Posted on Fake News, School Libraries, Tammy's Teaching Tidbits

Misinformation Effects on Students

This will be the last week discussing lessons learned from News Lit Camp. Today, I am addressing mis-and-disinformation’s effects on students.  

The News Lit Camp conference offered a discussion with two teenagers from New York City, Isabel Tribe and Charlotte Hampton. During this breakout session, Tribe and Hampton commented that Generation Z is very social-media/tech-driven. Social media tends to be excellent at “drawing” minors in, well before they even become teenagers! (I’m looking at you, Instagram reels!) It can prove difficult for young people to sort fact from fiction in such a fast-paced online environment. To try and help combat misinformation, Tribe and Hampton created the Teens for Press Foundation. Teens for Press Foundation (TPF) stands behind the following beliefs:

“THE FREE PRESS is integral to free society and democracy and must be protected at all times. 

THE PRESS must remain unbiased and factual, especially in times of civic division and alienation. As a potential means of political indoctrination, media must remain free to report truthfully on the goings-on of government and corporations.

AS TEENAGERS we have an obligation to consume reliable news and create an informed electorate that lives up to the expectations of the Framers of the Constitution. Without a free press and universal access to it, citizens are impeded from selecting their representatives to the best of their ability.

MEMBERS OF TEENS FOR PRESS FREEDOM should at all times advocate for the protection of free press, news literacy, and the rights of individual journalists. They pledge themselves to uphold inalienable freedoms and defend the truth as the foundation of morality, justice, equality, unity, security, and peace.

AS CITIZENS OF THE DIGITAL AGE, teenagers must be aware of the unregulated misinformation and disinformation that plagues social media and work to spread truth as a counteraction. 

AS LOCAL PUBLICATIONS LOSE FUNDING, members must bring attention to the neglect of local issues. As rural areas become news deserts, the issues of the underrepresented and underprivileged are overlooked.

TEENS FOR PRESS FREEDOM STANDS FOR the unimpeded transfer and circulation of information within and between nations. Members pledge themselves to combat the censorship of the press in the country and community to which they belong and throughout the world whenever possible.

TEENS FOR PRESS FREEDOM DECLARES that the protection of news media is imperative to bridging political divides. News literacy is especially crucial to Generation Z as we come of age alongside degraded trust in mainstream media, rampant misinformation and disinformation, fake news, and inconsistent perceptions of reality” (TFP Charter, 2021).

Students, grades ninth-twelfth, may sign up to be nationwide members of TFP. More information about TFP can be found at https://www.teensforpressfreedom.org/.

Some Statistics…

In a 2020 survey, it was found that 76% of 14-to-24-year-olds reported seeing online misinformation/disinformation at least once a week (Howard, et al., 2021). Another study, published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology, found that age 14 is typically when students begin believing in conspiracy theories. (Family and friends’ own misunderstanding of information adds to these beliefs.) Stanford University researchers, in a 2016 survey, found that more than 80 percent of nearly 8,000 middle schoolers had difficulty distinguishing between advertisements disguised as news and actual news. Even college students struggle, as found with an assessment involving Twitter. Antigun groups conducted a poll, which found that those surveyed favor gun control. However, nearly two-thirds of the students—college students, at that—failed to realize that the very biased groups conducting this study most likely affected the results (Wenner Moyer, 2022).

What Can Educators Do? 

UNICEF and members of the University of Oxford highlight that students can be harmed by misinformation/disinformation and harm others through the spreading of such data. However, minors can also challenge and debunk misinformation, with guidance (Howard, et al., 2021).

This understanding brings a call to action for educators! Duardo (2021) highlights different opportunities for instructors to teach students how to evaluate information. First, teachers—this includes you, teacher-librarians—should model how they fact-check for students. This modeling might entail going through the steps of evaluation, such as currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose, or directing students to peer-reviewed scholarly information, such as the online resources found at the North Dakota State Library. 

Second, students need lessons in media literacy, especially pertaining to the role of the free press, types of news reporting, current threats to freedom of expression, and tendencies in misinformation and propaganda. 

Third, educators need to stress the importance of “pressing pause” when believing (and sharing) information. Instant gratification can make it far too easy to press the share button without truly thinking if the data seems correct. Taking a little time to actually evaluate would greatly decrease the amount of misinformation and disinformation shared across social media. 

 

References

Leave a comment