Dear Reader: This blog post is something that I began drafting last year, but had evidently abandoned for a reason that I don’t quite recall. As I looked through my “unpublished drafts” folder today for a bit of housekeeping, I was triggered by the title. This need still exists; there has not been nearly enough movement in this direction in the last three years. The emergence of AI only complicates this matter more. 2024 will bring us another Presidential election, one that promises to be just a tumultuous as the 2020 and 2016 elections. I am troubled by two questions: How can we ensure that our students know how to access credible, reliable and nonpartisan news sources? Do we know how to equip students with the tools they need to identify disinformation, misinformation and malinformation?
I had intended this post as a response to an opinion peice by Liz Ramos that was published to EdSurge.com in 2020. I encourage you to check it out before you continue reading this post: The U.S. Election Underscores the Need for Teaching News Literacy in Our Schools.
When I taught 10th grade, I frequently incorporated Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s screenplay for Inherit the Wind in my curriculum. I recall students having a hard time wrapping their heads around the Scopes Monkey Trial, flabbergasted that there were so many intelligent American adults that refused to accept Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, or science in general, because it worked in opposition to the Judeo-Christian mythology anthologized the Christian Bible.
True story: I once got in a little bit of trouble for referring to the Holy Bible as “an anthology of Judeo-Christian mythology” in class. Apparently one of my students went home and repeated what I said to a parent, and the concerned parent called my supervisor to inquire about “the heathen in the English Department…” (insert rolling-on-the-floor-laughing emoji here).
I would have loved to speak to the parent myself and explain my choice of phrases, but many of these calls never came my way. My supervisor addressed it and moved on. The parent was placated. My job was safe.
But gone are the days when a mere phone call to someone’s supervisor could clear up a misconception. Now folks take their grievances to social media, where an echo chamber of talking heads are ready and willing to like, comment or share what they see. Even if it’s not accurate. Even if it’s made up of only “alternative facts.” Even if it’s so illogical that there’s no way it COULD be true.
Any efforts to repudiate that information with actual truth is rationalized with the dangerous idea that mainstream media is controlled by an abstract evil-Left who will stop at nothing to suppress the truth.
In September, a Facebook friend shared a photo that she took of a sign she noticed on the lawn of her child’s middle school. It read, “We believe Black Lives Matter, Love is Love, Feminism is for Everyone, No Human Being is Illegal, Science is Real. Be kind to all.” She posted without any further comment.
I clicked “Like” and went to leave a comment about how nice this was to see, but I was stopped dead in my tracks by some comments already there:
“This liberal indoctrination is absolute garbage. Call the principal and demand it be taken down.”
“Time to send the kids to Catholic school, where ALL Lives Matter.”
“It figures. Overpaid school administrators spewing their [expletive] as usual.”
The comments go on in a similar tone, some with more heated and colorful language.
I’d like to say I was surprised, but I wasn’t. In the last few years, it has become apparent that more and more people are willing to share their uncensored opinions about almost everything, regardless of how prejudiced, illogical or devoid of facts these opinions appear to be. I’m watching folks that I’ve known for 20 or more years use their social media pages to share the most alarmingly untrue information and then get upset when people argue the point. They do not believe that fact-checking is real. They believe that efforts to censor misinformation are efforts to censor the truth. They tout their belief that “mainstream media” lies and that the real truth comes from TikTok, YouTube, and extreme Left or Right blog posts.
You can’t argue with these folks, no matter how much you want to. They will often get angry and upset. They will call you blind and stupid. They will try to get you to doubt everything you’ve ever learned about how to read, watch, listen and think critically. They may delete you or block you from their social media pages. They may avoid you at social gatherings.
It’s 1984. It’s The Wave. It’s The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. It’s all of the dystopian literature I loved never thinking that someday it would be our reality.
I agree that, perhaps now more than ever, teaching news literacy is essential in schools.
I agree that the spread of “false, fabricated and misleading content” further divides us.
I agree that this spread is dangerous -not only because it is easy enough for foreign influences to manage- but also because it shows how easily the American public can be manipulated.
I fear that, because so many people have built up walls against the so-called “lamestream media,” efforts to teach media literacy in schools can be further curtailed by at-home ideologies rooted in fear or misconception.
To that end, I fear that efforts to teach students the informational literacy skills that they need could be dismissed at home as “liberal indoctrination.”
I believe that digital literacy, media literacy, news literacy – whatever you want to call it – is literacy. This is important work, and it’s not something that can be left for English or social studies teachers to do in isolation. If State Education Departments will not lead the charge on affecting change through policy, than it’s up to school district leaders to consider what can be done locally to ensure successful outcomes for students in their communities.
Inside the Launch Window 