I found this great list of three ways that Civics can address the threat of disinformation. What’s disinformation? Lies about our country and its systems that are purposely spread to create division and despair among citizens. It’s crazy effective, which is why people and foreign governments do it.
Disinformation is designed to sow division…
…Civics increases national identity around shared values and aspirations.
Disinformation is designed to make people think that the system is irrevocably broken…
…Civics reinforces the fact that the promise of democracy is its capacity to change and move us toward a more perfect union.
Disinformation is designed to make people feel like they are helpless…
…Civics empowers individuals to hold institutions accountable and be more effective citizens (agents of change.)
Civics is how we fight back.
5 Responses
yes, but how do we get people interested in Civics? Look at what is coming out about FoxNews. That they new the big lie was a lie, but they chose to spread it anyways. How do we stop the lies???
Sheryl, good question without a good answer. I’m thinking of civics as an inoculation again disinformation, so the more people who get smart about the media, the fewer people will be so taken in. There are some, of course, who’s minds are totally closed to anything other than what they believe, but there are millions of Americans on the fence who are willing to learn more.
But “civics” comes across as a boring topic, and many people don’t think they need a refresher…still working on that issue. 🙂
Catherine I would like to see more ways to fact check. I use Snopes.com, and our local free newspaper, the Wausau Pilot and Review, publishes a column about what didn’t happen in the news, but neither covers all the BS out there.
I comment on some stuff, but not much, as I don’t want to engage some of these radical and kookie people.
Hi, Susan,
Good for you for even trying to fact check what you see and hear. Hardly anyone does that anymore. I’m actually working on a series of civics tutorials on media literacy, and I’m leaning heavily on the work of Mike Caulfield. Here’s his 3 minute video on a Stanford study that shows how fact checkers do better than educated, ‘critical thinkers.’
This is the introductory video; there are 4 more which I haven’t watched yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBU2sDlUbp8
The contrast and clarity of the proposition is so heartening!