By California State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, introduced the Pupil Instruction: Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy bill imposing a state mandate on public schools, making the teaching of media literacy and digital citizenship an academic requirement.
According to the bill proposed by Jackson, students in grades K-12 are more exposed to the Internet than any previous generation. Therefore, the implementation of media literacy would provide students with skills necessary for analyzing, interpreting and evaluating media sources – tools essential for combating the “fake news” trend, which has catapulted untrue stories, like one created by Kellyanne Conway, who stated that the “Bowling Green Massacre” was caused by Iraqi refugees – when, in fact, such a massacre never happened.
Cal State Long Beach news literacy professor Jennifer Fleming, despite not being a self-proclaimed expert in media literacy, said educating students about the media would be a step in the right direction.
“It would help make people be more aware, more skeptical and more independent of all information that they consume,” Fleming said. “In theory, media literacy education makes people more skeptical media consumers.”
Following the 2016 presidential election, BuzzFeed reported that Americans saw a spike in the “fake news” trend, which was partially a result of the lack in media literacy necessary to identify illegitimate news sources.
Ipsos Public Affairs, a global marketing research and opinion company, conducted a survey poll on behalf of BuzzFeed following the election to determine how many Americans see fake news as accurate.
According to the survey, 83 percent of Facebook users use the social networking site as their primary news source. The survey also found that people who cite Facebook as their primary news source are more prone to fall for fake news.
“We’ve really been teaching how to spot fake news, at Long Beach State, for more than 10 years,” Fleming said. “Fake news has been around for a very long time, [but] the definition has evolved.”
Aside from teaching students about digital citizenship, Internet safety and media literacy, if the bill is passed, parents and school administrations will also be offered the opportunity to learn about safe media and technology use, which will prepare them for handling situations regarding online bullying, sexting or other media related issues.
“The legislation is about ensuring we have an informed citizenry,” said Jackson in a press release. “The role of the media and technology is only growing. The skills we teach kids today about critical thinking, the role of media in their lives and how best to interact with social media, fake news and technology will help keep them safe and serve them into adulthood.”
Beginning in the 2019 school year, courses implemented in accordance with the mandate will be reviewed annually, as an effort to keep the instructional procedure up to date and in alignment with requirements.
Although the change to the state academic requirements would require the purchasing of materials, adding to costs to each school’s budget, the state will issue reimbursements for all costs, a decision which will not be made official until after the April 19 senate hearing.
Aside from California, schools in Washington may also experience the same change to academic requirements, as its state legislature also recently introduced a bill regarding safe technology use and digital citizenship in state schools.
