That can be especially tricky online, where researchers have found that false news stories, which are often novel and elicit strong feelings, are 70 percent more likely to be shared and reach people six times faster than the truth.
Given the speed and reach of such falsehoods, and their potential to polarize society, the World Economic Forum named misinformation and disinformation as the No. 1 global risk in its annual report last month. The forum defines this risk as “persistent false information (deliberate or otherwise) widely spread through media networks, shifting public opinion in a significant way toward distrust in facts and authority.”
The report states that the rise of artificial intelligence has amplified the problem, not only because it makes it easier to create and spread false content that appears real, but also because the online data used to train AI systems may be riddled with falsehoods as well.
In response to these issues, 20 states have passed laws to require, promote or at least look into media literacy education for K-12 students, according to Media Literacy Now. The nonprofit describes media literacy as an umbrella term that includes cross-checking information, using screens mindfully, avoiding exploitation, understanding algorithms and reflecting on financial motives for content.
Only three states — Connecticut, Illinois and New Jersey — have passed laws that require K-12 educators to teach news literacy specifically, according to the News Literacy Project (NLP). The nonprofit defines news literacy as “the ability to determine the credibility of news and other information.”
A 2024 NLP survey of 1,110 teenagers nationwide found that 82 percent could not correctly identify what was news versus an advertisement, opinion or entertainment. Eighty percent reported seeing social media posts that promoted conspiracy theories, and of those, 81 percent said they were inclined to believe one or more of them. Nearly half the teens surveyed said the press harms democracy, and almost all of them said schools should be required to teach media literacy. Those numbers are an urgent wake-up call, according to NLP President and CEO Charles Salter.
“We cannot let students graduate high school without learning these essential 21st-century skills. Young people need to know how to find credible information so they can make informed decisions about their lives and participate meaningfully in our civic life,” Salter said in an email. “Like all of us, teens are struggling to separate fact from fiction in today’s complicated media environment. It is our responsibility to make sure they can think independently and critically about all the news and information they encounter.”
NEWS LITERACY IN ACTION
Although it’s not a requirement in New York, news literacy has been part of the English and social studies curriculum for middle and high school students in Long Island’s Baldwin Union Free School District (BUFSD) since 2020, according to BUFSD Superintendent Shari Camhi.
“With the accessibility of the Internet, but really more so with social media and podcasting, and just the availability of a platform for everyone and anyone, it became pretty clear that the most important skill that our students should have is the ability to decipher information and know what’s real and what’s not,” Camhi said.
Fortunately, she added, while technology can make the misinformation problem worse, it also gives students instant access to resources that can help them uncover the truth. If they are taught to pause and ask questions and think critically about what they read online, Camhi said, they can then use the Internet to evaluate accuracy.
The news literacy curriculum in BUFSD was developed by district teachers and informed by their own annual training from the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University, she said. It teaches students to wonder about the author, publication, sources and overall motivation behind a story, Camhi said, and guides them through the process of using the Internet to find out more.
“We’re not trying to influence how people think, but we do want you to have the correct information so that you can come up with your own viewpoints on things based on factual information,” she said.
The method most students will use to find out the facts, or at least gather contending perspectives, is called lateral research, according to Merve Lapus, vice president of education outreach and engagement for the nonprofit Common Sense Media.
“Essentially, you open a new tab to do a search on the author, then another one to find out more about the organization or the website, then another to dive deeper and find a counter-argument, and then you have three or four tabs open,” Lapus said. “At that point, you can click between them, and it gives you a better sense of rounding out the information you’re trying to access.”
In addition to teaching students to perform lateral research online, Lapus said schools should also push kids to pay attention to how what they’re reading makes them feel. When content elicits strong emotions, good or bad, he said it could be attempting to steer the reader in a certain direction or confirm an existing bias.
EDUCATOR RESOURCES
For school leaders looking to teach students news literacy, Common Sense Media offers a free curriculum that includes lessons on news accuracy for students in grades two through 12.
For educators who work with students in grades four through 12, NLP has a resource library of free lessons, and for educators who work with older students, a free weekly newsletter with timely news literacy topics and related teaching ideas.
Also for older students, NLP hosts Checkology, a free collection of expert-led video lessons on subjects such as understanding bias and press freedoms around the world.
