Media literacy education against fake news

Scheibenzuber, Christian (2023): Media literacy education against fake news: the role of strategic framing. Dissertation, LMU München: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences

Abstract

In recent years, fake news has emerged as a significant obstacle of modern times. By fueling distrust in established media organizations and public institutions, it hinders efforts to tackle the pressing challenges of our time, such as global pandemics and climate change. In response, educational science, along with other disciplines such as communication science and psychology, developed measures to combat the widespread influence of misinformation. These strategies aim to counter biases, promote media and information literacy, and provide cognitive preventative measures to mitigate the impact of encountering false or misleading information online. However, research on one key strategy frequently employed by fake news disseminators, namely framing, remains scarce. This thesis seeks to address this gap by conducting an analysis of the strategic framing of typical fake news content (Study 1) and implementing an educational intervention to promote media literacy by improving discernment of both truthful and fake news (Study 2). Furthermore, these findings are incorporated into the broader framework of the persuasion knowledge model to provide an additional and complementary perspective on the challenge of fake news.

• Item Type: Theses (Dissertation, LMU Munich)
• Keywords: misinformation, disinformation, fake news, framing, persuasion knowledge model
• Subjects: 000 Computers, Information and General Reference; 000 Computers, Information and General Reference > 070 News media, journalism, publishing; 300 Social sciences; 300 Social sciences > 370 Education
• Faculties: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
• Language: English
• Date of oral examination: 21. July 2023
• 1. Referee: Nistor, Nicolae
• Signature of the printed copy: 0001/UMC 29857