Brush Away Truth Decay : Using media literacy tools to pre-bunk, debunk disinformation View Digital Media

Workshop Presentation
Neal Haldane,  Elizabeth Goulette,  Veronica Riha  

We live in a media-saturated environment where avoiding disinformation is impossible and the marketplace of ideas is flooded with opinion disguised as fact. Media literacy training becomes even more paramount considering the amount of disinformation that will be generated both by humans and AI in the 40 countries with 2 billion people that are electing leaders in 2024. This session provides participants strategies to pre-bunk and debunk media disinformation. Citizens in a democracy need accurate and reliable information to function in a free society. Media literacy as a field dates to the 1970s and was designed to give citizens the tools needed to access, understand, analyze, evaluate and create mediated communication. Media literacy employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to determine the veracity of media messages. The session offers participants the opportunity to apply media literacy tools and strategies to evaluate real-world media messages. Engaging with a selection of tools will give participants a framework to use in their classrooms, workplaces and personal lives. A media literacy mindset is essential for citizens to make informed decisions about their lives, communities, societies and government.