A Generational Approach to Fight Fake News: In Search of Effective Media Literacy Training and Interventions

Abstract

The rise of Internet and the pervasiveness of communication and information technologies have allowed many societies to successfully reduce inequalities in access to information. However, the spread of fake news endangers the value and trustworthiness of the information being accessed. Although the dominant approach to reduce the spread of fake news includes legal measures and technological innovations (e.g., automatic fact-checking applications), Media Literacy Training and Interventions are also ways to empower people to fight fake news. The present scoping literature review examines the Media Literacy Training and Intervention options available, offering an overview of the extent to which they include an explicit fake news component, whether they are evidence based and the social groups (including different generations) for which they were tailored. We found that students and educators were the main target groups, almost wholly to the exclusion of other groups; that they took place mainly in educational settings; and that, at least in the case of the training sessions, they were not evidence based, which meant that neither the long-term nor short-term efficacy could be tested. Such findings shed light on the relatively poor reliability of the available training and interventions, and on their limited effectiveness in the target groups.