ABSTRACT

Information is increasingly being disseminated and accessed through social media. This study evaluated how high school students evaluate content on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Thirty-seven students from two different high schools in Western Australia (WA) completed a survey and series of eight activities that asked them to evaluate information (both visual and written) posted on social media sites. The results showed that students trust TV news more than social media. The results also showed that although students often recognised legitimate news sources versus opinion, they often fail to recognise bias when it relates to political or organisation affiliation. The students also did not verify accuracy or authority outside of the social media posts, trusted ‘evidence’ even when it was inaccurate, often did not recognise the verified tick and often failed to recognise that images and videos can be edited. This study has shown that media literacy instruction in schools needs to move away from the checklist approach of teaching how to evaluate information and move towards an instructional approach that focuses on the more critical thinking aspects of evaluation such as the source of the information, social and political bias and verifying evidence and information through multiple sources.

摘要

信息正越来越多地通过社交媒体进行传播和访问。这项研究评估了高中生如何评估Facebook和Twitter等平台上的内容。来自西澳大利亚州（WA）两所不同中学的37名学生完成了一项调查和一系列八项活动，要求他们评估社交媒体网站上发布的信息（视觉和书面信息）。结果表明，学生对电视新闻的信任程度高于社交媒体。结果还表明，尽管学生经常认识到合法新闻来源而不是观点，但当涉及政治或组织联系时，他们往往无法认识到偏见。学生们也没有在社交媒体帖子之外验证准确性或权威性，即使在证据不准确的情况下也无法信任“证据”，通常无法识别经过验证的勾号，并且经常无法识别可以编辑的图像和视频。这项研究表明，学校的媒体素养教学需要摆脱清单教学法，即如何评估信息，而转向注重评估的更为关键的思维方面的教学方法，例如信息的来源，社会和文化。政治偏见，并通过多种渠道核实证据和信息。