Digital Media Literacy in the Era of 'Fake News'
Biographical Sketch
Meredith L. Pruden is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication: Media & Society at Georgia State University. Her focus lies in cultural studies, with specific attention to feminist media studies, visual culture and digital communication. In her first year of study, she presented a discourse analysis of Trump’s Twitter feed at the Global Perspectives on Populism and the Media ICA pre-conference at Central European University and had a book review published in the International Journal of Communication. She currently has two accepted entries into the SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society, as well as two chapters for edited volumes out for review. With a background as a journalist, her long-term goal is to be a public intellectual working at the intersection of academia and the popular press.
Type of Presentation
Individual presentation
Brief Description of Presentation
This presentation briefly will review the concepts of 'fake news,' 'post truth' and digital media literacy, specifically examining the importance of critical consumption of online content. It will then proceed to provide some examples of questionable content (most likely modeled after the Stanford Evaluating Information study) for an interactive discussion with the audience. It will conclude by touching on the consequences of critical media consumption to democracy and citizenship.
Abstract of Proposal
There is no doubt as to the importance of journalism to the health of our democracy, but in the era of 'fake news,' 'post truth,' and information overload, it can be increasingly difficult to determine the credibility of online news sources. A (2016) Stanford study, Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning, found that there is a concern around media literacy amongst middle school, high school and college-aged students. Results indicated that less than 20 percent of respondents failed to question the trustworthiness of dubious photos spread online that were framed as news, more than 80 percent did not recognize native advertising that was explicitly labeled as sponsored content, and less than one-third critically evaluated the source credibility of Tweeted news content and political memes. In the context of the United States, this problem is exacerbated by the rise of conservative populism and its caustic relationship with the free press. How can citizens identify advertorial content that masquerades as news, determine what information is disseminated by partisan sources, and weed out patently false information online in order to maintain a functioning democracy through participatory citizenship? This presentation will review and contextualize the concepts of 'fake news' and 'post truth,' while providing interactive examples of online content that offer the audience an opportunity to apply critical media literacy skills. In this way, the audience can learn what to look for in evaluating online content and more thoughtfully consume digital news through both news-related websites and social media.
Location
Session 2D (Habersham, Hilton Garden Inn)
Start Date
2-22-2019 1:20 PM
End Date
2-22-2019 2:50 PM
Recommended Citation
Pruden, Meredith L., "Digital Media Literacy in the Era of 'Fake News'" (2019). International Critical Media Literacy Conference. 14.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/criticalmedialiteracy/2019/2019/14
Digital Media Literacy in the Era of 'Fake News'
Session 2D (Habersham, Hilton Garden Inn)
There is no doubt as to the importance of journalism to the health of our democracy, but in the era of 'fake news,' 'post truth,' and information overload, it can be increasingly difficult to determine the credibility of online news sources. A (2016) Stanford study, Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning, found that there is a concern around media literacy amongst middle school, high school and college-aged students. Results indicated that less than 20 percent of respondents failed to question the trustworthiness of dubious photos spread online that were framed as news, more than 80 percent did not recognize native advertising that was explicitly labeled as sponsored content, and less than one-third critically evaluated the source credibility of Tweeted news content and political memes. In the context of the United States, this problem is exacerbated by the rise of conservative populism and its caustic relationship with the free press. How can citizens identify advertorial content that masquerades as news, determine what information is disseminated by partisan sources, and weed out patently false information online in order to maintain a functioning democracy through participatory citizenship? This presentation will review and contextualize the concepts of 'fake news' and 'post truth,' while providing interactive examples of online content that offer the audience an opportunity to apply critical media literacy skills. In this way, the audience can learn what to look for in evaluating online content and more thoughtfully consume digital news through both news-related websites and social media.
