Election disinformation believers, censored on Twitter but welcomed on Parler, prompt society to consider the value of the unfettered freedom to spread dangerously false information.
Twitter’s format of quick-bite information does more harm than good to one’s information literacy development. But the company’s recent partnership with UNESCO to promulgate this modern-day imperative is a step in the right direction.
Over the past few years, several state legislatures have considered strengthening media literacy skills instruction in schools based on recent research findings. But how can teachers instruct students to become critical consumers of media if politicians falsely label credible sources of information as “fake news?”
Instead of focusing mainly on fake websites when teaching information literacy skills, teachers should introduce the term disinformation and provide students with learning opportunities to explore the detrimental effects disinformation has on society.
So, what do patients do when they can’t get the information that they need? Well, they look elsewhere. The place they look? The library. One study reported that 60% of survey participants stated that libraries were among their preferred sources of health information.