Mapping the fake news infodemic amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: A study of Indian fact-checking websites

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaifia Ancer Laskar ◽  
Mohammad Reyaz
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Alternative Medicines ◽  
Personal Bias ◽  
The Status ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
The Government ◽  
Digital Media Literacy ◽  
The Impact

Fake news, a term that was never heard a decade back, has established a subculture of misinformation and disinformation, whether intentionally or unintentionally, on social media by its users. The personal bias as well as unverified content sharing through the click of a button has not only led to the epidemic of fake content across the world, but in countries like India, it has also led to lynching and violence in various places. This article tries to find the rate of debunked or fact-checked content during the COVID-19 pandemic in India related to the enforcement of the nationwide lockdown, false claims of cure or immunity boost, political blame gaming, the impact of the pandemic on economy, religious polarization, as well as fake news on related issues concerning other countries apart from India. We try to discern in this article whether fact-checked items of disinformation were more on communal issues than the cure/claims of alternative medicines. We also try to unearth if there were a larger number of international items covered by the fact-checking sites given the status of the COVID-19 crisis in other countries than the lockdown (issues related to nationwide lockdown declared in India). Using content analysis of two fake news debunking websites Boom Live and Alt News, for six months (March–August 2020) during the COVID-19 pandemic, we argue that there were a lesser number of disinformation or fake news on treatment-related fake news compared to those on polarizing issues. We also posit that there were more fake news on the nationwide lockdown imposed in India than on its impact on the economy. In a bid to map the fake news and disinformation debunked by these two select websites, we find that the genealogy of fake news works with our personal biases and fears, thereby making media literacy all the more indispensable given the reach of internet-based news. The urgent need for stringent regulations by an autonomous body of the government to curb the fake news ecosystem is recommended by us along with emphasizing digital media literacy.

Tunisian High School Students and Digital Media Literacy: A Quantitative Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 002205742110259
Author(s):  
Tarak Dridi
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Quantitative Study ◽  
School Students ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Digital Media Literacy ◽  
The Impact

Digital media literacy has become an intrinsic component in shaping high school students’ knowledge acquisition and critical thoughts. Over the last two decades, internet and computers have been the implemented tools to reach such goals and promote the students’ learning. This article looks for the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on Tunisian secondary school students by detecting their technical skills as well as their critical understanding. This quantitative study relies on a self-reporting approach and targets 150 Tunisian secondary students. It proves the necessary consideration of technological and social variables in helping sort out major digital handicaps related to secondary students and displays the interconnectedness between the different dimensions of digital media literacy. It also displays that Tunisian high school students cannot be referred to as digital-media literate people. The study contributes to the field of digital media literacy as it offers a solid empirical background to build on and indicates the necessity of integrating digital media literacy into the school-based initiatives.

scholarly journals Critical thinking efficacy and transfer skills defend against ‘fake news’ at an international school in Finland

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Horn ◽  
Koen Veermans
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
International Baccalaureate ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
International School ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Educational Environments ◽  
Digital Media Literacy

In this study, tasks measuring digital media literacy developed by Stanford University were administered at a school in Finland to consider the efficacy and transfer of critical thinking (CT) skills of a ‘pre-IB’ cohort preparing to enter the two year International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) and a graduating ‘IB2’ cohort. While the IB2 cohort outperformed the pre-IB cohort, both outperformed Stanford’s U.S. cohorts to a statistically significant degree. Utilising a framework of curricular approaches to facilitating CT skills development as a variable of interest for causal-comparison, it was determined that the Finnish curricula and the IBDP explicitly facilitate CT skills as a separate course while embedding CT into subject coursework, whereas the curriculum in the U.S. implicitly embeds CT into subject coursework only. Implications for improving facilitation of CT in curricula design, professionalising CT across the field, and the benefits of replicating existing studies in differing socio-educational environments are discussed.

scholarly journals Radical Digital Media Literacy in a Post-Truth Anti-Trump Era

2018 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 23-29
Author(s):  
Alexandra Juhasz
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Art Making ◽  
Spring Semester ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Digital Media Literacy ◽  
Trump Administration

