‘Media Literacy’ is the Hottest New Stupid Trend in Education
“Our democracy remains under sustained attack through the proliferation of disinformation”
This is being pushed by the left and is a byproduct on the ‘misinformation/disinformation’ craze. The same people who pushed the Russia collusion hoax for years.
Ben Weingarten writes at Real Clear Investigations:
The Problematic Rise of Media Literacy Education
New Jersey is enlisting public-school teachers and librarians to show children how to combat what it calls the grave threat of disinformation.
“Our democracy remains under sustained attack through the proliferation of disinformation,” Gov. Phil Murphy said in signing the nation’s first law mandating “information literacy” instruction for all K-12 students. The law, which aims to provide students with the “critical thinking” skills necessary to differentiate between “facts, points of view, and opinions” will, Murphy proclaimed, ensure “that our kids … possess the skills needed to discern fact from fiction.”
At a time when the nation’s political and thought leaders are wrestling over the meaning of facts and truth, and distinctions between disinformation, misinformation and plain old information, the New Jersey bill is part of a growing effort to have teachers tell students how to settle these questions.
Since 2016, ten states controlled by Democratic legislators, and three run by Republicans, have passed “media literacy” laws.
Demand for media literacy education has seemingly grown in the “fake news” age, buoying bills like New Jersey’s, which had languished for years, only to pass with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Media literacy advocates such as Erin McNeill, President of Media Literacy Now, say the goal is to teach students “how to consume information, not what information to consume.”
But other educational experts see information and media literacy as inherently political, or minimally ripe for politicization.
The “guise of ‘media literacy,’” writes John Sailer, a senior fellow at the National Association of Scholars, “often functions as a trojan horse, casting certain political views” – conservative ones, say critics – “as prima facie wrong and biased.”
The progressive politics of those backing information and media literacy bills in some states give skeptics further pause – concerns heightened by rhetoric like that of Gov. Murphy, who framed New Jersey’s bill as responsive to the “violent insurrection” of Jan. 6, 2021.
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Check out how billionaires like the Craigslist founder are funding this evil;
https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/21/craigslist-craig-funded-the-censorship-industrial-complex-to-silence-dissent-online/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=craigslist-craig-funded-the-censorship-industrial-complex-to-silence-dissent-onlin
“The law, which aims to provide students with the “critical thinking” skills necessary to differentiate between “facts, points of view, and opinions” will, Murphy proclaimed, ensure “that our kids … possess the skills needed to discern fact from fiction.”
Anyone who thinks men can become women or vice versa are immediately disqualified from teaching this class.
Of course, this is just the Federal Disinformation Board, AKA MiniTrue, injected into “education” because they think nobody’s looking.
Yet, I don’t get how they think their scheme can work. I don’t get how you can touch this topic without draggin in critical thinking, and noting that propaganda exists.
Nobody wants that.
Media literacy sounds like a great idea. Perhaps require journalists and other news staff to prove competency in written and oral English before hiring? An article I was reading earlier about a boy who committed suicide referred to their suicide in one place rather than his suicide. (No I don’t usually read such tragic pieces but something caught my eye – possibly the grievous crime against language).
Those responsible for producing English language material need to be competent else others will adopt their errors and we’ll no longer have a common language but mutually exclusive dialects. I make no claims my own English is perfect, but I’m not getting paid to write, and I don’t have an editor.
One simple rule, ignore and do not rely upon Wikipedia.