Students Need Media Literacy Now More than Ever
Geralt, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
The rise of AI is just the newest addition to the countless forms of media students consume regularly. Where do they learn to navigate the endless world of information if not in school?
A 30-second TikTok about Hurricane Helene or an Instagram post about the election, we live in a time where information travels at an unprecedented speed. In most parts of the world, if you have a phone in hand you can learn about what happened on another continent five hours ago. Certainly, the ability to know about everything in such a short period of time will have an impact on a person’s views and values. This could not be truer for students who are spending their formative years with all the information available within their reach. As many benefits as it provides, such easy access to information means equally easy access to misinformation. AI’s eerie ability to create anything is just the latest version of misleading forms of media. With that in mind, the question of how to protect the youth from falling victim to deception has become a topic of discussion.
Incorporating media literacy into the classroom should be the answer to this question. According to the 2022 national survey by Media Literacy Now and Reboot Foundation, 84 percent of participants responded in favor of requiring media literacy in school. In the same study, 62 percent reported they had never been taught to reflect on how media consumption affected their belief system, which is essentially a part of media literacy. While this might not have been a problem a few years ago, it definitely is now, considering the advances in technology and the rising divisions in politics. Media brings information and knowledge to students, from which they derive their own opinions. These opinions are not trivial; they construct the lens students use to interpret the world. Should the information be incorrect, how will that affect them as consumers? Should there not be additional pathways to teach the youth how to analyze and choose the information they want to consume?
Preparing for the upcoming 2024 winter holiday season, Coca-Cola released an ad made entirely from AI. Along with the almost immediate backlash, the video also resurrected the discussion over AI-generated content. The fact that Coca-Cola felt safe enough to replace the entire production with AI reiterated the popularity of the technology.
Unsurprisingly, this is not the first time AI has sparked debate. The art community has already spoken before about how the machine took inspiration from real artists’ works and produced new art. Plagiarism combined with detrimental effects on the environment can be easily overlooked with how efficient it is at such a low, if any, expense. Similarly, AI is now at the stage where it can make anything by following a prompt. As a result, internet users must be equipped with skills to differentiate these contents to avoid being manipulated or becoming agent to spread misleading information. Even more so for students, who unlike generations before them, gained access to the internet at a very young age. Their tendency to be influenced by the media they see regularly is what makes the lack of media literacy dangerous.
丁志仁, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Speaking on the subject, panelists of Media Literacy Education and AI by Harvard Graduate School of Education commented that it is not too late to teach students to think critically about Generative AI, and at the same time teach them to question the role of this technology in everyday lives.
Another recent event that demonstrates the need for media literacy is the presidential election of 2024. The months leading up to the election day witnessed various clashes between the two candidates’ supporters. Polarization was high as disagreements grew stronger. This is the perfect environment that is caused by and simultaneously allows propagandized content. So how does this affect students?
The New York Times stated many young voters reported seeing false information about the election online. For many, this is the first time they fill out a ballot, and thus it is understandable that they will lack the tools to navigate waves and waves of information. The complexity is intensified as issues like the Israel-Palestine conflict or abortion rights make the election’s result much more personal for voters who are passionate about their beliefs. Therefore, the fate of the country can be endangered if it is decided by an uninformed or misled population. The effect of media illiteracy does not stop there. Google Search Analytics has shown a surge of searches asking for the definition of a tariff after November 5. Even with an influx of information, voters still fail to understand the reasons they vote the way they do. What comes out of this case is the need for media literacy. As someone who holds power to determine the next leader of a country, the lack of research is a shame, and we must stop that in young voters. The question arises again, where else should students learn about media literacy if not schools, the place to prepare them for the real world?