In 2017, BBC launched a special series on the grand challenges we face in the 21st Century. In this series, a panel of experts was asked to indicate what they believed were the biggest obstacles faced or to be faced by modern societies. Many of them mentioned “the breakdown of trusted sources of information” as one of the most urgent challenges. They argued that, while the need to be figure out which source of information is reliable has been constant throughout history, what magnifies the size of this challenge today is the sheer amount of available information, as well as how people access it. To this we should add the fact that, as Kevin Kelly (co-founder of Wired magazine and tech author) said to BBC in the 2017 series: “Truth is no longer dictated by authorities, but is networked by peers. For every fact there is a counter fact. All those counter facts and facts look identical online, which is confusing to most people”. And even when mistakes are spotted, “corrections do not spread very well” (Paul Resnick, University of Michigan).
This can be said for a variety of topics, including history, current affairs, or sensitive and controversial issues. Today, it is no longer only a matter of who is ‘right’ and who is ‘wrong’. It is first and foremost a matter of what is ‘fake’ and what is ‘real’.
Luckily, there are many resources and methodologies out there that can help us develop lesson plans that foster media literacy and critical thinking. During this webinar series, we will present some that we and the members of our community have tried, discussing with you their positive aspects, as well as potential pitfalls.