Back in the day people used to get most of their news from papers, radio or TV bulletins. Now, pretty much anyone can put info out there online. Sometimes that's a good thing, other times not so much. To help you sort fact from fiction, ABC Education and the team from BTN have created some special videos and other fun resources for Media Literacy Week this week. But why is it important to learn these skills anyway?
From the moment you wake up in the morning, all the way to when you go to bed at night, you’re consuming media. You're taking in videos, TV shows, movies, social media, books, games, magazines, ads and, of course, news and it's all feeding you information.
But not all of that info is necessarily good info. And that's why experts are worried that you guys might not have the skills to help you understand and analyse all of the stuff you're seeing.
For instance, do you think you can tell the difference between real news and fake news? If you think you can, that's great. Give yourself a pat on the back but you might want to be really, really sure about that because studies show that on some social media sites, fake news spreads further and faster than real news. Even adults often struggle to tell the difference.
There are other problems that can be even harder to spot like, can you tell when something or someone in the media is biased? That's basically like leaning towards an opinion about something without taking in all of the facts. Bias in the media can be obvious but it can also be pretty subtle, and it can have a big impact on our opinions.
Finally, do you know when something's an ad? This one seems easy, after all they're simple to spot on TV. But advertisers are pretty clever about getting people to buy things. Now they use social media posts, articles, blogs and videos to sell things and it's not always easy to tell when someone's been paid to promote a product.
This is why a lot of people and organisations are now talking about media literacy. It's basically like any other kind of literacy, like learning to read. But this kind, is about learning to read between the lines of everything you see, hear or read.
So next time you're consuming your favourite kind of media, remember to stop and question whether the info you're getting is disgustingly dodgy or deliciously correct and fair.

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For the past 50 years, Behind the News has been helping to break down current issues and events for young people all around the world. The program is a high-energy, fun way for people to learn about the stories we see in the news, while providing background information that isn’t usually given by other news bulletins.

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