Can We Solve Our Media Literacy Crisis?

Note: This article is written in response to the general public’s social media response to the assassination attempt of President Trump in Butler, PA, on Saturday, 7/13.

As a professor in digital communications, I look for the good in media to help influence the next generation.

As a general rule, most media outlets tonight did a terrific job across all political slants as each station provided solid commentary on how terrible the events were this evening and how we as a country need to band together and as Van Jones elegantly said tonight on CNN, “we need to look at our political opponents as opponents and not enemies.”

Rex Huppke absolutely nails this article on the head for USA Today, criticizing the general public’s outcries on social media channels, calling out conspiracy theories and other lies that were spread on social media as soon as the attempted assassination occurred.

The biggest issue we face in the current communication climate is not biased media, regardless of political views, rather the ability to spread misinformation freely at such a fast rate of time, and the ongoing increase of AI certainly accelerates the ability to provide information that may be untrue.

Media literacy is becoming more challenging daily. I don’t know what the answer is, but I can provide two suggestions:

1. Limit social media consumption. My only personal accounts are Facebook, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. I am no longer on Instagram, no X, or TikTok. The latter two can especially be catalysts for misinformation.

2. Provide education and guidance to the younger generations, who have grown up with media their whole lives. The way that media has been incorporated into their lives at such a young age means there is no understanding of life for that generation without it. I believe our goal as a society is to teach the younger generation that it is okay not to be fully consumed in media and provide further learning opportunities outside of digital technology when applicable. I am working on this, too, and I think we can be examples to the younger generation of how to effectively limit digital communication content intake.

I am blessed to teach the next generation of students how to be effective communicators, but it is going to take much more than just all of us communication instructors to help create positive change in media literacy.