The growing amount of misinformation and disinformation online is deeply concerning as too many people believe everything they see in their echo chambers on social media.
According to CNN, 18 states have some form of K-12 media literacy education on the books and four of them mandate it. The four states that mandate media literacy are Delaware, Texas, New Jersey and California. Sadly, New Hampshire is not even one of the states with media literacy education on the books. I feel we should be one of the states that not only puts it on the books, but mandates it as well.
Media literacy is the ability to decode media messages, assess their influence on thoughts, feelings and behaviors and create media thoughtfully and conscientiously, according to Media Literacy Now.
Having the ability to think critically about the media we consume is more important now than ever before. As an editor of The Equinox, and just someone who takes journalism seriously, I want only accurate reporting to be rewarded. Fake news and yellow journalism are perhaps more everpresent than they have ever been. It is crucial for anyone who values the truth to have people be critical thinkers of what we consume online.
Not everything on social media is a lie, but sadly, we are living in a society that values profit over anything else. With a mindset centered around profit, people will do anything to achieve it, including lying, cheating and stealing. Social media algorithms value the most views in order to give users profits, which lead to the revival of yellow journalism.
Yellow journalism was a style of reporting that valued sensationalism over facts, according to the U.S. Department of State. The era of yellow journalism lasted from 1895-1898, but it is clear it never really left. Think of all the crazy things you have seen on social media that you would think no person in their right mind would believe, but somehow there are hundreds of believers. This is yellow journalism in action and it must be destroyed by taking a more critical view of the media we consume.
It is not only stupid people who can fall victim to these tactics; nobody is immune to propaganda. Fake news often seeps its way into the mind by showing you things that could almost sound true. It never starts out strong, which is the most terrifying part of it. Stupid conspiracy theories like anti-vaccination, flat Earth, young-Earth creationism and QAnon spread because disinformation spreaders are typically smart enough to manipulate people into believing things that can sound convincing.
Once the disinformation takes hold, people who act out of what they see as goodness spread misinformation in an attempt to warn others of a danger that is not there. Our society is too fearful for its own good and that is why the degeneration of media literacy is declining on the internet.
Teaching media literacy must be mandatory in school to avoid becoming a nation of blind faith. We must not fall victim to lies and embrace reason and intellectualism.
Nico Brazill can be contacted at
nbrazill@kscequinox.com
