The war in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists has triggered an unfortunate surge in propaganda and disinformation. To combat this, schools across Ukraine have integrated media literacy techniques within their lessons to help students better assess the information they’re receiving.
A report released on Friday by a global education organization described that the students who attended the lessons were twice as likely to detect hate speech and 18 percent better at identifying fake news than students who missed out on them. Kids who received the modified lessons also performed better in all media-analysis skills, such as distinguishing facts and opinions, identifying hate speech, and noticing where information had been omitted. If we want to stop the rise of misinformation, training people at a young age to detect it will be key.
