A thread about media, and "news literacy." One of the things I think about all the time is how little we know directly. You know about your family and friends, your work and the people you do it with. Your circle of direct observation, large or small, is limited.
For everything else, we rely on media (plural of medium, a method of transmission). With very few exceptions, everything we argue about or celebrate On Here is something we know about only because somebody else told us. We're all passing on what we've learned from others.
What divides us, though, is the sources we trust for our information. *You* don't believe that 5G causes COVID-19 because the sources you trust tell you that it doesn't. Others believe it because the sources they trust tell them it does.
So in the end, we are all the same: choosing some media over others. But the media we choose is NOT the same. Some of it is trustworthy, some of it is not. And the differences between them can be identified, described, and taught. That's "news literacy."
To erode the power of the liars and frauds who deform our discourse, we have to teach people how to identify them, and how to recognize what sources can be trusted, and we have to teach them early. Once you've been conned, nothing is harder than admitting it.
That's why for five years I've been volunteering for the @NewsLitProject, a non-profit created by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. They help teachers and students learn how to tell real news from fake news. (Real fake news, not fake fake news.)
And now I'm proud to have been named to their National Leadership Council, along with a bunch of much more impressive people. Please learn about their work, make use of it, spread it, and support it if you can.
newslit.org
newslit.org
Speaking of news literacy, this is a great summation of some basic principles that distinguish real journalism from propaganda or lies.
propublica.org/article/im-an-…
propublica.org/article/im-an-…
