Fake News Can Kill:

Why Social Media Literacy Must be Embedded in Secondary School Curriculums



On March 22, 2017, a 52-year-old British man drove his car into the public, breaking through the crowd to harm innocent people in the name of terrorism. His heinous attack resulted in more than 46 injuries and 4 deaths.

In the wake of the tragedy, a photo of a hijab-wearing woman on the phone during the attack went viral on social media. Rather than blaming the culprit of the crime, people abused this woman, accusing her of being indifferent to the victims around her. They used the hashtag: #BanIslam to shame her and her culture. Suddenly, the real culprit and issue were ignored in favor of this fake news.

To combat the cruel comments being thrown at her, the woman released a statement about how she felt, "... shocked and totally dismayed at how a picture of [herself was] being circulated on social media.” Further still, if you look closely at the picture, you will see that there is no indifference on her face at all, but rather heartbreak.

The media, as disseminated through social media, clearly has an incredible power that needs to be checked when involving individual civilians. As revealed in this one example of innumerable examples, false rumors will drive people to abuse innocent people indiscriminately.

The fact of the matter is that at any point in time, we all face the potentiality of being misunderstood and misrepresented by social media - especially if photographs of us are taken out of context. Because of this, it is fundamental that we equip ourselves with the knowledge to prevent it, or at minimum, to deal with it safely and securely when we are the victim of fake news. Just imagine how much harder it might have been for this woman had she been a teenager accused of this indifference. In other words, it is imperative that social media literacy be embedded within the secondary school curriculum across all subjects, especially as social media platforms continue to develop and abound in the daily life experiences of our youth.

According to Elisa Shearer from the Pew Research Center, since July 2020, “86% of Americans have received their news through social media.” Spreading false information affects not only what people believe, but also how they behave – those people who had abused that woman online genuinely thought they were doing the right thing.

Furthermore, Michael Barthell et al, also from the Pew Research Center, argues that, “more than half of Americans say fake news causes a lot of chaos.” This is partly why we need to consider how best to support an ever-growing problem, particularly since social media is never going away.

In fact, social media platforms are like the heads of Hydra - when one is cut off, several more come back in its place. And our young people are at the frontlines of that battle with their innumerable devices. This is why we have such an important task on our hands to ensure they are safe and understand the risks at their fingertips.

Fake news generated by bullies and directed at ourselves can bring depression and result in drastic measures, even suicide. According to Ogi Djuraskovic from the FirstSiteGuide, between 2008 to 2015, the number of teens who attempted suicide or had suicidal thoughts doubled, with 26 percent having suicidal thoughts. This is why equipping young people with the strategies to manage fake news targeted at them, or indeed to stop them from generating their own fake news, is an absolute must. We need to teach them how to tell right and wrong, and how not to be deceived easily by a few words on the internet. Our young people are dying, but we have the power to stop it!

Many school boards, parents, and teachers feel that if students have social media literacy classes, that the young people will use this time to browse pornographic websites or post some inappropriate remarks, or even just get side-tracked from doing their homework. Though they may not realize it, these concerns actually reflect their agreement with the idea of social media literacy classes. The focus of the curriculum would be to teach students how to access and use social media safely, correctly and humanely, which will in turn stop them from using it in the inappropriate ways listed above.

The reason why some students do things that they are not allowed to do is because no one tells them what is right and what is wrong. They then must discover these things themselves through trial and error, which could be potentially dangerous for them and to others.

In an ever-growing curriculum impacted by so many different requirements from state governments and federal government, it is conceivable that school administrations will say that offering social media literacy is not possible. But what I suggest is not to create a new subject altogether, but rather to integrate social media literacy strategies in already existent subjects.

In fact, there are already lots of well-researched material available for teachers and school administration to draw from, meaning that they do not need to create a brand new curriculum from the ground up. Not-for-profit organizations, and even US state media outlets, have begun creating resources for people working with young people, making this process even easier.

For example, Young Citizen, a London-based charity dedicated to developing civic-minded young people, has a dedicated profile of resources on social media literacy that teachers, parents and carers can use. In America, even, there are accreditations available to equip teachers with the skills for this subject matter, including the PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification by KQED, the member station of NPR in California. These are just two examples of many; easy web searches by school administrations can identify the wealth of material waiting to be used by schools.

By integrating social media literacy in a holistic, meaningful way into the education system of our young people, we can ensure that they won't become targets on social media, nor will they become the trolls misunderstanding that content and targeting other vulnerable people. We want to guarantee that no one else suffers the way that woman in Britain did when her image was misunderstood virally. She shouldn't have been abused that day; she was a local Londoner simply trying to get home in the same way that you or I would be if we were caught in the middle of a terrorist attack. Through her story we can all agree that we must never be blinded by fake news generated by social media virality. We have the power to stop it – and that begins in our schools.

Bibliography:

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