How to help students discern fact from fiction in the media they consume

Teachers have long recognized that young people are profoundly influenced by the media they consume. When that media targets students with false information, it jeopardizes their safety, mental health, financial well-being, attitudes and acceptance of others.  

The stakes for teaching students to not fall victim to digital rogues could not be higher. 

In 2022, both the National Council for Social Studies and the National Council for Teachers of English published statements calling for better training to teach media literacy.  The next year, the U.S. surgeon general elevated media literacy to a public health concern. 

A teaching shift is necessary, the National Council for Social Studies said, “to a focus on educating students to habitually analyze and evaluate information, including asking essential questions, weighing competing claims, assessing credibility, and reflecting on one’s own reasoning and values to determine who gains and who loses through the promotion of particular narratives.'' 

Detra Price is director of the College of Education and Human Ecology’s Center for Digital Learning and Innovation, and has taught Journalism and New Media in the 7-12 Classroom, a course for preservice teachers of integrated language arts. 

“It is obviously, in a democratic society, really important that we understand the information that we consume: if it’s factual and if it's trustworthy, if the sources are transparent,” Price said, “things (that) are really important for us to be able to participate in our society in meaningful ways.” 

“Being an educator and working with students, I cannot think of a better skill to have because of the need for critical thinking and criticality. Both of those are so important in media literacy,” she said. 

After teaching high school social studies for 30 years, Kyle King is now the college’s program manager of integrated social studies. 

“Students’ access to social media today, that's where more and more of us are getting our truth from,” King said. “We want them to realize that they're intellectuals and that intellectuals are simply true seekers.” 

“You're having students investigate, work with others, co-construct knowledge to develop their answers about the world around us. As part of their education, it's important for students to understand that their way of seeing the world is not the only way of seeing the world.” 

Here, Ohio State teaching experts and others offer tips to help students discern truth in the media as they read, listen and scroll. 

Teach lateral thinking 

As a teacher, King used lesson materials from Stanford University’s Digital Inquiry Group to generate student conversations about the truthfulness of information. 

 “It's a whole series of lessons,” he said, “and I would have my students engage in those lessons so that they would be equipped with a series of tools that would allow them not to be as easily manipulated.” 

One technique the group uses is lateral thinking. Students are provided with social media posts, ads, editorials, etc. They are taught not to scroll down the feed to verify, but to open additional tabs to do “lateral searches” on the topic. Then, they ask questions. 

“Who is saying it’s true? What is their background? What have they said in the past that’s turned out to not be true?” King demonstrated. 

Students research topics together, discussing their findings. The lessons are nonpartisan, backed by evidence and strengthened by teacher feedback. 

Consider multiple sources

"This is a sort of the core of social studies, to look at multiple sources," said Binaya Subedi, interim chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning and program chair for integrated social studies.

"So, if you are hearing information from only one source, then it's problematic because it may not tell you the multiple experiences, histories or perspectives that's embedded in it," he said. "And I think when we fall into that single story or single source for information, that can create a lot of problems." 

The Digital Inquiry Group teaches students to use "click restraint," looking past the first results suggested by search engines and AI, to investigate results from more credible sources.

Have students read at least three different sources on the same topic from mainstream media, local news and specialized outlets. Ask them to identify similarities, differences and any misinformation they uncover.

Ask the hard questions 

Foster criticality by fostering curious questions. 

• Why do I think this media was created? 
• Who created it? Was it a company? Is it a real company?  
• Was it created by a media outlet? Was it a journalist? If it was an individual and not a company, is this a credible journalist? Are they part of a credible network? Have they been trained to not use persuasive techniques or bias to push an agenda? 
• Is the post or video providing information? Is it compelling me to act on information? Is it trying to get me to buy something or provide something? 
• Is it trying to change my mind about someone or something? 
• How is power circulating in this media? Is it providing a representation of people who have more or less power? 
• What evidence supports the claim of this media post? 

Teach using primary source documents 

When she was a teacher, Cynthia Tyson often used primary source documents to train young children to verify truth. Now a professor of multicultural and equity studies, she trains preservice teachers about the valuable resources.  

Primary source documents are original artifacts created in the time under study. 

“Letters, manuscripts, diaries, a person’s journals, maps, speeches…photographs, now social media,” Tyson said. “Let’s go to the source as much as we possibly can. We won’t get all of the story, but we’ll get as much perspective on the story as we can…It’s like putting a puzzle together. Understanding that this is not the whole story, but it is a piece of the story.”

Some states require media literacy curricula to teach the difference between primary sources and secondary sources.  

The Library of Congress houses online historical records, photos and video that can be used as a springboard for verifying truth. Lesson plans are available.  

Access free curricula 

Online curricula provide free lessons for multiple grades. A few: 

• Project Look Sharp’s Constructivist Media Decoding, from Ithica College, include demonstration videos.  
• Common Sense Education’s Teaching Digital Literacy and Well-Being course includes ready-to-use lesson plans. 
• Digital Inquiry Group’s lessons, including those on lateral thinking, are top-rated among social studies teachers. 

Educate yourself about the challenges 

The National Association for Media Literacy Education offers facts and tips for creating school climates where media literacy education can thrive. See Snapshot 2024: The State of Media Literacy Education in the U.S.