Media Literacy in the time of elections
Two billion people will vote; how will they sift the mediated wheat from the chaff
There is no special time to stress the importance of Media Literacy in a world where the vast majority gets their information and entertainment from mediated content. But with citizens from the global South to the North — India to the United States of America with Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa among many other nations — choosing the politicians who will lead them, this is as crucial a time as ever to promote media literacy. Just consider two mediated interactions that politicians have had with citizens.
In the New Hampshire primaries, the voters got to hear Joe Biden tell them to save their vote for the main elections, and in Pakistan the jailed leader Imran Khan has been interacting via AI generated speeches. The former, as those who follow such events know, is unapproved and a hoax, while the latter is approved and the YouTube channel says as much. But that is for those who follow it closely. What about the rest of us?
In the coming months here in India, we will be bombarded or blitzed or deluged or inundated — choose whichever metaphor you prefer — with messages telling us about parties and candidates. The virtues and vices, the accomplishments and failures, the promises kept and unkept, the agendas fulfilled and unfulfilled, the records massaged and exposed — how will we know who is telling us the truth? Three sets of responses can be noted.
We will believe those leaders we want to believe.
We will look for cues from those sections of the news media that we trust.
We will ‘read’ carefully, parse the language, seek out sources used, check whether the statement is based on a verifiable and authoritative source or is a claim, work at differentiating a news piece from an opinion piece from a press release, be skeptical without being cynical.
Well if it is the third alternative — harder and time consuming — that we choose, we would be media literate citizens. Or else we will be inert consumers. We need to ask why we trust a leader, why we trust a particular news outlet or news disseminator. Is it their reliance on verifiable data or their mirroring of our own political views? Are our choices based on an informed understanding of events or a seat-of-the-pants hatred and love? Do we discriminate based on a set of parameters that we believe is necessary for a democracy or on a pronounced like or dislike of personalities?
The idea of promoting media literacy or pleading for its spread is not to suggest that any person’s decision making process is wrong. It is, however, to say that it can be bettered. We can articulate it better to our own self with evidence that is more credible and robust. It is in that spirit that once again we launch this Media Literacy Project and which we hope to carry on past elections and past premierships and presidencies.
Keep an eye out for our offerings. Write to us with your suggestions and critiques because if this reaches you in a mediated manner then you have every reason to put it through the same sieve as we want you to put every message and every medium that you encounter.