Understanding Media Literacy

and Managing Misinformation

Damian Radcliffe, Chambers Professor of Journalism
University of Oregon

June 2024
Today’s session
1. Definitions

2. Spotlight on misinformation

3. Tips and Tools

4. Alumni experiences (panel)

5. Q&A with Panel

 Where you’re Where you’re
Your name
based now heading to!

Virtual Introductions
Who am I?

And who are yo

 About Me
• British – in USA since 2015

• Married (Habiba)

• 3 x Children (Nyla, Yara and Rafi)

• 1 cat (Oreo)

• Love(d) to travel (58 countries)

• BA and MA Oxford University

 Background

1995 2024

1995 – 1999: The Local Radio Company

1999 – 2003: BBC
2003 – 2008: CSV Media (NGO)
2008 – 2012: Ofcom (UK Office of Communications)
2012 - 2014: ictQATAR (Ministry and Regulator)
2012 + Freelance journalist + trainer
2015 + University of Oregon
Many hats
Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism
University of Oregon

Fellow, Tow Center for Digital Journalism

Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism

Honorary Research Fellow

Cardiff University, School of Journalism, Media and Culture Studies

Life Fellow
Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)
 Visiting Fellow
Oxford University
Spring + Summer 2024
Those hats…
• Journalist

• Researcher

• Educator and Trainer

Lens for this session…

Yes, we’re (second) cousins!
1. Definitions
 “Media Literacy is the ability to
access, analyze, evaluate and
create media in a variety of forms.”
1992 Aspen Media Literacy Leadership Institute
 “Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to education. It
provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create
and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from
print to video to the Internet.

Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media

in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-
expression necessary for citizens of a democracy.”
Center for Media Literacy
Tl;DR > Multiple definitions, but typically include:
- Access – media plurality (e.g., FB = internet), affordability, freedom of information
- Understanding - critical thinking + how media works
- Ability to manage risks and potential harms
2. Spotlight on misinformation
What do we mean by
misinformation?
Global Issue Across all markets,
respondents worried
about what is real and
what is fake on the
internet overall is up
3pp from 56% to 59%.

Highest in some
countries going to the
polls this year, incl.
South Africa (81%), the
United States (72%),
and the UK (70%).

Highest levels of
concern in Africa (75%)
and lower levels in
much of Northern and
Western Europe.
Typology
How it works
Motive Matters
How confident are you?
Post in the chat:

1-3 = Not very confident

4-6 = Somewhat confident

7-9 = Very confident

10 = I should be giving this talk, Damian!

Resilience to ”Fake News” Open Society Institute (2021)
Factors used to create
this index included:

- Press Freedom
- Multiple literacy levels
(e.g. maths, science,)
- Education levels
- Trust in others
Latest data

“Some of the most vulnerable countries as

registered by low results in the Media Literacy
Index 2023 are also the closest to the war in
Ukraine started by Russia and among the most
exposed to malign disinformation.

In a similar vein, the Balkan countries, many of

which are still experiencing internal instability
and inter-state tensions in 2023, remain among
the highest at-risk countries in the index.”
5 x Examples
1. False context
Footage shown of President
Zelensky “out there fighting for
his country,” was filmed in 2021.

(Screenshot via NewsGuard)

Game footage also used to depict
war in Ukraine… and Syria…
2. Poor and/or partisan journalism
And perceptions of it
3. Fake websites
4. Conspiracy theories
5. Humor – Parody - Satire
Covered by:

- Quartz
- Elite Daily
- Cosmopolitan
- BuzzFeed
- Digg
- MTV
- And more!
Denial covered by Quartz, Washington Post + others.
What examples have you seen?
Why now? 10x key factors
1. Fake news looks a lot like real news
2. Tech doesn’t discern fact from fiction
Makes it very easy to share…
“False information spreads just
like accurate information.”

Farida Vis, Sheffield University research fellow

AND…
They have cut back on a
lot of fact-checking.

Don’t check political ads.

Reinstated accounts e.g.

