The Commission on Fake News and the Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills recently published a report on Fake news and critical literacy. LSE PhD researcher Gianfranco Polizzi summarises the key findings of the report and sets out his recommendations in response.
If on the one hand it is difficult to define fake news – as to whether it implies, for instance, false information that is deliberate or not – on the other hand, this term is commonly understood as synonymous with misinformation. In an age which is highly mediated by digital technologies, the rate at which misinformation can spread is unprecedented. As a result, there are growing concerns about the implications of misinformation. Most problematically, the condition upon which our democracies rely – a citizenry making informed decisions – is undermined.
After conducting research and gathering evidence from experts, the Commission on Fake News and the Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills (run by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Literacy, the National Literacy Trust and other partners) has recently published a report on children’s media use, fake news and the teaching of critical literacy in schools in the United Kingdom. Critical literacy is often understood as the ability to evaluate information by questioning its trustworthiness, which is how it was approached empirically by the Commission. As acknowledged in their report, however, critical literacy in the digital age should also entail awareness of how and why information is created, disseminated and consumed in the digital environment. Given the internet’s potential to facilitate, for instance, both freedom of expression and data surveillance, critical digital literacy can also be approached as incorporating reflexivity about “the internet’s […] democratising potential and its structural constraints”.
New findings
The Commission surveyed 388 primary school students, 1832 secondary school students and 414 teachers in the UK, ran focus groups with students and teachers, and took various other forms of evidence. The Commission concluded that:
- only 2% of children have the critical literacy skills to discern truth from fake news.
- roughly 60% of students (3 in 5 children) who had heard of fake news said it made them trust the news less.
- while primary and secondary students mostly access and trust the news on TV and radio, nearly half of older children access the news online (43.8% from websites and 49.5% from Snapchat). A quarter of children trust websites and social media.
- half of children are worried about whether they can identify fake news.
- only 6% of students (4.8% of primary students and 7.9% of secondary students) speak to teachers about fake news.
As for teachers:
- 61% are concerned about fake news affecting children’s well-being. The focus groups revealed that teachers are worried about fake news creating anxiety among students.
- half (54%) think the national curriculum does not equip students well enough to spot fake news.
- 35% think critical literacy is taught in ways that are not transferable to the outside world.
New questions
While these findings emphasise how urgently children need to acquire critical literacy skills in the digital age, they do not imply that the fake news phenomenon is exclusively related to children, nor that critical literacy is the only solution. The Commission has acknowledged in its report that adults also need critical literacy. Although the education system plays a crucial role in promoting critical literacy, it cannot reach adults. On the other hand, the family is a key way to reach children.
Additionally, the media industry has a role to play. During the launch of the report, Facebook was described as 1) tweaking its algorithms to spot and remove misinformation; and 2) designing tools enabling users to judge content credibility. For instance, the giant corporation is adding a button to news articles, one that allows users to access background information on publishers. However meritorious, whether these measures are sufficient remains to be seen.
Alarmingly, the findings of the Commission resonate with Ofcom’s 2017 conclusion that one out of four children in Britain believe that a website can be trusted if listed by a search engine. While they potentially fuel public anxiety, we should ask first, and find answers to, a few questions:
- While only 2% of children can spot fake news, what is the percentage of teachers who can identify misinformation?
- To what extent do roughly 60% of children trust less the news because of having heard of fake news? In Western societies, citizens’ trust is often undermined by alienation from politics, institutions and the media. Is children’s (dis)trust a reflection of parents’ (dis)trust expressed within family settings? Research suggests that attitudes towards trust tend to be transmitted from parents to children.
- 61% of teachers are worried that the fake news phenomenon is affecting children’s well-being, but is that really so or is that what teachers think? There is a risk of encouraging an overly protectionist approach to children’s internet use, one that minimises their online risks as well as opportunities for learning and socialising. Research shows that with more online risks come inevitably more opportunities and vice versa.
- While half of teachers think the national curriculum needs to be revised, the question is how critical literacy should be taught through a revised national curriculum. Do we need a more student-centred approach to teaching, one that privileges critical thinking over a teacher-centred approach based on knowledge transmission? If we do, a revised curriculum is not enough, as it is also a matter of pedagogy, teaching style and assessment formats. Relatedly, is critical thinking enough? And should this be encouraged across different disciplines? As information is highly digitally mediated, we need to teach students about the broader digital environment. However, the computing curriculum is overly focused on practical skills. As an optional subject, media studies – which has the potential to teach students such skills – is “taken by only a handful of students”.
- Only 6% of students speak to teachers about fake news, while 35% of teachers think critical literacy is not taught in schools in ways that are transferable to the real world. Aren’t librarians those who can best fill these gaps? Wouldn’t it be better for students to know that they can discuss fake news with information experts, considering that teachers might lack that expertise? If so, it is problematic that libraries are in decline in the UK, because of decreasing staffing and budgets, with thousands “actually or virtually unused”. Furthermore, “there is no statutory requirement for schools in England to have a school library”.
