Rethinking Media Literacy and Civic Communication in a "Post-Truth" Media World: A Discussion of Strategies for Educating Publics on Media Literacy and Responsible Media Consumption View Digital Media

Workshop Presentation
Jim Carney  

➡️ Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/my/jtcarney ⬅️ The explosion of minimally or non-mediated outlets like Twitter, Facebook, and similar Social Media, has paid little attention to traditional classification of information based upon credibility and established journalistic practices and library sciences. Often rumor and innuendo masquerade as journalistic reporting. Recently, carefully crafted misinformation campaigns designed exploit these new channels of mass and targeted communication, sway public opinion and sentiment with little or no regard to truth or context. The digital transformation of modern society has flipped from a scarcity of mass media channels, to a limitless barrage of data. Established institutions for filtering and editing of information for relevance and accuracy prior to distribution are replaced with raw and sometimes manipulated spigots of information. Meanwhile, this unfiltered and indiscriminate information dissemination without properly educating and preparing the targeted publics, fosters manipulation and misinterpretation. Traditional education models designed to instruct the masses on how to consume mass media have failed to keep pace with the pace of change. Beginning with pre-school, humans are introduced to, and made proficient with, the technology and tools of digital communications. However, the core cognitive and interpretive skills of discerning fact from fiction, entertainment from news and civic participation from mob rule are rarely taught. This panel brings together engaging educators, journalists, and scholars who have attempted and succeeded in creating education models that establish a literate and discerning public, able to sift through the haystacks to find the needles of truth.