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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Some may be apocryphal, some may be grotesque exaggerations from a teeny tiny kernel of truth, many are certainly the newest equivalent of old wives’ tales, but no-one can ignore fake news as it has now taken over much of the traditional media as well as the internet.
American education desperately needs to inculcate critical thinking, investigative research, diagnostic reasoning, systematic and analytical skills into schooling for both children and adults to ensure that they have the expertise and tools necessary to comprehend and flourish in today’s world.
Which includes separating truth from lies, especially when propagated by sources we used to trust.
Every locale in the United States needs to promote and expand public institutions for deliberation on this issue that are inclusive and facilitate both animated discussion and constructive action.
No more wasted hours on social media; use it for relationship-building and consensus decision-making on divisive issues.
All levels of government from Neighborhood Councils to the City, County, state and federal levels must allow time for practical input for democracy to flourish. A space for deliberations on all legislation generating true participation with the consensus of the majority of the people, not bought-and-paid for legislators, taking precedence.
To do so, care must be taken to ensure equity on all sides, and that the will of the people can’t be drowned out by massive advertising campaigns.
ALL media must lay out the positions of every faction fairly or lose their licenses including downgrading to being explicitly identified as infotainment on social media.
In an emergency, the answer is not to exclude the peoples’ voices but to have previously set in place a process for swift and decisive response.
If the Secretary of War wants war and the people don’t, a majority of we the people should be able to say: no war, no deaths, no waste of taxpayer dollars.
And have our wishes enforced. Not those of politicians bought and paid for by the military-industrial complex.
To address national issues today, we the people need internet town halls bringing together all interested parties online to debate and defend ourinterests.
Starting with wise ways to lug federal government functioning into the 21st century, making systems easier to navigate with interoperability across departments and agencies, making them more responsive to constituents’ needs, including the having humans, NOT A.I. robo-answering calls.
People should be able to use their phone’s keypad to access information and have conspiracy-sounding theories confirmed or denied immediately by a trustworthy source but, to put it bluntly, the quality of bot-provided care on every level sucks badly. We need human helping humans.
Shameless self-promotion by sensationalist self-aggrandizers is building a public sphere promoting divisiveness through ugly untruths. Instead of entrenching us-against-them adversity, driving America must strive to ensure the voice of common good takes root across our democracy to encourage equality and justice for all.
Fake news and conspiracy theories flourish everywhere. Children and adults alike in all countries consume news from social media – Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Snapchat and more.
There are far too few guardrails in place to analyze the content for accuracy. Our legislators must heed our call and demand the immediate removal of blatant lies – including those of Trump and his henchmen – and censure of the perpetrators.
But we need to forge a movement from the ground up to mandate teaching Americans the analytical skills and critical thinking necessary to determine what is real, what is not. Starting by setting ultimatums on the purveyors of these untruths.
America could follow the example of Finland which has a Finding Fake News curriculum teaching children at every level as they progress through school on how to identify and reject fake news. Although the recipient of a constant barrage of Russian dis- and misinformation and anti-immigrant propaganda, it ranks #1 of 35 European nations in resilience to disinformation campaigns.
“Media literacy is essential for building societal resilience,” said Anders Adlercreutz, Finland’s Minister of Education. “With traditional media responsible for less and less of the information we receive, critical thinking is more important than ever.”
Finland’s approach goes beyond schools. Libraries and NGOs offer courses to help adults and the elderly navigate the digital landscape. Fact-checking agencies provide public resources, and national institutions work to strengthen trust in reliable news sources.
Unlike in the American system where Socratic learning has been eroded by teaching to tests, Finland’s students are encouraged to question any information they encounter, not regurgitate it spreading further lies. A young Finn shared their know-how: “Before I like or share something on social media, I check where it came from... You can never be too sure.”
The European Union’ Intellectual Property Office’s education outreach expert, Kari Kivinen breaks down fake news as mis-information with errors that may be unintentional, dis-information comprised of outright lies, and mal-information, essentially gossip which whether accurate or not is designed to cause harm.
Kivinen respects the intellectual abilities of the youngest students to analyze issues once they are taught to parse material to which they are exposed: “They love being detectives.”
A study in Uganda addressing healthcare outcomes concluded it possible to teach critical thinking to primary school children even in schools with large student-to-teacher ratios and few resources.
Finnish schools are educating future generations to think critically. The wily fox cheating other animals with innuendo is a great metaphor for current media talking heads and political gadflies.
Early education is essential in a world where conspiracy theories become entrenched before graduating from grade school is essential to ensure children are well-equipped to withstand the onslaught of faked information. The United States needs a better quality of education and more trustworthy institutions
For young Americans, few options now exist.
Checkology, an initiative of the nonpartisan News Literacy Project, offers free resources to teach news literacy to students in grades 5-12 but too many preschool children are already sucking up mal-information on TikTok and other social media designed to pre-condition the next cohort of consumers.
The United States can and must do better. Begin a new race to the top.
Starting with shaming people in high office into setting positive examples for behavior setting high bars for civility and decorum – adult behavior, reversing the current race to the bottom.
And then requiring corporate accountability across all spheres, prioritizing consumer mental health importance over profitability and competition for consumers’ eyeballs.
Posts that misrepresent public health issues must be treated by the courts as a clear and present danger and immediately amputated, not amplified.
Technology experts need to develop better tools to identify and permanently remove bots that seduce susceptible Americans, spin falsehoods across the net and stir up divisiveness and violence.
Punishment must be immediate and must be sufficiently severe to have stakeholders rising up to abruptly curtail any similar behaviors.
Require Silicon Valley companies recalibrate their missions to engender respect for other’s points of view, foster diversity of communication rather than self-affirmation, and change algorithms so engagements reward quality content not quantity of eyeballs.
Re-center their values so peer pressure on companies and users raise up those who are socially responsible and terminate support for the dregs.
Instead of ‘likes’ how about issuing grades – both passing for people’s helpful and thoughtful interactions on social media to lift the positive, and failing ones to shame the trolls.
Create a system where people score points and are rewarded for responsible social behavior.
And accrue demerits for lies, inciting bullying and violence, doxing, release of confidential/private information, posting of A.I.-generated video attacks intended to hurt people personally and professionally, and other socially negative behaviors.
If posts are questionable, people should question them and demand that websites clearly and proactively acknowledge that what viewers are about to see is at least in part false, misleading or may be before they can click through.
News should be informative and serve a societal purpose. It should document concerns and fears but not scare people into supporting dictatorial action by egocentric madmen.
It must lift the populace up with ideas and challenges to create a more hopeful future.
Free of fake news and talking-head falsehoods.
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at [email protected].)
