Thread by @EliotHiggins

🧵 I think what's key to answering this question is recognising that how we encounter and consume information has changed dramatically over the last 15 years, and this has particularly impacted Gen Z and Gen Alpha

https://twitter.com/DrJWBronson/status/1798940929249914939

We’ve shifted from a top-down, gatekeeped model of information consumption (for example getting our news from newspapers and TV news), to a more peer-to-peer relationship with information thanks to social media.

That also changes how we interact with information, where we’re more active participants in that flow of information, in both how we respond to it, and how we share it. Importantly, we have to understand that for Gen Z and Gen Alpha this is their default state.

So that means rather than encountering TV news and papers as their first news sources, that’s coming from social media instead, and for the majority of children that starts before they enter secondary school.

I don’t really envision a scenario where those generations will suddenly switch from social media to picking up newspapers and turning on the TV news, so one thing we need to do is make that a healthy space for discourse.

What we’re working on at Bellingcat is focusing on secondary and university level education. Our goal is to help universities create course material for a variety of subjects where open source investigation is relevant), and help universities establish investigative hubs.

Amnesty International has already done something similar with it’s Digital Verification Corps, working with universities across the world to teach their students skills, then applying those skills to real life investigations theengineroom.org/digital-verifi…

We’re also going to be working on developing secondary level educational material to teach students media literacy skills, and show them how to do their own investigations into issues they care about.

I was very much inspired by the work of The Student View, in particular this example from Bradford where students worked with a journalist to investigate an issue that impacted them directly.

We’ve been working with The Student View over the last year to develop this material, and have already had teachers delivering it in classes across the UK as part of a pilot programme we hope to expand in the UK, and beyond.

What’s very important in all of this though is making sure that we’re not only teaching that finding the truth is important, but when you find the truth it actually matters, because if it doesn’t than that’ll drive the cynicism and sense of betrayal that’s such a big factor in the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

That’s why we’ll be working to connect local schools, media, and NGOs to local university hubs where the goal will be to have an impact from those investigations.

All of that would be part of a growing network of organisations on a local, national, and international level that will share ideas and knowledge, and collaborate on investigations.

It’s really taking what we’re already doing at Bellingcat to empower young people to make a difference in their own lives, and help them engage positively in civil society. It’ll take a long time, but we’re already working on it and we’re making progress.

If you're interested in this area I'd recommend reading the OECD report Facts not Fakes, which looks at how different countries are using education to address disinformation oecd.org/publications/f…

We think it's important to look at these issues beyond just problems with disinformation, but the OECD report is a good summary of educational approaches across OECD countries.