Teaching Standards

Critical thinking and media literacy

Tinriches

I recently showed my Year 12 class a documentary called Childhood 2.0 which discusses many of the issues that teens face with the rise of social media. These issues include cyberbullying, sexting, suicide, porn, grooming and catfishing. Each learner has chosen a topic to research which will enable them to learn information literacy skills.

Doing this has made me realise that we need a comprehensive course to help all learners develop critical thinking and media literacy skills. The danger is that without this learners will struggle to discern which internet sources are reliable and trustworthy. The result of this could be joining ‘tin foil hat’ groups or be as extreme as radicalisation. According to nbcnews.com, this has actually been happening in countries such as the USA and the UK as teens search for identity and belonging on line and navigate mental health issues which can result in poor choices and involvement in terrorist groups.

Recent years have revealed a scary, dangerous new era in which children have been taught to hate, are recruiting others and are plotting terrorist attacks.

Farah Pandith and Jacob Ware

The recent protests and rioting in Wellington over the COVID 19 restrictions and mandates is an example of what can happen even in little old New Zealand when misinformation is spread through the internet. This was shocking as riots are not common in our country; the last one was in 1984!

After riots and a disinformation campaign in 2007 which escalated into a cyber attack which shut down key institutions, Estonia decided to address the issue by incorporating media literacy education into schools. This began in 2010 and media literacy is now taught from kindergarten through to high school in their public schools.

”The spectrum of media literacy education aims to enable a culture of critical analysis and help people understand complicated and hidden messages.”

Amy Yee 

In Estonian primary and middle schools media literacy is integrated into all subjects but in secondary school learners complete a compulsory Media and Influence course. There are also additional optional courses that learners can choose to complete. The Estonian government is also raising awareness for all its citizens through other initiatives including a Media Literacy Week each year. Researchers from U.S think tank, Rand, have found that raising awareness can lead to “resiliency to disinformation and is able to change the way participants consume, create, and share information”, but add that more information is needed to find the most effective methods of media literacy education.

We have a great opportunity to learn from Estonia and create our own media literacy course. It was interesting to hear Kerry Spackman’s presentation to interested staff which was along similar lines. Kerry is going to work with us to develop a course for our kura. I am hoping to be a part of this development.

Inspired by the Estonian model, I envisage courses which look at different types of media such as memes, Insta posts, Facebook posts, Reddit threads, YouTube posts, online news media, and even scholarly articles. We could also investigate war/political propaganda and advertising. Each type of media would be used for the appropriate age group and learners would learn how to read the messages critically by investigating the following:

  • Who is the target audience?
  • What is being communicated?
  • Why is this being communicated?
  • How is this being communicated?
  • Is the source trustworthy and reliable? How do we know it is trustworthy and reliable?
  • What is your response?
More useful questions.

After investigating, learners could create their own media messages and content with purpose to understand how online content is created. They could create a campaign to raise awareness of disinformation and the importance of media literacy. These could then be posted and the responses monitored.

Hopefully, after investigating and thinking critically learners will be able to understand how media messages can be used to influence and manipulate an audience. Being aware will help to keep them safe from dangerous propaganda.

References

Published by Tinriches

I am the Head of the English Faculty and teacher of year 8 - 13 students at Whangaparaoa College. I enjoy incorporating the use of technology in the classroom and researching effective ways of engaging students. In 2012 our school introduced compulsory BYOD and I have enjoyed this challenge. I am an advocate of Project Based Learning and personalised learning as I believe that choice is a key factor in learner engagement. I am also a musician and enjoy playing in local bands. If I can include music in my teaching in some way, I do it!

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