Image by Erick Ramirez; Logo by Zoe Sheehan
Students for Media Literacy
Digital natives were born with an iPhone in their hands, but not the tools to make sense of the increasingly confusing world of information. Today, over 3 billion people worldwide have accounts on at least one social media platform, making them, in effect, citizen journalists. How can we make sense of all this information? How can we be mindful consumers of information and entertainment that reflects our values? How can we find ideas beyond our own bubbles?
Anyone is able to post anything without being verified, fact-checked, or tempered by an editorial board. At the NYC iSchool, we think that citizen journalism opens up enormous positive possibilities for the future of information consumption, but with this great power, comes great responsibility.
Technology has enabled anyone to propagate fake news and images, and the proliferation of this information has posed real dangers. For example, in Summer of 2018, there was a story propagated around the internet, claiming that Denzel Washington had come out as a full-fledged Trump supporter. It started with a post from one fake news site, and was picked up by multiple others, ultimately taking social media by storm. This complete false story was seen by over 2 million Facebook viewers. This one was fairly harmless, but hundreds of stories like this circulating every week are a danger to a free society, and are our motivation for this website
We need to learn how to distinguish the difference between fact, opinion, truth, and lies. That is our goal. We believe that a more media literate society is a better and freer society. The sources that we have collected and analyzed will hopefully assist anyone trying to become more aware of the news that surrounds them.
Anyone is able to post anything without being verified, fact-checked, or tempered by an editorial board. At the NYC iSchool, we think that citizen journalism opens up enormous positive possibilities for the future of information consumption, but with this great power, comes great responsibility.
Technology has enabled anyone to propagate fake news and images, and the proliferation of this information has posed real dangers. For example, in Summer of 2018, there was a story propagated around the internet, claiming that Denzel Washington had come out as a full-fledged Trump supporter. It started with a post from one fake news site, and was picked up by multiple others, ultimately taking social media by storm. This complete false story was seen by over 2 million Facebook viewers. This one was fairly harmless, but hundreds of stories like this circulating every week are a danger to a free society, and are our motivation for this website
We need to learn how to distinguish the difference between fact, opinion, truth, and lies. That is our goal. We believe that a more media literate society is a better and freer society. The sources that we have collected and analyzed will hopefully assist anyone trying to become more aware of the news that surrounds them.
Ready to be a mindful media consumer?
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A creation of the NYC iSchool 2018.