The social-first digital media literacy initiative MediaWise at the nonprofit Poynter Institute is partnering with the American Library Association to fight misinformation in communities across the United States.
Laying the groundwork to combat falsehoods ahead of the 2024 elections, MediaWise aims to equip thousands of librarians across the country with Be MediaWise: A Misinformation Resilience Toolkit. The suite of resources will help any librarian in any city or town launch state-of-the-art, engaging media literacy programming.
“ALA is proud to collaborate with such esteemed partners on the Misinformation Resilience Toolkit. Every day, libraries across the nation are fighting misinformation through programs and resource-sharing,” said ALA President Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada. “A fundamental addition to digital media literacy education, the toolkit will equip library workers with the skills and resources needed to educate those most vulnerable in their communities. We look forward to seeing the outcomes of this important endeavor.”
An advisory board of 12 librarians from across the country will consult with MediaWise — which since 2018 has been building media literacy courses for teenagers, college students, older adults, Spanish speakers, and others — on the development of the library resources. While the toolkit will be useful to any librarian, MediaWise aims to reach rural communities, those with a large population of Spanish speakers and older adults.
“The ways in which we receive, process, and perceive information has changed over the last 20 years,” said Cicely Douglas, director of South Sioux City Public Library. “Communication continues to advance with technology, and it is imperative to address ways in which they are interrelated.”
Beginning this month, the board will meet regularly to provide input on best practices and suggestions for resource development.
“MediaWise wouldn’t be what it is without the help of librarians, who were key in promoting and planning our on-the-ground workshops for middle and high schoolers in 2019,” said MediaWise Director Alex Mahadevan. “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the ALA to provide adult librarians the tools they need to provide media literacy training in their communities.”
The partnership advances one pillar of the Empowering Diverse Digital Citizens Lab — an effort funded by Stanford Impact Labs — and includes rigorous study of the librarian toolkit by the Stanford Social Media Lab. The SML has worked closely with Poynter to study a number of media literacy interventions since 2020.
“We are thrilled to work with the ALA and Mediawise to develop this toolkit for librarians,” said Jeff Hancock, founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab. “This is a key resource for bringing digital media literacy to all, especially those communities that are the most vulnerable and that the ALA is best positioned to support.”
The Be MediaWise: Misinformation Resilience Toolkit Advisory Board is:
- Andrea Baer, Public Services Librarian, Rowan University
- Jazmyne Baylor, Research and Instruction Librarian, Western Carolina University
- Joanna Burkhardt, Professor, University of Rhode Island Library
- Jed Cridland-Hughes, Discovery Manager, Greenville County Library System
- Cicely Douglas, Director, South Sioux City Public Library
- Lindsay Frey, Adult Services Coordinator, Zion-Benton Public Library
- Jenny Garmon, Civic Engagement Specialist, Kansas City Public Library
- Angie Holan, Editor-in-Chief, PolitiFact
- Shanna Hollich, Library Director, Guthrie Memorial Library
- Gina Petrie, Adult Services Librarian, Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library
- Heath Umbreit, Adult Services Librarian, Morrill Memorial Library
- Hong Yao, Director of Technical Services, Queens Public Library
“Widespread misinformation is pulling our nation apart, and hurting our community’s livelihood,” Yao said. “I think public libraries are well positioned to fight back when armed with the right tools.”
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is a gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the information ecosystem.
The Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), MediaWise and PolitiFact are all enterprises of the Poynter organization.
Support for Poynter upholds the integrity of the free press and the U.S. First Amendment and builds public confidence in journalism and media around the world — an essential for healthy democracies. Learn more at poynter.org.
About MediaWise
MediaWise is a social-first digital media literacy initiative of the nonprofit Poynter Institute. The program teaches people of all ages and backgrounds how to responsibly engage with online content in the age of information overload. The fact-checking enterprise was created in 2018 to empower citizens to find trusted sources and make sense of the vast amount of information at their fingertips. We bring simple, yet effective, digital media literacy tools to people where they are — whether they’re on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or TikTok or in one of the five countries where MediaWise operates — and walk them through every step to determine what’s real and what’s not on the internet. Through MediaWise, everyone can do their part to reduce the spread of misinformation and elevate the truth. Follow MediaWise on social media to learn how to debunk viral claims and be more critical consumers of online information. Explore programs and be part of the solution at poynter.org/mediawise.
About the American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is the foremost national organization providing resources to inspire library and information professionals to transform their communities through essential programs and services. For more than 140 years, the ALA has been the trusted voice for academic, public, school, government and special libraries, advocating for the profession and the library’s role in enhancing learning and ensuring access to information for all. For more information, visit ala.org.
About the Stanford Social Media Lab
The Stanford Social Media Lab works on understanding psychological and interpersonal processes in social media. The team specializes in using computational linguistics and experiments to understand how the words we use can reveal psychological and social dynamics, such as deception and trust, emotional dynamics, intimacy and relationships, and social support. Recently the team has begun work on understanding the mental models people have about algorithms in social media, as well as working on the ethical issues associated with computational social science.
