Recognizing fake news now a required subject in California schools

Pushing back against the surge of misin­for­ma­tion online, Cali­for­nia will now require all K-12 students to learn media lite­racy skills — such as recog­ni­zing fake news and thin­king criti­cally about what they encoun­ter on the inter­net. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom last month signed Assembly Bill 873, which requi­res the state to add media lite­racy to curri­cu­lum frame­works for English language arts, science, math and history-social studies, rolling out gradu­ally begin­ning next year. Instead of a stand-alone class, the topic will be woven into exis­ting clas­ses and lessons throug­hout the school year.

“I’ve seen the impact that misin­for­ma­tion has had in the real world — how it affects the way people vote, whet­her they accept the outco­mes of elec­ti­ons, try to over­th­row our demo­cracy, ” said the bill’s spon­sor, Assembly­mem­ber Marc Berman, a Demo­crat from Menlo Park. “This is about making sure our young people have the skills they need to navi­gate this lands­cape.”

The new law comes amid rising public distrust in the media, espe­ci­ally among young people. A 2022 Pew Rese­arch Center survey found that adults under age 30 are nearly as likely to beli­eve infor­ma­tion on social media as they are from nati­o­nal news outlets. Overall, only 7% of adults have “a great deal” of trust in the media, accor­ding to a Gallup poll conduc­ted last year.

Media lite­racy can help change that, advo­ca­tes beli­eve, by teaching students how to recog­nize reli­a­ble news sour­ces and the crucial role that media plays in a demo­cracy. 

“The incre­ase in Holo­caust denial, climate change denial, cons­pi­racy theo­ries getting a foot­hold, and now AI … all this shows how impor­tant media lite­racy is for our demo­cracy right now, ” said Jenni­fer Ormsby, library servi­ces mana­ger for the Los Ange­les County Office of Educa­tion. “The 2016 elec­tion was a real eye-opener for everyone on the poten­tial harms and dangers of fake news.”

AB 873 passed nearly unani­mously in the Legis­la­ture, unders­co­ring the nonpar­ti­san nature of the topic. Nati­on­wide, Texas, New Jersey and Dela­ware have also passed strong media lite­racy laws, and more than a dozen other states are moving in that direc­tion, accor­ding to Media Lite­racy Now, a nonpro­fit rese­arch orga­ni­za­tion that advo­ca­tes for media lite­racy in K-12 scho­ols.

Still, Cali­for­ni­a’s law falls short of Media Lite­racy Now’s recom­men­da­ti­ons. Cali­for­ni­a’s appro­ach doesn’t include funding to train teachers, an advi­sory commit­tee, input from libra­ri­ans, surveys or a way to moni­tor the law’s effec­ti­ve­ness.

Keeping the bill simple, though, was a way to help ensure its passage, Berman said. Those featu­res can be imple­men­ted later, and he felt it was urgent to pass the law quickly so students can start recei­ving media lite­racy educa­tion as soon as possi­ble. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024, as the state begins upda­ting its curri­cu­lum frame­works, although teachers are encou­ra­ged to teach media lite­racy now.

Berman’s law builds on a previ­ous effort in Cali­for­nia to bring media lite­racy to K-12 class­ro­oms. In 2018, Senate Bill 830 requi­red the Cali­for­nia Depart­ment of Educa­tion to provide media lite­racy resour­ces — lesson plans, project ideas, back­ground — to the state’s K-12 teachers. But it didn’t make media lite­racy manda­tory.

The new law also over­laps somew­hat with Cali­for­ni­a’s effort to bring compu­ter science educa­tion to all students. The state hopes to expand compu­ter science, which can include aspects of media lite­racy, to all students, possibly even requi­ring it to gradu­ate from high school. Newsom recently signed Assembly Bill 1251, which crea­tes a commis­sion to look at ways to recruit more compu­ter science teachers to Cali­for­nia class­ro­oms. Berman is also spon­so­ring Assembly Bill 1054, which would require high scho­ols to offer compu­ter science clas­ses. That bill is currently stalled in the Senate.