I have engaged in a series of linked pedagogical experiments—one woman’s pedagogic resistance, aligned with many others through making poetry together, by way of digital media literacy—over the duration of the Trump administration. These have been acts of engaged, enraged intellectual citizenship in three parts: 1. an online digital media primer about fakenews, #100hardtruths-#fakenews, produced over the first 100 days of the administration; 2. nine Fake News Poetry Workshops held over the spring semester of 2018, these making use of that online primer and co-facilitated by poets in different locations and communities, and 3. an action plan to further mobilize the primer, poems, and workshops to a scale larger than my own personal pedagogy, still in process. These experiments are first and foremost acts of civic engagement qua pedagogy, art-making, and community-building. They are organized to create and make use of responsive formats, processes, and places to better express our keen knowledge, concern, and curiosity about inter-related phenomena given the current crisis of fake news: self, community, and the world, the fake and real, our own power and that of (social) media.

scholarly journals Digital Media Literacy Campaign in Identifying News

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 14015
Author(s):  
Tandiyo Pradekso ◽  
Djoko Setyabudi ◽  
Rouli Manalu
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Literacy Programs ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Fake News ◽  
School Students ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Literacy Campaign ◽  
Digital Media Literacy

This article explains the ways in which a digital media literacy campaign was conducted to help groups of adolescent to identify fake news or hoax and to prevent the further dissemination of fake news. A number of research have shown that young generation, or popularly known as millennials, is the age group of media users that has the highest tendency to read and to spread hoax or fake news. This is also tied to the fact that millennial spend more time on the Internet, and therefore have higher exposure to many various types information, including fake news. Based on the digital media campaign programs that was conducted in several public and private high schools in Semarang, Indonesia, this article will explicate the initial condition regarding the ability of high-school students in recognizing and identifying fake news before the digital media literacy campaign, and then explain how the campaign helping students to improve the ability to do so. This article will further describe the challenges faced in the typical media literacy campaign and several suggestions to overcome those challenges in future digital media literacy programs.

scholarly journals Strategy for identification of Hoax News in digital media in facing case of racism of Papua students in Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 457-467
Author(s):  
Chontina Siahaan ◽  
Nahria Nahria ◽  
Manotar Tampubolon
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Data Display ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Foreign Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Digital Media Literacy ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Comparative Information

The amount of hoax information spread about the case of racism of Papuan students in Surabaya can certainly trigger conflict. Therefore, Papuan students are required to be able to properly analyze information obtained from any source, especially from digital media. This study aims to determine the strategy of Papuan students in identifying hoax news about cases of racism in digital media. This study uses qualitative methods with data collection techniques consisting of observation, in-depth interviews, documentation and focus group discussions. The informants consisted of Papuan students in Jayapura and Jakarta. Data analysis uses data reduction, data display and conclusion/verification. The results showed that student literacy about hoaxes consisted of (1) hoaxes were confusing and provocative information, (2) hoaxes were news diversion issues, (3) untrue news and (4) hoaxes sourced from the community and the state. Related to how Papuan students identify hoaxes, they are (a) looking for comparative information on other media, (b) checking and rechecking with friends and family, and (c) checking the clarity of information sources. To be critical of hoax news, students are criticizing hoaxes against images, photos and news that are not appropriate, criticizing foreign media and domestic media that spread hoaxes, and criticizing the government as a hoax spreader. The recommendation for this research is that the government makes an electronic-based information system that can be used by the Papuan people as a means to find out the government's efforts in educating and educating the Papuan people in the field of Digital Media Literacy.

scholarly journals CURRENT TENDENCIES FORDEVELOPING MEDIA LITERACY IN FLANDERS (BELGIUM)

2020 ◽  
pp. 227-230
Author(s):  
Olena FUCHYLA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Fake News ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Restrictive Measures

