Yahoo – AFP,
Paula RAMON, July 13, 2018
 |
Students attend a lesson on "Fake News: access, security and veracity of
information" in Sao Paulo, Brazil (AFP Photo/Miguel SCHINCARIOL) |
Sao Paulo
(AFP) - Brazil has taken a stand against the explosion of "fake news"
stories swamping the internet by making media analysis studies compulsory for
schoolchildren.
Around the
world, debates proliferate about the problem of unfettered information flooding
social media, uploaded by people with no consideration for journalist ethics,
impartiality or even the truth.
Of
particular concern is the effect such misinformation can have on those most
impressionable.
"The
aim is to teach students to identify fake news, and now it's part of the
national curriculum because the country has decided it's necessary," said
Leandro Beguoci, editorial director at Brazilian education specialists Nova
Escola.
"The
proliferation of social media networks have created an urgent situation in this
respect," Beguoci said.
Media
analysis studies became compulsory in December 2017, but have been offered
alongside traditional subjects like mathematics and history for years in some
Brazilian schools.
Kayo
Rodrigues, 14, said the Brazilian press is not perfect, but plays a vital role
in combating fake news "because not everyone has the internet or the tools
to check facts."
She
enrolled in the "Young Press" program launched six years ago in the
Casa Blanca public school in Sao Paulo.
At Casa
Blanca, teachers Lucilene Varandas and Hildenor Gomes do Santos ensure their
students, aged eight to 14, know not to take everything they watch or read at
face value.
'Think
about clicks'
"When
I receive a piece of information, I look for it on the internet and ask myself
if it's true," said Helena Vital, 11, whose parents are teachers. She said
the program has taught her to view the media from a different perspective.
"Now I
know that things aren't so bad, the whole country isn't going to collapse,"
added Vital, who said that consuming news without questioning it "leaves
people sad" and that "there are many negative things that aren't
true."
The
children do not have the tools to systematically check everything, but
"they look at the articles, who wrote them, who could be interested in
them and where they're published, which are all ways of questioning the
information," said Varandas, who is looking to create partnerships with
fact-checking agencies to expand the children's education.
The measures
seem to be working despite the children's young age.
"All
it takes is one click to share false news; this project teaches me to think
about my clicks," said Rodrigues, daughter of a shopkeeper and a
manicurist.
The
students enrolled in "Young Press" have also been analyzing local
media stories about the project, and even found inaccuracies.
AFP was
told its own coverage would be equally scrutinized.
With a
population of almost 208 million people, Brazil has a massive social media
presence: 120 million WhatsApp users, more than 100 million people on Facebook
and another 50 million signed up to Instagram.
"In
the past, kids were taught by their parents, but now that happens through a
variety of means, something which alters the role of the school," said
Beguoci, a trained journalist.
"What's
so interesting in Brazil is that media and technological literacy are
considered as important as classical literacy."
'Digital
age natives'
Beguoci
denies that information analysis is an additional burden on the education
system, saying it rather offers "a context that can improve
education."
"We're
talking about things that are part of the student's world," he said.
For
Veronica Martins Cannata, who coordinates technology and communication studies
at the private Dante Alighieri school, children have their own responsibility
when it comes to fake news.
"Technology
has facilitated communication, but the time has come to question its
content," she said.
"As
natives of the digital age, children and teenagers must take the responsibility
to analyze that content before reproducing it."
Dante
Alighieri has been analyzing media content for 11 years and has also brought
the fight against fake news into the classroom.
Children
are born "with ingenuity," but at school they acquire "a
critical eye and no longer consume information in the same way," said
Martins Cannata.
Such media
analysis studies will not necessarily create a new generation of wannabe
reporters, though.
Vital, for
one, is suspicious about the press that "is sometimes flawed in its
credibility."
Asked if
she would like to one day become a journalist, Vital said: "I prefer
swimming!"
