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 Lesson
6: News and Social Media
The lesson includes a video program, the text for the
video
program, and a words in this story section. |
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Lesson 6: News and Social Media
Watch the video program about this lesson.
Then read the text and the words in this story section. |
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Lesson 6: News and Social Media |
Today anyone with a smartphone or a laptop can spread
information and video around the world immediately.
This new-found power can play a vital role in our
understanding of events in places that have been cut off
from traditional journalism.
As in Syria where the effects of the violent civil war
are captured by citizens who are often trapped behind
the firing line. In this digital age, it is nearly
impossible for tyrants to mask their cruelty and anyone
can speak about oppression to a global audience.
But digitalization has a dark side. Social media, like
Twitter and Facebook, often release information to the
public that has not been verified, or long before a
legitimate news organization would release it. So, it is
possible for erroneous information to spread quickly.
Take the case of Veerender Jubbal. Several European news
outlets named the Canadian Sikh as a possible suspect
for the November 2015 Paris terror attack. They even
published a photo of him wearing a suicide bomber vest.
But Mr. Jubbal was completely innocent. Someone had
manipulated a photo on his Facebook page and posted it
on social media as a joke. It quickly spread, causing
Mr. Jubbal to suffer extreme damage to his reputation
and a lot of emotional distress.
This is a dramatic example but think about it. How many
times have you fallen for click bait -- those deceptive
ads that lure you to click with gossip or untrue
information? For example, those ads that imply a famous
celebrity has died or suffered a terrible tragedy?
Unlike traditional journalism, social media does not
have an obligation to the truth. Its users are its
reporters, and they are accountable to no one.
A smart news consumer is always aware of this
discrepancy between traditional media and social media.
Exercising news literacy is a skill like any other
skill. It requires thoughtful concentration and
consideration. A literate news consumer uses the tools
we have outlined to evaluate the mounds of information
we encounter every minute of every day.
This lesson is based on the News Literacy class at the
Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University. For
more on how to become a news literate citizen, go to The
Center for News Literacy. |
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Words in This Story |
- tyrant
- n. a ruler who has
complete power over a country and who is cruel and
unfair
- cruelty
- n. a desire to cause
others to suffer : the quality or state of being
cruel
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legitimate - adj.
allowed according to rules or laws
- erroneous
- adj. not correct
-
manipulate - v.
to deal with or control (someone or something) in a
clever and usually unfair or selfish way
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reputation - n.
the common opinion that people have about someone or
something
- distress
- n. suffering that
affects the mind or body
- lure
- v. to cause or
persuade (a person or an animal) to go somewhere or
to do something by offering some pleasure or gain
- gossip
- n. information about
the behavior and personal lives of other people
-
obligation - n.
something that you must do because of a law, rule,
promise, etc.
-
discrepancy - n.
a difference especially between things that should
be the same
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Source: Voice of America |
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