Is digital media literacy an important political issue?

[Along Came Jones]

A few minutes ago, I watched an ABC Live news report which cited the American literacy rate as 76%. But 54% of the literate read below a 6th grade level.

For nearly a decade, concerns about misinformation influencing U.S. elections have grown. As modern elections are increasingly characterized by overwhelming amounts of information, trust in the media is at an all-time low, with people across the political spectrum reporting low confidence in the mass media’s ability to report the news “fully, accurately, and fairly.” Voters with high literacy can struggle to make sense of information online, and those with lower literacy may face even greater challenges. To prepare people to discern credible political information and make informed choices, we must find more opportunities to incorporate digital media literacy into basic adult literacy training. -- Abstract to The Dangers of Low Literacy for American Democracy: The Promising Role of Public Institutions as Community Conveners, Kristy Roschke and Tara Bartlett, ProLiteracy, Winter 2025 (PDF)

Pre-bunking, lateral reading, and online games are techniques discussed in the rather short article as methods to sort through misinformation and to enable recognizing information credibility. If half the literate folks read below the 6th grade level how will these techniques attract and assist them to evaluate the information they're receiving?

This is the author's conclusion. What is your response?

Universities and other community institutions have an important role in helping people navigate the onslaught of political information during election cycles and beyond. Learning experiences that foster critical thinking, dialogue, and fact-checking skills can better equip voters, specifically older adults and adults with lower levels of literacy, with the knowledge and skills to more objectively weigh information and positions on hot-button issues. By thinking beyond traditional for-credit classes, higher education institutions can provide a critical public service to community members without access to digital media literacy education. Doing so not only helps better prepare people of all ages to manage today’s overwhelming information environment but also better positions higher education as an accessible lifelong journey. Acting as a community convener can help education institutions build trust – particularly among adults who have not participated in post-secondary education – while increasing opportunities for people to bridge divides in our highly partisan society.

 

[BirdinHand]

And when those very same people view any sort of educational institution as an enemy, distorted, weaponized, etc?

 

[Craig234]

People manipulated by paid propaganda is a huge threat to our democracy, following the oligarchy that pays for the propaganda.

 

[Along Came Jones]

And when those very same people view any sort of educational institution as an enemy, distorted, weaponized, etc?

Which is a similar question I thought when the authors introduced (to me) their concept of pre-bunking.

. . . pre-bunking or implementing an intervention to correct misinformation before people encounter it. Pre-bunking works to build people’s resilience to misinformation by seeding small amounts of information before a misleading narrative takes hold among a larger population . . .

Why should message recipients trust the pre-bunkers or see the pre-bunking as other than interference and manipulation rather than acceptable truth correcting intervention? An obstacle the authors also recognized.

One potential drawback is that the healthy skepticism honed through pre-bunking messages may lead to a deeper skepticism of credible information.

 

[Mithrae]

And when those very same people view any sort of educational institution as an enemy, distorted, weaponized, etc?

It would be a shame if the cited study didn't recommend a similar role for churches etc. too.

 

[Along Came Jones]

It would be a shame if the cited study didn't recommend a similar role for churches etc. too.

In this paper the closest the authors come is presenting their description of Arizona Town Halls as a medium of civic engagement. If I understand how they work, and having watched neutral facilitators at work, the medium would be a good match for civic institutions like churches and other organizations in community service.

Their concept seems to be higher education facilitated multi-partisan town halls at the conclusion of which reports are available online and shared with elected leaders, public libraries, and community organizations committed to advocating for change.