University of Kwazulu-Natal

Media Literacy Interventions Improve Resilience To Misinformation A

Bonisiwe Shabane
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media literacy interventions improve resilience to misinformation a

Received 2021 Aug 29; Accepted 2022 Feb 25; Collection date 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit... The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from... To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Older adults are especially susceptible to fake news online, possibly because they are less digitally literate compared to younger individuals.

Interventions for older adults have emerged to improve digital literacy, although there has been little evaluation of their effectiveness in improving older adults’ resilience to fake news. We report the results of a digital literacy intervention for older adults administered during the 2020 U.S. election. The intervention was a 1-hour, self-directed series of interactive modules designed to teach concepts and skills for identifying misinformation online. Consistent with our pre-registered hypothesis, older adults (Mage = 67) in the treatment condition (N = 143) significantly improved their likelihood of accurately discerning fake from true news from 64% pre-intervention to 85% post-intervention. In contrast, older adults in the control condition (N = 238) did not significantly improve (from 55% to 57%).

The treated older adults were also more likely to employ strategies for identifying misinformation online compared to pre-intervention and the control group. Subject terms: Psychology, Human behaviour Recent research has identified older adults as a demographic group especially susceptible to fake news online. For example, during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, people 65 and older were twice as likely to be exposed to fake news on Twitter and seven times more likely to share fake news on Facebook than 18–29 year olds1,2. Analyzing across a nationally representative sample’s mobile, desktop, and television media consumption for a nearly 3 year period, Allen et al.

found that older individuals were substantially greater consumers of fake news than younger people3. If the world is going to stop deliberate or unintentional misinformation and its insidious effects, we need to radically expand and accelerate our counterattacks, particularly human-centered solutions focused on improving people's media and information... By Kristin M. Lord & Katya Vogt Mar. 18, 2021 The deliberate or unintentional spread of misinformation, despite capturing widespread public attention, remains as rampant as ever, showing up recently in the form of false claims about COVID-19 vaccines, the Capitol riot, and many...

This “infodemic” is polarizing politics, endangering communities, weakening institutions, and leaving people unsure what to believe or whom to trust. It threatens the foundations of democratic governance, social cohesion, national security, and public health. Misinformation is a long-term problem that demands long-term, sustainable solutions as well as short-term interventions. We've seen a number of quicker, technological fixes that improve the social media platforms that supply information. Companies like Facebook and Twitter, for example, have adjusted their algorithms or called out problematic content. We've also seen slower, human-centered approaches that make people smarter about the media they demand to access online.

Evidence-driven educational programs, for instance, have made people better at discerning the reliability of information sources, distinguishing facts from opinions, resisting emotional manipulation, and being good digital citizens. It hasn't been enough. If we're to stop misinformation and its insidious effects, we need to radically expand and accelerate our counterattacks. It will take all sectors of society: business, nonprofits, advocacy organizations, philanthropists, researchers, governments, and more. We also need to balance our efforts. For too long, too many resources and debates have focused on changing the technology, not educating people.

This emphasis on the supply side of the problem without a similar investment in the demand side may be a less effective use of time and energy. LSE’s Nick Anstead, Lee Edwards, Sonia Livingstone and Mariya Stoilova reflect on the findings of a recent rapid evidence analysis of media literacy interventions. They observe the benefits of encouraging critical thinking and reflexivity, as well as evidence that gamification can reduce vulnerability to dis- and misinformation. But they also note many evidence gaps, which suggest promising directions for future research. In discussions about misinformation, media literacy is often called upon to help users critically engage with the information they encounter, but the scope of interventions and the level of their effectiveness is variable. In an article published this month, we conduct a rapid evidence assessment (REA) at the intersection of media literacy and misinformation.

Are media literacy interventions effective against misinformation on social media platforms?We reviewed studies published between 2011 and March 2021, and found 36 focused on research about media literacy and misinformation on social media platforms. Here we highlight four key findings: Collectively, the studies highlighted the value of critical thinking, encouraging reflexivity, and gamification. However, our REA also demonstrates continuing gaps in our knowledge. The vast majority of published research presented misinformation as content, neglecting the wider context which had shaped it. Only a limited number of media literacy variables were considered, and research sites were mainly located in the Global North.

Looking forward, we identify four promising directions for future research. While the REA offers some insights into which media literacy interventions might work, applying them at scale would be an enormous task and leaves open questions about their potential success. The complexity of both media literacy and misinformation also suggests that to be really effective, multiple measures would need to be implemented simultaneously.

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