Headline, October 31 2020/ ''' '' STUDENTS : MISINFORMATION SPOTTING '' '''

''' '' STUDENTS : 

MISINFORMATION SPOTTING '' '''

OUR VISION IS THAT WE WORK AS IF THERE IS JUST ONE HUMANITY AND ONE SACRED WORLD and just one Lifetime, to give our very best example, and hope it was fairly and nobly done.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY : IMRAN KHAN THE PRIME MINISTER OF PROUD PAKISTAN, lovingly and most respectfully called O ''Captain..............

IT IS THE GREATEST OF PERSONAL PRIVILEGES AND HONORS for me and the Founder Framers of The World Students Society, the world over : to unanimously nominate and endow on O ''Captain Imran Khan, a ''Life Long'' membership of The World Students Society.

So far, only three great recipients have been endowed by this exalted privilege:

The New York Times, President Donald J Trump and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand.

AND MARK MY WORDS : An anti-intellectual current runs deep the entire world over.

So, with that, The World Students Society rises to give the Founder Framers, a stunning ovation for selfless, voluntary and ordained work.

Remember : All great successes are pre-ordained.

ONLINE MISINFORMATION MIGHT SEEM LIKE AN incurable virus, but social media companies, policy makers and nonprofits are beginning to address the problem more directly.

In March, big Internet companies like Facebook and Twitter started removing misleading Covid-19 posts. And many policy makers are tighter regulations about harmful content.

FACEBOOK AND TWITTER RECENTLY SHUT DOWN FAKE accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency, backed by Russia.

Twitter said this month that it suspended nearly 1,600 accounts, including some in Iran that ''amplified conversations on politically sensitive topics'' like race and social justice.

The Instagram post looked strange to Amulya Panakam, a 16-year old  high school student who lives near Atlanta. In February, a friend showed her a sensational headline on her phone that declared, ''Kim Jong Un is personally killing soldiers who have Covid-19!''

Of course, the news wasn't real. ''I was immediately suspicious,'' Ms. Panakam said. She searched online, and found no media outlets reporting the fake story. But her friends had already shared it on social media.

Ms. Panakam was startled by how often students ''grossly handle and spread misinformation without knowing it.,'' she said. Yet media literacy is not part of the school curriculum.

So Ms. Panakam contacted Media Literacy Now, a nonprofit organisation based near Boston that works to spread Media Literacy Education. With its help, she wrote to her state and local representatives to discuss introducing media literacy in schools.

The subject was hardly new. Well before the Internet, many scholars analyzed media influence on society. In recent decades, colleges have offered media-studies to examine advertising, propaganda, biases, how people are portrayed in films and more.

BUT in a digital age, media literacy also includes understanding how websites profit from fictional news, how algorithms and bots work, and how to scrutinize suspicious websites that mimic real news outlets.

Now, during the global Covid-19 crisis, identifying reliable health information can be a matter of life or death. And as racial tensions run high in America, hostile actors can harness social media to sow discord and spread disinformation and false voting information, as they did in 2016 elections and may well be repeating in the current elections.

What needs urgent and more attention, however, is more and earlier education. Teaching media literacy skills to teenagers and younger students can protect readers and listeners from misinformation, just as teaching good hygiene reduces disease.

A RAND report last year said research showed signs that media literacy increases ''resiliency to disinformation''

Erin McNeil, the founder of Media Literacy Now, grew more when her young sons were exposed to sexist female stereotypes on television and in video games. She raised the issue to her son's fifth grade teacher who voluntarily created a media literacy unit that included analyzing those messages.

Going further, she said, ''we need policy so it's embedded in the education system,'' and in 2011 she wrote to Massachusetts politicians and eventually got support from some, notably a state senator, Katherine Clark, who is now a representative in Congress.

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Misinformation and Modern Times, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Amy Yee.

With respectful dedication to all The Great Leaders of the World, The Founder Framers, Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors, Teachers and then the world.

See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

''' Worth's Wonder '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless