Media literacy
The most important competence a person must have to be protected from fake news stories is critical thought. A person should always question news, validate their sources and search for more information to ensure that the news is not false.
In today’s fast-changing world, media is all around us. The ever rising exposure to social media, traditional media and internet has brought many challenges to young people, which also include issues with mental health, having no critical awareness on media reporting, promoting different habits and being overwhelmed with the consumption of media.
This is where media literacy comes into play for young people. According to different definitions, media literacy is a competence, which consists of three important elements: use of skills, critical understanding and communicative abilities (Zgrabljić-Rotar, 2005; European Commission – Media Programme, 2013; Gospodnetić and Morić, 2014).
When media literacy is defined as the ability to access, critical understand information and create the the information, we need aslo to mention its three most important dimensions (Livingstone i Thumim, 2003):
- Technical competencies
- Skills of critical understanding and acceptance
- Creation of the content
The media literacy skills should be taught in formal educational system, but as this is not the case in most of the countries, the crucial player are non-governmental organisations, who implement different educational programs for young people and youth workers.
When implementing a media literacy programme, it is important to have in mind some important information, to ensure the best participation:
Provide opportunities to young people that they are creators of the content, don’t give them the role of being critics only
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Different opinions are important – you should give young people the opportunity to speak up and tell their opinions. This means that youth workers and facilitators or trainers should have a good facilitation skills, and should ask different questions, such as:
Who agrees?
Who disagrees?
Why? Can you justify your opinion?
Asking these questions, help in shaping the critical thinking skills.
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Have in mind that all opinions are valid, but if you have some opinions dealing with defamation of human rights, be sure to correct it and explain the human rights perspective (this can especially happen if you are dealing with topics of migration, politics or similar sensitive topics)
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When implementing programmes, it is important that young people learn about the media and their functioning, as this give the broad understanding of how the news articles are created and how manipulation can happen
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Usage of digital technologies is always an advantage, but it should be used carefully as well; there are several games dealing with understanding how fake news are created or how media is operasting, so use this opportunity to play with young people.
As it was said before, media literacy plays a crucial role in understanding the fake news and how they are produced. In the next part, we will focus more on fake news and its impact on mental health.