthful and correct reporting. Elsewhere, it’s extra targeted on digital citizenship, or secure and accountable on-line practices. Some curriculum focuses extra on data literacy, or the flexibility to analysis and consider data on-line.

And naturally, it could additionally embrace media manufacturing abilities, equivalent to reporting and writing information tales, recording podcasts and making easy movies — all of which college students can do with their telephones proper within the classroom.

In Albania, the place democracy was hard-fought and continues to be in its infancy, educators are working towards requiring media literacy in Ok-12 school rooms, built-in into current curriculum, and as a stand-alone class in universities. Working with worldwide media consultants, journalists and lecturers are writing pointers that hopefully will quickly be in each classroom.

California ought to take a cue from this nation the place nobody takes democracy without any consideration. Albanians know all too effectively the value of indifference.

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Carolyn Jones covers pupil wellness, psychological well being and particular training for EdSource. She has been working in Albania as a part of the U.S. Division of State’s Bureau of Academic and Cultural Affairs Fulbright Specialist Program.

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