Media Literacy in the Age of Disinformation  

When I was younger, maybe five or six years old, I learned a valuable lesson from a public service announcement airing on the CBC. The ad began, “The North American House Hippo is found throughout Canada and the Eastern United States…” A miniature hippopotamus scurrying about a home appeared on screen, shown to scale about a fifth the size of a household cat. The ad discussed House Hippo behaviour, eating habits, and preferred nesting conditions.   

Mystified, I shot up on the couch, turned to my family in excitement, and innocently asked: “Do we have House Hippos in our home?” As my two sisters roared in laughter, the ad continued: “That looked really real, but you knew it couldn’t be true, didn’t you? That’s why it’s good to think about what you’re watching on TV and ask questions, kind of like you just did.”  

I sank in embarrassment.  

If you’re unfamiliar, the House Hippo PSA was released in 1999 by Concerned Children’s Advertisers (now Companies Committed to Kids). The PSA aimed to promote media literacy among children. 

While effective in creating nostalgia for Canadian millennials, it might be harder to argue that the ad was effective in accomplishing its intended goal.  

A 2019 poll found that 90% of Canadians have fallen for fake news. In the years since the ad, the emergence of generative AI, the erosion of content moderation, and a decline in trust in traditional institutions and journalism have all contributed to an increase in the prevalence of fake news. 

Every year, the World Economic Forum releases the Global Risk Report, an analysis of the world’s most severe risks. The report draws on the Global Risks Perception Survey’s polling of 900 experts in business, government, academia, and civil society. This year, the report stated misinformation (unknowingly shared false information) and disinformation (deliberately shared false information) as the top short- to medium-term (two-year outlook) risks facing humanity, ahead of notable contenders such as extreme weather events, and state-based armed conflict.  

This phenomenon goes beyond blatant fake news. Information can often be shared in a way that is biased or misleading, subtly designed to guide the reader to a certain conclusion or to reinforce certain beliefs.  

With these trends, the importance of strong media literacy skills has perhaps never been greater.   

Media literacy encompasses various competencies that enable individuals to navigate the information shared on traditional and digital news platforms today. It defines our ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media in various forms, to critically approach news, and to determine the accuracy and credibility of information.  

In the face of disinformation, media literacy helps us make sense of the world and informs our decisions on health, politics, and our everyday interactions within society.  

Unfortunately, we cannot consistently rely on major tech and media companies to be positive actors in self-regulating the disinformation or biased news on their platforms. Look no further than X (formerly Twitter) since its acquisition by Elon Musk. The platform has eliminated key anti-disinformation features while disbanding the company team dedicated to trust and safety.   

Even before these changes, a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that false information spreads six times faster than factual information, and that on X, false information is 70% more likely to be retweeted than true information.  

While we must continue to demand more accountability from platforms and publications in their efforts to limit misinformation and disinformation, impactful and widespread regulatory reform does not appear to be on the horizon. Ultimately, the best defence against fake news and biased reporting is you, and your ability to practice media literacy in your daily interactions with all forms of media.  

So, how do you be media literate?  

Here are a few quick guiding principles and key questions to ask:   

• Be Critical: The most important tool in the media literacy tool kit is confronting news and information with a critical mind. Question what a news article is trying to accomplish. Who created this message? Why did they create the message? What is the evidence? What do other sources say?  

 

• Verify the Source: Do the author or cited sources have a proven track record of fair and honest reporting? Are they part of a larger network, and does that network have an agenda? Where is the evidence coming from?  

 

• Recognize Bias: Who is telling the story, and what biases might they hold? Was there an intentional motive or attempt to sway your position on the topic? Is this account or this publication known for promoting a specific stance on various issues? News stories can show bias in several ways, including articles that prioritize certain voices and perspectives over others, use inflammatory language, and include misleading images or headlines.  

 

• Beware of the Algorithm: Social media websites utilize algorithms to track the content you are engaging with and funnel similar content back to your feed, encouraging people to spend more time on the platforms. This can create echo chambers of bias-confirming content—information that supports an individual’s pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses. Diversify the types of news and entertainment sites that you follow to get a diverse range of perspectives, or go beyond the apps to seek news and entertainment from various media channels.  

 

• Promote Responsible Sharing: We can all play a role in promoting media literacy in our digital spaces, in our workplaces, and around our dining room tables. These can be difficult conversations, but small efforts to help others identify disinformation and correct shared misinformation can go a long way.  

 

As we become increasingly inundated with mis- and disinformation, we can’t afford to become numb to it. Media literacy is a skill we use every day. It is a skill we can improve upon, and one we can use to create a more informed and credible existence not just for ourselves, but for our broader communities.  

I hope you enjoyed this article, but more importantly, took the time to question the information presented within it as well.