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Objective
Students will consider the merits and drawbacks of information gathered on social media.
Procedure
1. The Edelman 2023 Trust Barometer found that traditional legacy media was by far the most trusted source for news in Canada. 60% of Canadians gave high levels of trust to traditional legacy media, an increase of 3% from 2022. By contrast, social media was only trusted as a news source by 21% of Canadians, the same level of trust found in 2022.
Ask students to consider why social media is less-trusted than legacy media.
2. Read Social Media: History Repeating?
KEY QUESTIONS
• Do we treat people the same way online as we do in person? If not, how does this damage ourselves as a society?
• The internet has allowed almost everyone to have a platform to challenge dominant narratives. What are the benefits and drawbacks of this?
3. To close discussion on the importance of the internet to public discourse, think back to Lesson 1.3, Public Goods and Services. SaskTel is owned and controlled by the public, providing most of the province with internet and mobile access.
KEY QUESTIONS
• Is it important for democracy that SaskTel remains a public good?
• Given the internet’s central role in informing citizens, should internet access become a true public good: available to everyone at no charge?
4. Return to the summary activities in Legacy Media and Political Coverage and Editorials and Opinions from Lesson 2.4. Have students search out online discussion of the stories and editorials they chose. Questions to consider include:
• How much of the online discussion adds missing facts?
• How much of the online discussion is merely opinions?
• Overall, does the online discussion add helpful context? Why or why not?
FURTHER EXPLORATION
5. Deeper insights into social media’s role in understanding government and political issues can be found in “Do the People Know Best?” in Lesson 4 of Direct Democracy.
6. For a consideration of how bias shapes the information we create and the way we receive and react to information, check out “The Reliable Narrator and Objectivity” in Albert Camus’ The Plague: The Learning Resource.
7. The federal government has developed a comprehensive resource for identifying disinformation and “fake news.” The portal includes links to other resources created by non-governmental organisations.
Handout