Trump, Kennedy et al.
“Social media platforms’
insufficient protections—
coupled with a surge in
political marketing and the
changing nature of news—
will exacerbate an already
fraught environment and
pose major brand safety
problems.”
eMarketer on UNESCO AND Ipsos data
3. Algorithms can create filter bubbles…
They show us more of what we like, not what we need to know
4. Decline in the number
of journalists
5. And reduced
trust in media
and journalism
Global Issue
Backdrop of declining trust in Institutions, more partisan societies…
 6. Misinformation evolving into
different forms + different platforms
Claims can be more powerful – and memorable
when there’s an image associated with it
Memes
 7. Harder
than ever
to discern
fact from
fiction
8. New tools… powerful Generative AI
Stone Age Selfie
AI-generated image
used by Amnesty
International to
illustrate police
brutality.

Source: The
Guardian
Body of a
massive
octopus
washed up
on the coast
of Indonesia
“Some of the most compelling AI image tools look a
little cinematic, a little too polished… They tend to
look a bit softer — with an almost airbrushed quality.”
"Other giveaways are unrealistic or nonsensical
backgrounds, and bizarre, missing or misshapen
minor details,"
Peter Adams, senior vice president of research
and design with the News Literacy Project
9. Bots + weaponization of the web
How a new breed of dictators holds
power by manipulating information
and faking democracy
“In place of overt, mass repression, rulers
such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, and Viktor Orbán control their
citizens by distorting information and
simulating democratic procedures. Like
spin doctors in democracies, they spin
the news to engineer support.”
 Media Capture
“In many parts of the world, special interests, from oligarchs and other
elites to governments, are influencing and controlling the media for
personal gain.

When media is captured in this way, it is no longer independent.

Captured media loses the ability to reflect the broad interests of the
community and to hold power to account – the classic role of the fourth
estate. Most often, media is captured by governments, plutocrats or
corporations or, in many cases, a mixture of all three.”

Internews, 2017
10. Reduced – and declining media freedom
Q: How does
your country
rank?
 Types of electoral mis- and disinformation
LatamChequea coalition — a network of Latin American, Spanish, Portuguese and U.S. fact-checkers fighting
Spanish-language disinformation discovered 10 types of disinformation repeated in electoral cycles over the
last three years in every country they researched in Latin America, as well as in the 2020 U.S. elections.

Unintentional Irregularities denounced as fraud Disinformation about the documentation

needed to vote
Alleged fraud coordinated by authorities Disinformation about citizens voting abroad

Votes cast in the name of deceased persons Chaos on election day

People are voting who are not qualified to do so False polls

Manipulation to discourage voting Fabricated candidate statements
 How do we fix this?

Q: Who should be
responsible for
addressing this?
A multi-stakeholder approach
• Government
• Regulators
• Tech Companies
• Journalists and Fact Checkers
• Consumers
• Education System
3. Tips and Tools
- 10 recommendations
1. Consume widely…
+ develop a list of trust sources
2. Understand your source
3. Double check everything
4. Be skeptical
5. Learn to reverse image search
6. Slow Down
Misinformation can have major consequences
7. Be mindful as stories break
And where…
8. Check your emotions
The biggest red flag for me is when something evokes
an emotion in you. That doesn’t necessarily mean that
it’s misinformation, but it signals that somebody’s
trying to manipulate your emotions, and that’s
something you should be aware of. When you
recognize it, remember to take a deep breath and
look into it a little bit before you believe it.

Leticia Bode, professor of Communication,

Culture and Technology, Georgetown University
9. Find the
local
equivalent
of Snopes,
PolitiFact
etc.
Also being
weaponized
10. Don’t
automatically trust
authority figures
"Nothing we have seen in the
image seems like particularly
malicious edits. Clearly, not
much time was put into the
edits as you can see the clear
traces left behind."

Cole Whitecotton, senior

professional research
assistant for the National
Center for Media Forensics at
the University of Colorado,
Denver.
Yes, we’re (second) cousins!
Yes, we’re cousins!
Thanks for listening
Email: damianr@uoregon.edu
X/Twitter: @damianradcliffe
Web: www.damianradcliffe.com