Mission Possible: Fighting Misinformation
by Ed Madison and Hans Boyle
Earlier this year, Tom Cruise made a surprising splash on TikTok — and not to promote a Mission Impossible sequel.
In a series of viral clips, the Hollywood star simply performed mundane tasks. He perfected his golf swing in one video and made a coin vanish in another. Of course, the real magic trick was fooling viewers into thinking Tom Cruise was performing any tricks at all. This wasn’t really Tom Cruise.
A Belgium visual effects artist and a Cruise impersonator pulled off this illusion with the aid of Deepfake technology, an AI program that digitally transplants celebrity faces onto non-celebrities, among other deceptions.
Deepfakes are increasingly worrying lawmakers and journalists for their unsettling potential to mislead an American public already grappling with a post-truth political world. For many, a reasonably convincing deepfake of Tom Cruise was a warning for what’s to come. What will happen when nefarious actors make world leaders say or do untruthful things on camera?
In reality, these much-feared doctorings haven’t proved to be the misinformation threat many fretted they would be. While a Tom Cruise imposter makes for an entertaining distraction, the more pressing problem continues to be the misleading, or just false, stories circulating on Twitter and Facebook.
Various groups across the country are tackling the misinformation crisis, to be sure. The nonprofit First Draft trains organizations, including newsrooms, to verify content posted to social media. The organization even developed a Vaccine Insights Hub to help reporters combat vaccine conspiracies and falsehoods percolating on the web.
Two university centers examine the adverse impacts of misinformation, the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public and the Center for Informed Democracy at Carnegie Mellon University. However, improved education at the K-12 level is paramount for any campaign to inoculate citizens against online misinformation. Education’s essential function is preparing students to be engaged and media-literate citizens. Unfortunately, our education system has neglected this role for too long.
In their 2018 survey of civics education, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) found 74 percent of eighth-graders reported low-to-moderate confidence in “civics-related knowledge and skills.” This includes understanding basic concepts like how our three-branch system of government works and recognizing our rights and responsibilities as citizens. Lacking this knowledge severely disadvantages children in the digital arena.
How can students exercise First Amendment rights they don’t know they have? How can they distinguish between the truth and falsehoods surrounding a presidential election if they don’t fully understand how our election system works in the first place?
The answer isn’t simply to quiz students on the number of senators allotted to each state or how old a person must be to run for president. Teachers have to give students opportunities to explore complex but engaging subjects like presidential elections in the classroom. These topics can be complicated and undoubtedly fraught at times, but students are perfectly capable of unpacking the day’s news under the proper guidance.
Student-produced media are particularly suited for these explorations. In partnership with the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, the Journalistic Learning Initiative’s online publication The Student Voice curates student journalism nationwide. It brings together high school students and journalism undergrads to discuss current events. During these sessions, engage with guests, pitch their own stories and refine their writing and multimedia skills. By producing news, students emerge as well-informed citizens who care about the world and develop media literacy.
The Student Voice project will feature former NBC Today Show anchor Ann Curry on Wednesday, May 19th at 2 pm Pacific, leading up to its Student Voice Awards virtual event on Friday, May 21st at 7:30 am Pacific.
Journalism isn’t just a profession. It’s a frame of mind that demands critical thinking and engagement with civic life. And as misinformation continues to pollute our civic discourse, it’s becoming more imperative we equip students with these journalistic tools to distinguish between fact and fiction.
