Media Literacy

Media Literacy

A person with purple hands holds a phone displaying text messages that read, "OMG then what happened??.
Throughout history, the ability to tell increasingly believable stories has become available to more people. Kevin Ashton says that’s a blessing and a curse.
A woman in a blue dress sits beside a cradle with a baby; two adults are seated at a green table with a closed book, highlighting the enduring importance of books in an age of advancing technology.
Joel Miller, the author of “The Idea Machine,” joins us to explore why books are history’s most successful information technology.
A middle-aged man with glasses and a beard, resembling Jimmy Wales, poses in front of a light-colored background featuring Wikipedia's globe logo and various language characters.
Wales shares with Big Think his thoughts about the future of media, the promise of AI, and our need to build a culture on trust.
A medieval scribe sits at a desk, writing in a manuscript with quill and ink, surrounded by open books and a basket holding writing supplies.
"What’s happening now has, in fact, been happening since the very invention of language and writing."
Collage of social media icons and pixelated images in a grid layout, featuring Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook logos on a red background.
"The evolution of digital media makes stricter regulation of online behavior not only feasible but inevitable," writes media ecologist Andrey Mir.
A collage of speech bubbles containing randomly oriented text, scribbles, and abstract shapes on a black background. Some bubbles feature words like "news" and "missed" partially visible.
In "Not Born Yesterday," author and cognitive scientist Hugo Mercier makes the case that misinformation is overrated — and other human foibles are underrated.
An American flag and a decorative shield with a peace symbol, evoking a sense of paranoia, in front of the United States Capitol building under a cloudy sky.
Although social paranoia is more common than clinical paranoia, studies suggests that American society isn’t any more conspiratorial than it has been in the past.
A woman jotting down her thoughts in a notebook using ChatGPT.
Once students master the basics of math, they are allowed to use calculators. The same should be true of writing and ChatGPT.
A burning car on the side of the road.
You are much more likely to die in a car crash than from terrorism. Yet, philosopher Eran Fish says fearing terrorism more is justified.
A collage highlighting disinformation with a fake ear.
Philosopher Lee McIntyre discusses the dangers of disinformation, how such falsehoods spread, and what we can do about it.
A woman reading news with a cup of coffee.
We can no longer approach the news as passive consumers.
A 1974 concept of a vacuum train
Skepticism is appropriate when gazing into the futurist's crystal ball.
By exposing people to small doses of misinformation and encouraging them to develop resistance strategies, "prebunking" can fight fake news.
Scientific journals, which are supposed to be the sacred scriptures of academia, are often full of shoddy research and misinformation.
just asking questions
Media provocateurs and conspiracy theorists insist that they're "just asking questions." No, they aren’t.
In "Off the Edge", journalist Kelly Weill dives down the strange rabbit hole of the flat-Earther community.
A woman holding a loudspeaker at a protest.
The problems that Americans face are often too complex for fact-checking alone.
science politics
“To be ignorant of causes is to be frustrated in action.” So wrote Francis Bacon, counsel to Queen Elizabeth I of England and key architect of the scientific method. In […]
But there are resources, tips, and telltale signs to keep you from being duped. “Some people think that the truth can be hidden with a little cover-up and decoration. But as […]
Using incomplete facts to spin a false narrative and mislead the public is the modus operandi of a political liar. “I’m not a natural leader. I’m too intellectual; I’m too […]