Distrubing realities call for media literacy

This is a new time, with often disturbing new realities.

I had a disquieting conversation with the young daughter of a friend of mine last night.

She was bemoaning the fact that her Facebook account was taken down and she could no longer communicate with friends and family and make comments to her constituency.

She was feeling very isolated and wronged. I happen to know that she was doing frequent postings having to do with Q Anon and conspiracy theories and supporting President Trump’s versions of reality.

I asked her how do you know what you are learning is true? Where was her information coming from?

It was primarily from Facebook and social media where she got her “news and issues of the day”

It made me realize that people in their 20s and even their 30s don’t necessarily pick up a reputable newspaper or even know of the existence of the Associated Press, and are not aware of the practices and integrity of reputable journalists; that there are rules and guidelines and consequences for printing unverified information in the press.

I realize that in this day of young people getting most of their information and being informed by social media it would be very important as part of middle school, high school and college curriculum to teach media literacy an integral part curriculum. A course educating about the practices of professional media and to learn how to detect untruths, and research what is fed to people through social media, before swallowing it.

I think in previous times education about media literacy has been kind of an add-on element to curricula, but in these times, where there is seems to be no clear demarcation between communicating the truth and communicating falsehoods and fabricated stories to collect more followers and larger constituencies, it’s imperative that we educate ourselves and our young people how to discern between something that is truthful and something that is simply propaganda, put out there for monetary and personal/corporate gains.

We can’t go back. This is a new time with often disturbing new realities. Our only ammunition in this situation is education.

If you google media literacy, there is quite a lot available about this concern. Here are links to some of them:

• ted.com/talks/lisa_cutter_media_ literacy_the_power_and_responsibility_of_information

• newseumed.org/medialiteracy

• commonsense.org/education/ articles/media-literacy-resourcesfor-classrooms

• canva.com/learn/10-creativemethods-to-teach-media-literacy/

Gail Russell is a photo artist and designer living in Arroyo Hondo for more than 40 years.