Introduction. In the modern world of digi-tal technologies media literacy has become theimportanttopic of the discussions of politicians in many countries while they are discussing media in general and digital media or the Internet in particular. Taking into account the tendency to European Union which distinguishes our country and for the successful development of media literacy in it, it could be useful to know about the peculiar-ities of the development of this strategy in other European countries and to analyze their achievements and draw-backs. The country of our interest is Belgium which is located in the heart of Europe and concentrate many common features of European politics. The purpose of the article is to analyze the tendencies of introducing media literacy into educational strategies of Flanders (Belgium) and reveal the expediencyof the use of Flanders experience while regulating the educational system of Ukraine.The methods of analysis, synthesis and comparisonare used in the article.Results.Considering the debates in Flemish govern-ment directed towards choosing the best way of imple-menting the media literacy policies, it can be stated that first attempts were made after the dramatic development of the digital technologies. Digital media became more commonly used by citizens of different age and social status, so the issue of protecting them from different nega-tive effects of media, that is, fake news, brutality etc. should fit to a new reality. The instrument of such protec-tion would be media literacy instead of restrictive measures of the government, the latter being considered an ineffective policy. Shifting the responsibility to consum-ers became a goodpractice, but under the condition that they are provided with necessary skills which are of a much wider range that digital skills/ Moreover, media literacy should necessarily include the skills in construct-ing media connecting knowledge of media background and its practical implementation via creating new media products and so understanding their artificial nature.Originality. This research has been done for the first time with the use of original literature sources. Conclusion.Having analyzed different tendencies in policies of implementing media literacy in Flanders (Bel-gium) the author can conclude that during last decades there has been a considerable shift in attitude to media literacy there. Having noticed, that restrictive measures directed to protect consumers from negative influence of media (fake news, violence, addiction etc.) did not act properly because of drastic changes of the media envi-ronment. It became more and more digitalized, and con-sumers have been included in the processes of its crea-tion. It meant that new approaches should be developed giving consumers knowledge and skills which could pro-tect them instead of law. The discussion on the issue are still taking place on the ministry level in Flanders, be-cause restrictive laws are easier to be voted, but making media literacy a part and parcel of a society culture pro-vides more self-confidence and responsibility to the citi-zens of a democratic state. This experience can be quite useful for choosing the correct way of the development and introduction of media literacy in Ukraine.

scholarly journals DIGITAL MEDIA LITERACY IN JORDAN: CHALLENGES AND DEVELOPMENT

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (21) ◽  
pp. 34-44
Author(s):  
Mohamad Ahmad Abdallah Abu Halka ◽  
Shafizan Mohamed
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Community Awareness ◽  
Digital Media Literacy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Digital Identities

Digital media literacy refers to having the ability to use digital technologies to participate in and contribute to social, cultural, political, and economic life. It includes understanding the impact of recent technologies on society, understanding and having the ability to manage digital identities fittingly, and having the ability to find, organize, understand, evaluate, analyze and create digital information. While the level of digital media literacy in Jordan is still in its infancy, there is a positive move towards educating the Jordanian people about digital media. Recently the Jordanian government has developed a national executive plan for digital media literacy to develop community awareness and improve its capabilities in dealing with information and media sources during the Corona pandemic through the Ministry of Culture, Therefore, in this study, we will review the digital media literacy in Jordan and we will study the challenges and development of digital media literacy in Jordan.

scholarly journals Fake News in the Ukrainian Media Space: Technologies of Experimental Projects

2019 ◽  
pp. 29-37
Author(s):  
Alla Mykolaienko
Keyword(s):  
Media Literacy ◽  
Fake News ◽  
False Information ◽  
Research Organizations ◽  
System Method ◽  
Media Space ◽  
The Media ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
The Impact

The article considers dissemination of experimental fake messages by research organizations through analysis of media and audience feedback. The objective of the research is to study the main techniques of fake creation on the basis of experimental fakes traced in the Ukrainian information space. The methods used in the article are the following: analysis – to study the state of media landscape as to availability of fake news; the system method – to establish the ways of fake dissemination; the systematization method – to determine fakes’ features and characteristics. The preconditions, reasons and specifics of creation and intentional dissemination of false information in the society are studied in the article. As a result of the research, the role of pilot projects related to fake dissemination as part of popularization of ideas of media literacy and media education has been identified. It is analyzed the impact of experimental fake news on the media and the general public, in particular on dissemination of messages by the users in social networks. Simultaneously the thesis that regional journalists automatically rewrite and repost the Ukrainian mass media is refuted, as we have traced their professional response to dissemination of false information. The verification of facts (fact checking) is mandatory for journalists and necessary for every consumer of information, as making the media responsible for the facts is not an indication of media literacy.

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