Hello, in this blog I will be discussing the importance of media literacy. For discussing this topic I have read 3 articles related to the topics of digital media companies, misleading information regarding Covid 19 in the UK, News media literacy, perceptions of bias, and interpretation of news.
The first article I read was about how digital media companies are failing to help its users to understand the information that they are seeing online. A survey conducted in Ireland said that 62% of people were concerned about misinformation online. personally I see this as a very important issue that needs to be addressed in a serious manner by all digital media companies because of how much people consume information online. To combat misinformation digital media companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft have all signed up to the EC code of practice on disinformation.
This code of practice is monitored by the European Regulators Group for Audio-visual Media Services. In my opinion this is a step in the right direction to get these companies to enforce rules on disinformation, although it is only a small effect on a large issue. Personally I feel that if everyone could enhance their digital literacy it would be easier for everyone to find sources that are reliable and know how to spot misinformation.
The second article I read is regarding misinformation about Covid 19 in the United Kingdom. Ofcom have been researching misinformation being spread on the internet by conducting surveys. In one of their surveys they discovered that half of the people that they surveyed have come across false or misleading information about Covid 19.
Ofcom have been doing these surveys periodically through the pandemic to monitor what misinformation is being spread and where people are coming across it. One figure which I found concerning was that 4 out of 10 people were getting their Covid 19 information from social media which can easily be misleading. luckily most information regarding Covid 19 came from trusted sources such as the BBC.
Another concerning figure I have seen in this article is that 35% of Northern Irish participants said they found it hard to know what's true and what's false. This shows how important it is to have good digital literacy in the modern world.
The third article I read was News media literacy, perceptions of bias, and interpretation of news. This article focuses a lot of its content on American politics about political parties, sources of information and media literacy. A part of this article I found interesting was about the news sources that people were looking at for their information.
I discovered that certain news channels such as CNN would bias towards the Democratic political party by giving them positive praise while on other channels like Fox News would have a bias towards the Republican party. An interesting survey in this article showing the age, gender, party ID, opinion on the importance of news and media literacy education can effect their opinions.
From this survey I discovered that depending on someone having media literacy education greatly effects someone's opinion of the importance of news which was important for nearly everyone that had media literacy education, rather than what political party they vote for.
After reading these articles I have discovered how immensely important it is to have media literacy in todays world where there is so many sources of information which have a possibility of being false or misleading.
Sources
- Digital Media Companies Found Lacking in Helping Users Understand The Online Environment - by Dr Niamh Kirk - (link)
- Ofcom research: Nearly half of people across the UK nations have come across false or misleading information about Covid-19 - by Rebecca Lennon, Regulatory Affairs Advisor at Ofcom. - (link)
- News media literacy, perceptions of bias, and interpretation of news - by Melissa Tully The University of Iowa, USA Emily K Vraga George Mason University, USA - Anne-Bennett Smithson George Mason University, USA - (link)
No comments:
Post a Comment