Digital Misinformation: Can We Teach Our Students to Recognize It?
Digital Misinformation: Can We Teach Our Students to Recognize It?
In a digital world where everything is seemingly at our fingertips, it is increasingly important to understand how to recognize misinformation or information that is being intentionally skewed to influence our thinking. "Rhetoric is the art of persuasion" (Lawrence, 2022, p. 12). Three rhetorical devices commonly used to persuade audiences are ethos, appealing to the author's trustworthiness or character, pathos, appealing to one's emotions, or logos, the use of logic or reason.
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos Explained:
"Rhetoric is also the critical framework through which we can analyze digital media and the ways it manifests in the world and appears on our screens. What does the media want us to do? How does it want us to behave or think?" (Lawrence, 2022, p. 12). It is imperative for students both young and old to be able to read an article or a post on social media and determine the source and its motivation. Students must be taught to look at the author of an article they find online. Is it from a peer-reviewed journal or an opinion website? Even information gathered from a seemingly reputable source can be skewed. For example, an editorial article in a newspaper. Does the author of the article have a vested interest in its content? "A study conducted by the Stanford History Education Group provided a website about global climate change information to a group of high school students. The website was clearly marked as being published by a major oil company. Yet 96 percent of the study participants did not see a conflict of interest with the credibility of this information" (Lawrence, 2022, p. 85). The inability to understand how an oil company's article on global climate change could be skewed is alarming to say the least.
I have observed students viewing memes and pictures online and interpreting them as fact without any further investigation. "The potential for these new tools of communication to improve societies around the globe is tremendous, but so is the risk for them to be used to control, oppress, mislead, spread hate, and cause harm. Because of this potential for positive or negative effects, English teachers need to understand what makes electronic communication unique and how to teach students to think critically about all information" (Share & Mamikonyan, 2020, p. 38). Social media can be especially problematic because people of all ages consume content often without any consideration for credibility. "As the technology makes it easier and faster to spread fake news and create so-called “alternative facts,” the challenge to judge credibility and bias of information becomes more difficult" (Share & Mamikonyan, 2020, p. 38). So, what can we as teachers and parents do? In my classroom, I teach my students to use the following steps to ensure that they are getting accurate information from the internet or social media.
- Use credible search engines when researching for academic purposes. For example, Alabama Virtual Library, Sora, the library, or a domain suffix .gov or .edu.
- Look at the author of the text. Is it authored by an individual or a company with a conflict of interest?
- Can this information be found in other places? Can it be replicated? Credible research and information can be replicated and will likely be found in more than one place online.
- Double check the name of the source. Often, hoax sites will use a domain very close to the original. It may even be off by one letter.
- Consider the author's motivation in writing an article or post. Are they trying to persuade the reader to buy their product or think like them? Or, is the author simply presenting non-biased information.
- Be skeptical when consuming digital content. Pictures can be manipulated.
While the internet can be a rich source with a seemingly endless, plethora of information, it must be consumed cautiously. Today's youth will grow up never knowing a world without it. We must teach them to think critically about what they read and see online.
References
Lawrence, Dan. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web.
Broadview Press.
Share, J., & Mamikonyan, T. (2020). Preparing English teachers with critical media literacy for the
digital age. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 20(1). 37-54.
Great blog aesthetically, and what a great topic to discuss in our first post! I was able to make several connections to your post as I found it somewhat similar to mine. One aspect that could be further explored is the role of social media algorithms in amplifying misinformation. Lawrence (2022) points out that "an algorithm determines what is displayed to you: a process or a set of rules that sorts through the possible posts and displays them in a particular way to you" (p. 81). As we know, social media platforms use complex algorithms to determine what content users see, often prioritizing engagement over accuracy. For example, if I have been searching for a particular vacation spot, that is what I am going to keep seeing on my feed. This algorithmic amplification can make it even more challenging for students to distinguish between credible and misleading information.
ReplyDeleteLawrence, Dan. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web.
Broadview Press.
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ReplyDeleteWhat an important topic to teach our kids about! The need to determine fact versus fiction is growing as the use of technology continues to increase. Lawrence (2022) states some online platforms, such as Twitter, “have attempted to battle misinformation by launching a fact-checking feature to label untrue claims” (p. 68). While this is a valuable tool to aid in finding misinformation, it cannot be solely relied on. Altay (2023) states a cause of the prevalence of misinformation, particularly on social media, is that “the media landscape is no longer controlled by traditional gatekeepers, and misinformation, just like any other content, is easier to publish” (para. 4). The strategies you are teaching your students will be excellent life-long skills to use when assessing if information is accurate.
ReplyDeleteReferences
Altay, S., Berriche, M., & Acerbi, A. (2023). Misinformation on Misinformation: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges. Social Media + Society, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221150412
Lawrence, D., (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Broadview Press.
I love that you highlighted how today's young people will never know a world without social media and the digital resources that have developed over the last 15-20 years. It is hard to conceive of how different this age group's paradigm is to older generations, as the knowledge they have built over their lives has been heavily influenced by opinion-based media and media put forth as truth, whether it is truth or not. When considering the "black box issue" where we are unaware of the ways in which internet-based companies like Amazon determine what we see and how we are influenced (Lawrence, 2022, sec. 3.4), it is really unsettling that children and teens are targeted in this way too! It is imperative that we determine how best to use digital resources and teach students the ethics involved.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital Writing: A Guide to Writing for Social Media and the Web. Broadview Press.
I wish I would have researched the video on Ethos, Pathos, and Logos during this past school year. My daughter was having to write about it in English and I didn't remember any of those terms to help her clearly. Also, I wonder what would happen if you put the Abraham Lincoln quote on the board at the beginning of class and ask the students to write what they think about it. I wonder how many would make the false connection.
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