by Fazli Rrezja
The famous singer of the group 'The Doors' Jim Morrison, once said: ‘Whoever controls the media, controls the mind’ , although Morrison is no longer alive, this phrase has become a reality, Perceptions in our minds are largely created by the fourth, but most powerful power, the Media!
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Every morning, young people just wake up checking social media, bombarded with information, messages, e-mails, news, propaganda, fake news, and other incentives that often create the feeling that today has started with a load of information. Young people should use the morning to improve themselves, to work towards their goals, to prepare for a successful day by engaging in activities such as reading, meditation, study, prioritizing tasks, physical activity, and a healthy breakfast to kick off a quiet day on the way to school.
The author of 'Lonely Together', Sherry Turkle, a social psychologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says that ‘People today are more connected to one another than ever before in human history, thanks to Internet-based social networking sites and text messaging. But they’re also more lonely and distant from one another in their unplugged lives. This is not only changing the way we interact online, but it’s also straining our personal relationships, as well’.
The University of Gothenburg in Sweden shows the effects of using 'smartphones' on people in their 20s over a year. The study showed that high phone use is directly linked to increased rates of depression in both men and women. The study says ‘All qualitative variables had cross-sectional associations with mental health outcomes. In prospective analysis, overuse was associated with stress and sleep disturbances for women, and high accessibility stress was associated with stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression for both men and women’. and this is worrying in our country such studies have not been done yet, but, would this study turn out differently!?
All of us are witnessing a massive load of information through social media. The way we live is shaped by the dizzying power of the media, both positively and negatively. Why, young people find it difficult to determine what is true information and what is false?. Without a doubt! It is the lack of media education that according to the American education organization is defined as ‘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. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of the media in society, as well as the essential research and self-expression skills necessary for the citizens of a democracy.
Media literacy, as a concept for critical thinking, would help young people in Kosovo build an objective discourse by reading and analyzing information from ‘healthy’ perspectives. French Sociologist Jean Baudrillard, says ‘The hyperreality of communication and of meaning. More real than the real, that is how the real is abolished.’
Whereas, those who have watched the documentary 'Social Dilemma', should probably worry! because the documentary describes how social media, every day, affects the vulnerability of teens who use platforms like Tik-Tok Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and other applications creating a complex mindset dependent on media influences. The documentary provides an in-depth overview of how social media nurtures addictions, manipulates the views, emotions, and behaviors of young people, and spreads conspiracy theories. But what is the benefit for the youth in our country? since the detection of misinformation and false news is very challenging. Currently, this kind of misinformation has been added more than ever. For teachers and parents who teach students/children what is true and what is not, it can be tricky, but it is important for them to understand that just because something is online does not mean it is true.
Propaganda and fake news are one of the biggest challenges of our era. Craig Newmark School of Journalism at New York City University in a publication tries to teach us how not to be fooled by information. Research says that when we read a news story, we should be skeptical and consider the source; headlines can be sensational in trying to get clicks; discover the author: do a quick search for the author; is it reliable? is it true? Check the date; reposting old news does not mean that they are relevant to current events; ask the site and author to make sure; consider whether it may affect your judgment. Ask the experts or consult an official fact-checking website.
There are many benefits for young people who understand media education. First of all, it helps students become smarter consumers and responsible producers of their media. According to the American non-profit organization 'Common Sense Media for Education', media education is the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages they are sending.
The digital revolution has given rise to a whole range of ways that people can become ostracized by their group or society, from cyberbullying and addictions to radicalization. Teachers and parents, along with their children, need to be provided with innovative opportunities and pedagogical resources to meet these new challenges, through schools, the workplace, and the community at large.
Beneficial developments for media education in Kosovo have been made by the Network of English Language Teachers in Kosovo (KetNet), by training teachers in critical thinking, debate development, and media literacy. Also, the OSCE mission in cooperation with the most famous short documentary festival in the country DokuFest. Their program has included teachers in the fields of languages and communication, arts, society, environment, and civic education in the workshop on the use of media education in teaching. This workshop aims to strengthen the skills of teachers in media education, using documentary film as a learning unit to enable and educate students to understand more fundamentally different topics, concepts, and cultural problems. ‘The focus will be on the lifelong learning perspective, with particular attention to evaluate the credibility of information, fact-checking, effective and conscientious consumption of information, e-learning and the ability to utilize new digital technologies’.
Every moment, we produce and consume news. The Internet, in addition to being used for communication and education, has also become the largest platform for disseminating news, hate speech, and propaganda.
The pervasive development of social media, the massive flow of fake news is changing the way we create perceptions about ourselves and the lives of others. The Ministry of Education should consider including media education as a subject on its own, while schools, teachers, parents, civil society should create different platforms and applications that help primary and secondary school students understand how to use media literacy for educational and scientific purposes.
A Facebook magnate Mark Zuckerberg said that ‘Virtual reality was once a science fiction dream. The future is coming'.
Hopefully, for a future where young people have the skills of media literacy to understand a reality, and not to dive into the ‘virtual reality’, towards which we are moving at the speed of light.
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References
Navraj Narula , Never Judge an Article by its Title: An Exploratory Analysis of Headlines for Real and Fakes News Articles, Department of Journalism Columbia University – New York, USA , page 1, last updated 10.20.2021, http://navierula.github.io/papers/narula_newsheadlines.pdf
Michael Price QUESTIONNAIRE Alone in the crowd American Psychological Association June 2011, Vol 42, No. 6 https://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/06/social-networking
Thomée, S., Härenstam, A., & Hagberg, M. (2011). Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults--a prospective cohort study. BMC public health, 11, 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-66
Media Literacy: A Definition and More, Center for Media Literacy , last updated: 11.01.2021 https://www.medialit.org/media-literacy-definition-and-more
Baudrillard Jean, Simulacra and simulation , page 81, Originally published in French by Editions Galilee 1981
Misinformation and Disinformation: Thinking Critically about Information Sources, Research Guide adapted by the Research Center at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, Last Updated: Sep 14, 2021 9:38, https://library.csi.cuny.edu/misinformation
News and Media Literacy, American non-profit organization 'Common Sense Media for Education', Last updated 10.01.2021 11:23 PM, https://www.commonsensemedia.org/news-and-media-literacy/what-is-media-literacy-and-why-is-it-important
Digital Citizenship Education Handbook, Council of Europe, Page 34, Council of Europe Publishing, January 2019, http://book.coe.int
Teachers Workshop, International Documentary and Short Film Festival DokuFest, Last Updated: Nov 10, 2021 10:18, https://dokufest.com/en/news/call-for-applications
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