Philippines’ MANILA To address shortcomings in the way media and information literacy is currently taught in schools, journalism professors from the University of the Philippines Diliman inaugurated a media and information literacy (MIL) channel on Friday.
A teacher’s module and a series of video tutorials explaining the fundamentals of spotting misinformation, fact-checking, and the role that journalists play in a democratic society are included in the UP Department of Journalism’s media literacy project, which brings together seasoned journalists from competing media networks.
The event’s keynote speaker, Fernando Paragas, dean of the UP College of Mass Communication, emphasized that the media literacy project is the school’s “important first step to engage the public directly on social media in the shape and form they have grown to like.”
The first episode of the series, which discusses the value of journalism, is now available to the public online on the media and information literacy channel, and fresh episodes are set to air every two weeks.
ABS-CBN reporters Karmina Constantino, Jeff Canoy, and Zen Hernandez, as well as GMA reporters David, Atom Araullo, Howie Severino, Mariz Umali, Ivan Mayrina, and Connie Sison, serve as hosts for the media literacy series.
Given the growing usage of artificial intelligence to produce content, Paragas stated that they hoped the project’s involvement with some of the “biggest names in media today” would provide the videos “credibility and virality.”
MIL educators
The media literacy project was developed in response to teachers’ lack of expertise when administering MIL classes, according to Kara David, chair of the UP journalism department.
According to David, the team behind the study discovered that most teachers are “not well-equipped” to teach MIL, notably the fundamentals of misinformation and fact-checking, based on interviews with senior high school teachers.
Additionally “too heavy and complicated,” “lacks focus,” and “tries to squeeze in a lot of information in one semester,” David said of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) MIL curriculum.
For the sole purpose of completing their teaching load, teachers of subjects like English and physical education, among others, are occasionally given the responsibility of teaching MIL.
UP journalism professor and seasoned journalist Karol Ilagan remarked that in order to “match up” their modules’ content with the resources teachers require, their team also looked at teachers’ daily class logs.
The screenplays for each episode were written by approximately 22 UP journalism students and evaluated by the department’s faculty, according to David.
UP College of Education professor Portia Padilla stated during the panel discussion that the nation is experiencing both a “information crisis” and a “learning crisis” because of students’ low reading levels.
According to World Bank projections of the Philippines’ learning poverty in 2022, approximately nine out of ten children aged 10 in the country have difficulty reading simple text.
According to the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment, the Philippines likewise has the lowest reading proficiency rates worldwide.
The situation will get worse, according to Padilla, an expert in reading and literacy education, if the short-form content that students consume on social media is not only challenging to understand but also inaccurate.
“Our educators in basic education will face even greater challenges when you combine the learning crisis, which is caused by reading difficulties, with the information crisis,” Padilla continued.
A basic subject called media and information literacy is currently taught in the K–12 senior high school curriculum.
According to the course’s official DepEd description, it “introduces learners to basic understanding of media and information as channels of communication and tools for the development of individuals and societies.”
The DepEd is tasked with creating a “educator’s and learner’s MIL manual” that will eventually be incorporated into the senior high curriculum as part of the Marcos administration’s media literacy program, which was begun in August.
Advocates for media literacy and experts on disinformation asked the government in a joint statement to build on the work being done in this area by academics and members of civil society.