Unders­tan­ding media, and crea­ting it

Teachers don’t need a state law to show students how to be smart media consu­mers, and some have been doing it for years. Merek Chang, a high school science teacher at Haci­enda La Puente Unified in the City of Industry east of Los Ange­les, said the pande­mic was a wake-up call for him.

During remote lear­ning, he gave students two arti­cles on the origins of the coro­na­vi­rus. One was an opinion piece from the New York Post, a tabloid, and the other was from a scien­ti­fic jour­nal. He asked students which they thought was accu­rate. More than 90% chose the Post piece.

“It made me realize that we need to focus on the skills to unders­tand content, as much as we focus on the content itself, ” Chang said.

He now incor­po­ra­tes media lite­racy in all aspects of his lesson plans. He relies on the Stan­ford History Educa­tion Group, which offers free media lite­racy resour­ces for teachers, and took part in a KQED media lite­racy program for teachers. 

In addi­tion to teaching students how to evalu­ate online infor­ma­tion, he shows them how to create their own media. Home­work assign­ments include making TikTok-style videos on protein synt­he­sis for mRNA vacci­nes, for exam­ple. Students then present their projects at home or at lunch­time events for fami­lies and the commu­nity.

“The biggest impact, I’ve noti­ced, is that students feel like their voice matters, ” Chang said.  “The work isn’t just for a grade. They feel like they’re making a diffe­rence.”

Ormsby, the Los Ange­les County libra­rian, has also been promo­ting media lite­racy for years. Libra­ri­ans gene­rally have been on the fore­front of media lite­racy educa­tion, and Cali­for­ni­a’s new law refers to the Modern School Library Stan­dards for media lite­racy guide­li­nes. 

Ormsby teaches concepts like “late­ral reading” (compa­ring an online arti­cle with other sour­ces to check for accu­racy) and reverse imaging (sear­ching online to trace a photo to its origi­nal source or chec­king if it’s been alte­red). She also provi­des lesson plans, resour­ces and book recom­men­da­ti­ons such as “True or False: A CIA analyst’s guide to spot­ting fake news” and, for elemen­tary students, “Killer Under­wear Inva­sion! How to spot fake news, disin­for­ma­tion & cons­pi­racy theo­ries.”

She’s happy that the law passed, but would like to see libra­ri­ans inclu­ded in the rollout and the curri­cu­lum imple­men­ted imme­di­a­tely, not waiting until the frame­works are upda­ted.

The gradual imple­men­ta­tion of the law was deli­be­rate, since scho­ols are alre­ady grap­pling with so many other state manda­tes, said Alvin Lee, execu­tive direc­tor of Gene­ra­tion Up, a student-led advo­cacy group that was among the bill’s spon­sors. He’s hoping that local school boards decide to prio­ri­tize the issue on their own by funding trai­ning for teachers and moving imme­di­a­tely to get media lite­racy into class­ro­oms.

“Disin­for­ma­tion contri­bu­tes to pola­ri­za­tion, which we’re seeing happen all over the world, ” said Lee, a junior at Stan­ford who said it’s a top issue among his class­ma­tes. “Media lite­racy can address that.”

In San Fran­cisco Unified, Ricardo Elizalde is a teacher on special assign­ment who trains elemen­tary teachers in media lite­racy. His staff gave out 50 copies of “Killer Under­wear!” for teachers to build acti­vi­ties around, and encou­ra­ges students to make their own media, as well.

Elemen­tary school is the perfect time to intro­duce the topic, he said.

“We get all these media thrown at us from a young age, we have to learn to defend oursel­ves, ” Elizalde said. “Media lite­racy is a basic part of being lite­rate. If we’re just teaching kids how to read, and not think criti­cally about what they’re reading, we’re doing them a disser­vice.”