Patricia J. Brooks

College of Staten Island, CUNY
The Graduate Center, CUNY

“Cultivating Media Literacy in an Era of Misinformation and Mistrust”

Ubiquitous Internet access has altered the information landscape in profound ways, bombarding us with content of often dubious quality.  In 2018, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities launched its Digital Polarization Initiative (DPI) to teach students how to evaluate online content by investigating sources, finding better coverage, and tracing information back to its original context. In this talk, I present findings from the DPI implementation at CUNY and related efforts organized by CIVIX for Canadian middle and high schools and highlight the special role of Wikipedia as a tool for developing media literacy and agency in turbulent times.