Did media literacy backfire?

This is the article from Danah Boyd — a technology and social media scholar, and the founder and president of Data & Society Research Institute - on media literacy and on how it might have had the unexpected consequence of spreading misinformation.

In this passage in particular she captures the core of the problem, arguing that there is:

“a deep distrust of media sources. If the media is reporting on something, and you don’t trust the media, then it is your responsibility to question their authority, to doubt the information you are being given. If they expend tremendous effort bringing on “experts” to argue that something is false, there must be something there to investigate.”

See also as she suggests that as a possible solution to the problem:

“Addressing so-called fake news is going to require a lot more than labeling. It’s going to require a cultural change about how we make sense of information, whom we trust, and how we understand our own role in grappling with information.

The article can be found here: