The collective task of educating for information – 05/18/2023 – Education

The internet and social networks have considerably expanded the universe of information, transforming the way we consume, produce and share content, whether in the form of letters, images or sounds. The world will never be the same—for better or for worse.

Today, anyone with access to the internet potentially has the chance to enrich public debate, connect with different types of knowledge and participate in building a better society. With the same tools, unfortunately, it is possible to reach an opposite scenario, in which misinformation and hate speech separate us from reliable information and healthy discussions and, consequently, hinder our right to make well-informed decisions.

There is no silver bullet for meeting these challenges. Much is discussed about the platforms’ business model, possible regulation, punishment of those who use the distorted concept of freedom of expression to spread aggression and threats, among other measures. Meanwhile, a consensus seems to emerge: it is urgent that the whole of society get involved in the promotion and implementation of what we call media education.

The term, understood as a broad set of skills to participate in a connected society based on critical consumption and responsible production of information, is not restricted to formal education environments. We need a collective effort to discover and adopt media literacy actions in the most diverse contexts, with the involvement of schools but also of journalism, technology companies, governments and civil society institutions.

Media education —in a broad sense, which goes beyond combating fake news— can reach different contexts, leading society to also reflect on freedom of expression and hate speech, representation in the media, propaganda in the political scene and the ecosystem of networks social issues, among other topics.

This broader (and permanent) view of media literacy has been championed by renowned international experts, including Renee Hobbs, Professor of Communication Studies at the Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island (USA), and Paolo Celot, one of the main names in the area in the European Union.

Both will be in Brazil next week for the International Meeting on Media Education, a free event that will bring together researchers, educators, public policy makers and other interested parties in São Paulo.

Indeed, Celot’s phrase should become a mantra for society as a whole: in the face of so many innovations that challenge our critical sense, “it is no longer an advantage to be media-educated; on the contrary, it is a debilitating disadvantage not to be”.