Here are three tips to make sure you share good information and stop the spread of hoaxes, rumours and scams.
1. Watch for your own bias
One of the hardest things about being a responsible sharer is to be aware of the reasons why you might be more likely to believe something without evidence. Before you share a story, take a few minutes to see whether you’ve fallen into one of these common biases:
While parents may find certain representations of violence wholly appropriate for young people, there’s a wide continuum of content that exists online and in the media. Anything from a cartoon cat having an anvil comically dropped on his head to video images of real-life injuries and deaths can be accessed online by children and youth.
The social studies program in Alberta contains expectations that complement the critical thinking approach of media education. The Alberta social studies curriculum states,
In our changing society, students will need to be practised at using a variety of skills and strategies. Students will need to be able to acquire knowledge, to interpret and communicate information, and to solve problems and make decisions. In doing all of this, students require a wide range of critical and creative thinking skills and strategies that they can apply to a variety of situations.
The British Columbia Arts Education curriculum promotes the development of artistic habits of mind, categorized as exploring and creating, reasoning and reflecting, and communicating and documenting. Digital media literacy is present throughout these curricular competencies, which include a focus on relationships between the arts and various cultures and societies, reflecting on and making connections between creative processes, and considering how audience negotiate meaning.
The Ontario mathematics curriculum includes expectations that incorporate media education themes. The grade curriculum document Mathematics (2007) includes a section that explains how mathematical concepts such as probability can be applied to media criticism:
In the Northwest Territories technology, literacy and communication, problem solving, and human relations are considered "foundation skills" and are included in a wide range of curricula from Kindergarten to Grade 12. This approach is based on a focus on inquiry, critical and creative thinking, digital citizenship, multiple literacies (including digital literacies) and a gradual release of responsibility from the instructor to the student, with the ultimate goal of making the student responsible for his or her learning.
In this lesson, students watch a video introducing the media literacy key concept that audiences negotiate meaning.
Starting in 2018-2019, Ontario students are assessed on Transferrable Skills such as critical thinking, global citizenship, communication and collaboration. According to the document Transferable Skills (n.d.),
There’s significant evidence that media education can counter unrealistic media representations of men’s and women’s bodies. For example, a 2015 study found that girls as young as Grade 5 who had received media literacy education in school had higher self-esteem and body satisfaction.
As adults, we want to foster resilience in young people, starting when they’re young. This can be done by teaching them how to handle harassing messages or requests that make them feel uncomfortable – on the internet or in the schoolyard – and, as they get older, by teaching them how to spot and respond to emotional manipulation. The good news is that most teens are effectively handling online requests from strangers – the bigger challenge is helping them handle sexual advances from people they know.