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Why media literacy is crucial during election season
November 5th is more than a free day off of school, it is national election day in the U.S. As we approach this election day, the political environment becomes more debated and more divided. Information on candidates is constantly being thrown in our faces, from the major candidates themselves, their committees and their followers.
Before you vote, it is highly recommended that you do your own research on each candidate and the policies they promote. The stories you hear of a candidate online may vastly differ from their true beliefs and policies. In order to understand the candidates, you must be able to understand how to read political media covering the candidates.
Shannon Scovel, PhD, is a journalism and electronic media professor here at UT with insight on political media literacy.
“[Media literacy] is the ability to determine what is true and what is not true and be able to determine the perspective of the journalist and what they’re bringing to the news story. And to understand the evidence that’s being provided in the news story and whether or not the evidence makes the point the journalist is trying to make,” Scovel said.
Media education is especially important in the political environment as information is rapidly spread and discussed on social media without proper fact checking.
“[Media literacy] is particularly important in this political environment because the stakes are so high and because there’s so much misinformation out there” Scovel said.
As an example of political misinformation, Scovel mentions the use of A.I. deep fakes for endorsements.
“A deepfake refers to a specific kind of synthetic media where a person in an image or video is swapped with another person's likeness,” said Meredith Somers, a writer for MIT Sloan.
Scovel references a specific case in which a political party used a deepfake of Taylor Swift to endorse their candidate.
“[Taylor Swift’s] identity, name, and likeness were used by different parties to suggest that she was endorsing this candidate before she actually was. If they think somebody they trust is endorsing a candidate, they might be more likely to vote for that candidate even though that deep fake misinformation isn’t true,” Scovel said.
A major issue of the use of misinformation for political gain is the speed at which misinformation can spread before it can be fact-checked and approved, especially online.
“These stories get said, and then they just expand and grow even if they’re not true. Even if they’ve been confirmed to not be true because they were out in the ether, people connect with them, and that leads them to make political choices based on information that isn't true,” Scovel said.
Emotional connection must be addressed in this environment. Humans are a highly empathetic species. The more a piece of media provokes an emotional reaction, the more likely the audience is to blindly trust and share the information.
“Outrage leads to engagement. So if you find something that cues that emotion in you, you're likely to share it… [you] don’t take a breath, take a step back, and confirm it,” Scovel said.
The most important takeaway here is learning how to confirm the information you read in the media. The news source may appear believable and trustworthy, but you as the reader must dig deeper, and confirm the facts given to you.
Scovel has three questions that she asks of the media to confirm its validity:
- Where do they come from?
- Who is responsible for producing?
- Is the evidence that's included in it accurate?
Misinformation can appear in various forms. While a piece of media may not be completely false, it may leave out key information and present bias.
“If you read a news article and you see that the only people quoted are aligned with that political party… maybe there’s a voice missing from that story. If you're reading a story that has only one perspective, you as a consumer should recognize that and go, ‘this is not the most balanced piece of journalism,’” Scovel said.
Study your candidates, question your sources and don’t forget to cast your vote on November 5th!
