Artificial Intelligence (AI)

What is media literacy?

The spread of false or inaccurate information is a persistent and ever-evolving problem in our technologically-dominated society. This is why media literacy is more important than ever.

Media literacy is the development and application of skills that allow individuals to "locate, interpret, and evaluate a variety of media. At the same time, it involves facilitating new ways through which they might create media that play a civic role within our society" (MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality).

How can media literacy help me?

"Being media literate empowers students to ask questions, make sound judgments rooted in fact and evidence and, in the words of researcher Sam Wineburg, “derive truth from falsehood, bias from reality, and promote values steeped in objectivity instead of emotion.”" (PBS in the Classroom)

 There are several types of misleading information you can (and will) encounter online. These include:

1. Misinformation: False information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead.
2. Disinformation: Deliberately misleading or biased information; manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda.
3. Fake News: False news stories, often of a sensational nature, created to be widely shared or distributed for the purpose of generating revenue, or promoting or discrediting a public figure, political movement, company, etc.
4. Propaganda: The systematic dissemination of information, especially in a biased or misleading way, in order to promote a political cause or point of view.

AI and Misinformation

AI is making it easier to create and spread misleading information. If you're online at all, you have probably already encountered this in the form of:

• social media bots;
• AI-generated "fake news", websites, or headlines;
• manipulated or generated photos, videos, or audio;
• deepfakes;
• or social media algorithms that create an information silo - essentially an echo-chamber for users.

On the bright side, AI also has the potential to help us fight misinformation, but it's still unclear whether those efforts can outstrip the rapid evolution of misinformation.

Use Lateral Reading

Lateral reading describes the act of opening up new tabs on your browser to to fact-check or investigate a source. It's a much faster way to check the credibility of a source than remaining on a website and trying to determine if information is trustworthy based on what a source says about itself.

The video below from Crash Course's Navigating Digital Information series will introduce you to lateral reading:

Want a deeper dive into the principles behind online source evaluation? Watch the follow-up video below: