IN-PERSON Prague Research & Teaching Conference

Abstract

Over the last decade, the hybridization of information and entertainment into infotainment in legacy and social media, plus technical innovations from Deep Fakes to AI, have escalated the challenge of upholding ethical principles in media creation. Our media literacy curriculum for High school students addresses the prevalence of fictional storytelling in fact-based media. Our goal is to guide students as media consumers to understand and explore the ways in which picture editors alter facts to favour story, and to decipher fact from fiction in audiovisual media. However, the responses and feedback we received after two trial years revealed a disturbing general mistrust of students in all media, questioning of any empirical facts and established science. This article explores this fundamental epistemic dilemma in teaching media literacy, leading to a crisis in society. Our research team hypothesized that most youth do not currently have the critical skills necessary to discern fact from fiction in fact-based programs in legacy and social media. We further postulated a dramatic disconnect between the media studies content students currently engage with in school, the media platforms they engage with their peers, and the media landscape that informs their view of the world outside their own lived experience. We suggested two causes (and thus remedies) for this disconnect. First, student awareness of media does not consider its production and post-production processes. Second, students lack the access to “insider” knowledge regarding media content production, and while being media creators themselves, have not been given the agency of applying editing tools to create their own narratives. To address these gaps, we developed a workshop series called “A vaccine against fake news. “After working with 20 media literacy teachers, curriculum leaders, principals and school librarians, and more than 500 students we analyzed the collected data and formulated key findings.