- Staff and students at Godby High School said they have noticed an increasing amount of misinformation online.
- Teachers are providing students with tools to separate fact from fiction. One News Literacy Project study found 94% of teens surveyed believed media literacy should be taught in school.
- Watch the video to hear from these students about their online experience and the tools they're using to navigate the digital landscape.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Teaching students how to separate fact from fiction during a time when so many are locked into social media.
This is something we're taking a closer look at as part of News Literacy Week. ABC 27 spoke with faculty and students here about the tools they are using to keep misinformation out of the classroom.
Does the increasing presence of misinformation that we’ve seen with the increasing rise of social media ever put you off reading the news? "Yeah, because I’ve seen some stupid things and read some stupid things and I’m like, this does not make sense," said Godby High School senior Anthony Jimenez.
Jimenez said working out what is true and what is not has become muscle memory when he is scrolling on social media to read the news.
He sees headlines he questions a lot and he’s not the only one.
"I see a crazy headline, It’s kind of common sense it’s not true but just to verify and go to Google, and it’s an easy answer," said Omega Forbes, an 11th grader at Godby.
Do you think enough people utilize that and find things out for themselves?
No, a lot of people just see a headline and they say hey did you hear this and then it’s like a chain reaction and everyone just believes it and runs with it and that’s not good for us.
The American Psychological Association reported studies had found visually misleading info makes up to 20% of political media content and between 0.2 and 29% of health misinformation makes up people’s overall news intake.
Misinformation is an obstacle teacher, Randi Lundgren, has made students more increasingly aware of in her last 17 years of teaching at Godby.
How important is it for you as a teacher to ensure that kids know the difference between fact and fiction and can detect misinformation? "Yeah, that’s really important because they come into class and they’re like did you hear blah blah blah and I’m like, where did you see that?" said Lundgren.
What tools are you using to help students navigate this landscape?
"We pull out our phones and we look at different things," said Lundgren.
Lundgren said she always wants to encourage open conversations and for her students to ask questions.
"The good thing is we can discuss where that came from and is that really true, right there in the moment," said Lundgren. "That is really helpful because then they can understand what is real and what isn’t and they have an adult guiding them."
They’re lessons her students are responding to.
"We all need to be aware that we have resources to be able to fact-check things and we have to use those resources instead of just spreading things because it’s more entertaining," said Forbes.
"Do your own research, it takes a little bit of time, but then you know the truth," said Jimenez.
What's happening here at Godby is just one example of resources being provided at schools nationwide.
As for how students feel about news literacy, a survey from the News Literacy Project found that 94% of teenssurveyed said they believe that schools should be required to teach media literacy.
