Digital Media Literacy Campaign in Identifying News

Abstract

This article explains the ways in which a digital media literacy campaign was conducted to help groups of adolescent to identify fake news or hoax and to prevent the further dissemination of fake news. A number of research have shown that young generation, or popularly known as millennials, is the age group of media users that has the highest tendency to read and to spread hoax or fake news. This is also tied to the fact that millennial spend more time on the Internet, and therefore have higher exposure to many various types information, including fake news. Based on the digital media campaign programs that was conducted in several public and private high schools in Semarang, Indonesia, this article will explicate the initial condition regarding the ability of high-school students in recognizing and identifying fake news before the digital media literacy campaign, and then explain how the campaign helping students to improve the ability to do so. This article will further describe the challenges faced in the typical media literacy campaign and several suggestions to overcome those challenges in future digital media literacy programs.

Dampak Literasi Media Berbasis Digital Terhadap Perilaku Anti Penyebaran Hoaks

“…Kultur masyarakat Indonesia memiliki kecenderungan untuk lebih cepat mempercayai sebuah berita tanpa melakukan konfirmasi kebenarannya terlebih dahulu, bahkan terkadang mereka langsung menyebarkannya di media sosial (Juditha 2019). Kampanye literasi media digital membantu meningkatkan kemampuan siswa mengidentifikasi berita palsu atau hoaks dan mencegah penyebaran berita palsu lebih lanjut (Pradekso, Setyabudi, dan Manalu 2018).…”

Reading Hoax: Measuring Students’ Critical News Literacy

“…A study conducted by (Pradekso et al, 2018) investigated the effects of digital media literacy campaigns on young people's understanding of fake news or hoaxes. The study found that participants who attended the training had a basic understanding of the terms and meanings of fake news or hoaxes but required assistance in detecting and distinguishing between real news and fake news on social media.…”