Recommendations
What stands out from brainstorming new questions in response to this report is that:
- A more comprehensive approach to critical literacy is needed when both researching and teaching it. In the digital age, critical literacy needs to entail awareness of the broader digital environment.
- To boost critical literacy, the national curriculum needs to be revised. Media studies should be promoted more robustly, while computing should be not only about practical skills but also critical reflexivity about the digital landscape. In parallel, we need a more student-centred approach encouraging critical thinking over knowledge transmission.
- Libraries inside and outside schools need to be incentivised to support librarians as information advisers.
We also need:
- to avoid translating alarming findings into a protectionist approach that minimises children’s exposure to both online risks and opportunities.
- more research into teachers’ ability to identify misinformation, keeping in mind that critical literacy goes beyond children.
- to reflect on whether the steps being taken by social media companies against misinformation are sufficient.
- to reflect on children’s distrust in the news as potentially stemming from family settings and adults’ distrust in politics, institutions and the media.
We should not be discouraged if providing answers leads to new questions. It is only by doing so that we can better understand how to tackle fake news and promote critical literacy.
This article gives the views of the author and does not represent the position of the LSE Media Policy Project blog, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Do we not also require media legibility, ie hyperlinks to full source documents included in articles.
Fake news is s misconception of facts due to outright false information or biases from all parties involved. As an educator, I know that in order for students to become critical thinkers and to discern fact from fiction they can only do so with the help and support of their families, teachers and community.
As a teacher of Pre-Kindergarten students, I have never stopped and pondered the effects of fake news as it relates to their daily life. I just assumed (and we all know what they say about assuming) both the parents and the teachers would work together to inform the students that what they saw on tv or their tablets is not true and why it is not true.
How can educators and parents teach learners how to discern fact from fiction? How do we teach students to become critical thinkers by researching multiple literacy articles? What websites and news channels can they truly believe without bias being implied throughout? This year has been a great year to discuss fact from fiction- with the Presidential election. Not only during the election do we hear bias from news channels but we also have family biases that play a role as well. Students of a higher age should be taught to research both arguments on their own to help discern fact vs. fiction/opinion. Text consumption vs. text production are useful tools in understanding both sides. We read and interpret only what is put out in the media; however, we must teach students to look into information from both sides in order to determine what view they wish to believe. As the article “The Importance of Critical Literacy” discusses that once a photographer submits a picture, how the picture is portrayed is no longer in their hands. Once, that photo is submitted the photographer no longer owns how that photo is used to create a bias among viewers. In the case of my young learners, they can view images and discern meaning from expressions, colors, etc. however; they do not have the full background story on what is actually happening in the picture. In my opinion, in the case of my young learners this is how fake news is developed. Only seeing what the media is portraying without having the background knowledge as to what is actually being shown.
The biggest recommendation is how the schools can be updated so that fake, bias news is not continuously being taught. The curriculum needs to be revised. We know that times have changed over the years but the curriculum has remained the same. When teaching history, students have learned through their own families the sufferings and mistrials they have faced. Does our curriculum share all sides of the story or just the bias that is portrayed? We as educators know we have to teach a certain set of standards but how is the lesson being taught meaningful if it is not current? I wish I had the answer to this question. Even though I know my students better than the people creating the curriculum, no one is asking my opinion as to how or if the curriculum will be effective and meaningful to each individual student. School libraries need to implement books that are meaningful to all cultures. Librarians also need to be taught how to teach students how to properly research information on their own to discern fact from fiction.
I would love to find a way to reach my students at such a young age how to research on their own. The students I teach are at an impressionable age and knowing that they are not yet able to research on their own, I can do my best not to implement my bias or “fake” information into my daily lessons. If students come to me with questions, I can also be prepared to research and discuss with them all sides of the information so that they are able to reach a conclusion on their own.
I agree that fake news is problematic because we do want to make informed decisions and that idea is undermined by the increasing prevalence of fake news. Misinformation spreads so rapidly now on the internet and children and adults alike are not critically examining the information to find the truth. In this digital age that we live in, people should know how and why information is created, disseminated, and consumed as Polizzi suggests.
As a result of the rapid spreading of fake news, it is even more important that children develop critical literacy skills. Teachers can help with this endeavor by having the important discussions in the classroom. As Elizabeth Dutro (2017) said, “[L]iteracies and life experiences are not separable things.” Conversations about what is going on in the world and in the lives of students should be happening and teachers and families should be providing students with the tools to equip them to think critically about the information they hear, see, and read. Teachers can foster critical thinking by allowing the students to do quick writes each week. Then the teachers can use this information to delve into topics that reoccur in the students’ writings. We want to give all students, regardless of race, gender, nationality, or class, equal access to critical literacy as Janks (2012) suggests in her article, “The Importance of Critical Literacy”. The world is changing rapidly and so we need to equip our young people with the tools to think critically about what they read on the internet and be able to discern what is truth and what is fake. Being critically informed is a powerful tool to have. Students also need to be taught how to recognize that not everything they read is meant for everyone. They have the ability to challenge and change the discourse and evaluate it against their beliefs.