Between sponsored posts disguised as news, conspiracy theories, disinformation, and an uptick in AI-created content, it’s harder to know what’s trustworthy on our feeds. But starting next year, more California students will be equipped with the tools to identify misinformation, when media literacy becomes a required subject in school.
The move is mandated by Assembly Bill 873, which asks the state board of education to consider incorporating media literacy lessons into curriculums across grades and subject areas, once they are up for revision in 2024.
It adds California to a growing list of states — including New Jersey, Delaware, and Texas — that have passed similar media literacy laws, says Ebonee Otoo, senior vice president of educator engagement at the nonprofit News Literacy Project.
“We're excited to see the movement of more states starting to adopt these types of requirements and mandates,” says Otoo. “In California specifically, the state is taking very seriously … students being able to discern fact from fiction, and being able to navigate this very complicated information landscape.”
Otoo says a key part of the law is its interdisciplinary approach: media literacy lessons will be incorporated into English, math, history, social studies, and science.
“We saw in 2020 at the start of the pandemic … science mis- and disinformation, and health mis- and disinformation,” she says. “And that really awoke people to this idea that we need media literacy incorporated into other disciplines: not just relegated to civics and history and English, but in algorithms and math courses, and data, and science.”
The ultimate goal, says Otoo, is to help students navigate “the most complicated information landscape in human history,” so that they can be more involved in preserving a functioning democracy.
“It's really our responsibility to make sure that we're teaching these skills to young people so they can participate in civic life,” she says. “Americans may differ on policy proposals, but we have to come to an agreement about basic facts to be able to solve our country's most pressing issues. And young people will be the people who have to solve these issues in the future.”