Fact or fiction?

or fiction?

The significance of media literacy in the information age

By Rosie Duff

The youth of today are often dubbed as digital natives. Born into a ubiquitous media environment, they didn’t really have much of a choice.

Needless to say, their ability to embrace and adapt to new technologies is as impressive as it is inspiring. However, just because they’ve grown up with tech, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re proficient in interpreting a large portion of the information that they stumble across on their devices. Not so dissimilar to a student who scores highly in their reading fluency yet poorly in their comprehension. Indeed, when online, children are highly likely to share falsehoods disguised as fact, which makes them the perfect vectors for individuals looking to spread misinformation. This is especially prevalent on social media sites such as Facebook – which according to Statista NZ, is one of the most popular social media networks in Aotearoa, with around three quarters of the population being active users.

Notorious for its’ lack of regulation, many have been calling Facebook’s problematic practices into question for years. Fortunately, late last year saw a moment of reckoning for the big tech company, following the monumental leak of internal files – which cast the company as prioritising profit over public safety – by ex-employee Frances Haugen. What is more worrying though perhaps, is that within these files is an alleged strategy to increasingly recruit younger users to the app since they pose greater monetary value to the platform. This is particularly alarming considering Facebook’s consistent failure to protect the welfare of the children using its’ services. Mark Zuckerberg has defended his flagship site on more than one occasion, arguing that his app is simply a platform, not the “arbiter of truth.” Nevertheless, in an open letter addressed to Facebook CEO, The United States National Association of Attorneys General contend that the younger age group are “simply too young to navigate the complexities of what they encounter online.” All things considered; it may feel tempting to keep your child off social media altogether. However, this is not necessarily the most effective course of action. Rather, it’s more important that we prepare our tamariki to be adept at accessing and thinking critically about all types of media. This involves being an active participant in their digital consumption. If you’re struggling with where to start, Netsafe NZ have published the following helpful recommendations for fostering media literacy skills:

1. Explain to your child what fake news is, how it’s created and why they need the skills to determine what’s fact and what’s fake.

2. Teach your child to factcheck – explain what sites are trustworthy, where you get information from and how you check the reliability of what you see. 3. Hone their critical thinking skills. Encourage them to ask themselves does this sound right? Is there another explanation for this information? Could this be a joke? 4. Encourage your child to read beyond a headline before they take something at face value or share it with other people. 5. Build digital literacy. Critical thinking skills are more relevant now. Teach children to be cautious, vigilant, and creative digital citizens.

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