TEACHERS should be educated in media literacy as more children start using social media at an early age, said the Philadelphia-based Centre for Media and Information Literacy.

Its director, Sherri Hope Culver, said this was crucial as children were spending hours looking at screens.

“Why is it important for students to start young? Because if they are going to use it, then there is a need to help the children be media literate.

“Some schools are already incorporating media literacy as a subject in their syllabus,” she said during a media briefing recently in Philadelphia on Media Literacy and Combating Misinformation organised by the Foreign Press Centre.

Culver said students should have the basic skills if they were old enough to peruse the media.

“Even if a child who is 1 or 2 years old is using a tablet or smart phone, they should be mindful of how they use it and how often they use it.

“Media literacy will help when they get older, like 5 or 6. By then, they have some critical thinking and that will increase over the years.”

Culver said there while there was no urgent need for a specific media literacy course, trained teachers could incorporate aspects of media literacy into their classes.

“You can have discussions about media literacy in a math class, like how it is represented in media or even a movie that you watch in class to get students to think.”

She said that at the most basic level, children should understand how online information is shared, how search engines work and how news is disseminated.

Culver said it was important for all teachers to have basic knowledge about media literacy as they were all using media in their classrooms.

“Media literacy education will help students be more aware of the questions to ask, so they can analyse news content and make better decisions on what is fake news and misleading news, and what is a one-sided story.”

As teachers spend time educating children, Culver said parents could also play a part by preparing their children for the digital age.

“It is important that parents or guardians monitor what children are consuming rather than leaving them alone.

“They can be more interactive, like playing with the child or discussing characters in the programmes the child is watching.

“This is to show children that when they are consuming media, they are thinking about it and not passively consuming but actively understanding the content.”

She said that if the goal was to have media literacy taught in all classrooms, there needed to be a syllabus available for teachers to access.

“There are teachers who teach media literacy and they have made their syllabus available on some websites and from organisations around the globe.”

Teachers looking for content on media literacy can also visit the National Association for Media Literacy Education online. – October 21, 2018.