Fake News Cleaner and the Growth of Media Literacy Training
In Taiwan, a non-profit group, Fake News Cleaner, gives out soap to entice people of all ages to take their media classes. Fake News Cleaner photo
Psychology Today
With free bars of soap and lots of patience, volunteers with a nonprofit in Taiwan recruit students to attend free media literacy classes. Initially aimed at seniors, Fake News Cleaner now offers programs to all ages, including elementary school and university students.
But they started with seniors, whom they saw as most vulnerable, in part due to a technology gap. Taiwan has a vast network of fact-checking organizations, including MyGoPen. In fact, Taiwanese people can fact-check images, videos, and text through the MyGoPen account on the popular LINE messaging app, which employs both a chatbot and real people. Yet, many Taiwanese seniors don’t have access to these services because they are uncomfortable with technology.
Fake News Cleaner recruits seniors where they are—in houses of worship or in parks—and signs them up for old-school, (mostly) technology-free media literacy training. For example, they teach about content farms that use clickbait to make money, then instruct seniors to look for a byline and ask questions about the origin of the material. Only at the end of the course does Fake News Cleaner introduce technology, helping seniors to add the LINE messaging account of the fact checker MyGoPen.
Legislating Media Literacy
Fake News Cleaner has hosted more than 500 events as of April 2024, a huge success. But many believe that policies are necessary for widespread changes to occur in how people interact with information, especially with regard to teaching students at the primary and secondary levels. In many countries, including the United States, that policy change is starting to occur, as documented by the nonprofit Media Literacy Now.
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