Developing Model of Media Literacy through Critical Analysis of Fake News

Abstract

The convergence of media into digital media and the ease of accessing and producing news require new ways of approaching it or media literacy, mainly in dealing with fake news. This fake news has penetrated both uneducated and educated people such as college students. Some researcheshave been conducted to address media literacy and fake news separately. This research aims at addressing both issues by developing a model of media literacy through critical analysis of fake news. To design this model, research development method is used. Before the model of media literacy is constructed, a questionnairewasdistributedto collect information on student's media literacy. Interestingly, the result showed that the students had some knowledge to access information or news from digital media, and were able to identify online advertisement and news. Theoretically, they could name some characteristics of credible news, yet they failed to recognize fake news and provide coherent reasoning. Instead of questioning the reliability of the news, they were not hesitant to share the news because they considered the news were beneficial for others and they mistakenly identified fake websites for official ones. Along with the result of comparative analysis between credible/real news and fake news, model of 6 C's of critical media literacy is proposed to address students lack of awareness in fake news. The model consisted of some activities covering investigating the Context, Credibility, and Construction of the news, as well as Corroborating, Comparing news from other credible sources before Creating news. Using this model, students would not only have knowledge about news reliability but also they would be able to do a critical analysis on the news, be aware of fake news and help to prevent the spread of fake news.