You’re scrolling through social media and see a photo of a public figure with a quote attributed to them. It elicits an emotional response — making you angry, happy or sad. Something, however, seems off. Would that public figure say such a polarizing thing?
You dig deeper and quickly discover there are no references to the quote in any news outlet. It turns out to be fake.
That moment of pausing, questioning and checking other sources is media literacy in action. And we all could be better at it.
At Michigan State University, faculty and staff are helping students build those skills in an increasingly complex information environment shaped by social media and artificial intelligence.
Media literacy, according to Dustin Carnahan, associate professor in the Department of Communication in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, is the ability to recognize what information you can trust versus what needs a closer look.
Carnahan’s research focuses on misinformation and deepfakes (artificial intelligence-created media used to deceive), exploring how people engage with the political information environment and how these practices influence their beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. He is one of many researchers at MSU studying misinformation and media literacy, which, in the time of social media and AI, is an important topic to dissect.
That research makes its way into MSU classrooms too. Many Spartan undergraduates take courses that incorporate information literacy workshops from MSU Libraries, where students are encouraged to analyze sources, think critically and use information responsibly.
With help from Carnahan, the information literacy workshops and other faculty and staff at MSU, here are a few ways to approach information more thoughtfully.
Trace ideas to their source
Benjamin Oberdick, head of information literacy at MSU Libraries, helps lead the workshops offered in first-year writing courses, integrative studies classes and James Madison College.
In those workshops, Oberdick and team teach students who are working on class assignments how to decipher information and learn where it is coming from. “The mission of our unit is to help students find, access, use, evaluate and determine where information is coming from,” Oberdick says.
The first step is not just to consume information but to interrogate it.
Ask questions — and keep asking
A key part of that process is curiosity.
The information literacy team guides students as they use the library’s resources to find scholarly articles and other reliable sources. “We try to take a holistic approach to sources of information,” Oberdick says. “What does the source look like? How can you tell if it's credible or accurate? Where does it come from? How can you tell who's giving you this information?”
Oberdick recommends examining the URL, and notes that a site is more reliable if it ends in .gov, .org, or .edu. Looking closer, check whether the site is a personal blog without clear sourcing and whether its claims are supported. A credible piece should point to evidence like data, research and reliable sources to back up what it’s saying.
“It's a very inquiry-focused kind of class that we have,” Oberdick says. “We're asking lots of questions and doing lots of searching, having students find pieces and trying to evaluate to see if it passes muster.”
Beware of the crisis of truth
“We used to have clear markers of credibility and authority,” says Maria D. Molina. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, who researches how technology shapes what we share on social media and how we respond to artificial intelligence tools that curate user-generated content. Newspapers, magazines and television and radio broadcasts were leading sources of information, and those delivering information held authority.
The advent of social media, Molina says, allowed all of us to create content, making traditional assessment of credibility difficult. The same goes for AI, which has made it harder to decipher what is true and what is not. “We're not only trying to distinguish what's fake, but also what's AI-generated, because AI doesn't necessarily mean it's fake either,” says Molina. “So, it's a crisis of truth and a crisis of authorship. Who is the source and should I rely on that?”
Like Oberdick, Molina suggests taking a step back and looking at sources that are not social media — focusing on one source, like a news broadcast or podcast, while taking in the news.
Oberdick, Molina and Carnahan all come to a similar conclusion when advising on media literacy: Slow down and, if something seems questionable, dig deeper.
Be skeptical but verify
Not everything — even information you dislike or disagree with — is “fake news.” Believing everything to be fake, Carnahan warns, is an even more slippery slope.
Developing media literacy takes time and patience, even as the news cycle moves at what can sometimes seem like warp speed.
One quick way to avoid being misled, Oberdick says, is to make sure a story is not reported in only one place and to look at fact-checking sources like snopes.com to confirm a story is true.
As AI summaries in online search results become the standard, Molina urges caution — especially when they hallucinate information and sources. Check whether AI results show links when sourcing information. Clicking those links to dig deeper can help validate information.
Finding balance is important. Carnahan, the communications professor who researches political messaging, warns against being too skeptical. He is worried that if misinformation becomes too rampant, it becomes easier for a person to ignore everything. So, he wants people to be wary but also willing to find the truth.
Knowledge takes time
In a world where misinformation is easy to come by, it is best to take a step back before coming to a conclusion. Taking the time to confirm information is the best way to improve media literacy.
“It is important to employ a healthy level of skepticism and then verify,” Carnahan says when discussing how to consume media today. “Not to the point of disbelieving everything but recognizing the ease with which we can manipulate things to look a certain way or to sound a certain way. And if that means that you must spend a little bit more time thinking through the stuff that you encounter? Then so be it.”
The next time something stops you mid-scroll, that pause might be the difference between amplifying misinformation and spotting it.
