Digital Media Literacy For Senior Citizens: An Introduction

Media Literacy is known by many names. So is Digital Literacy. Since the late 1970s, UNESCO has been promoting this area of learning, first as Media Education, later as Media Literacy and now as Media and Information Literacy (or MIL). Digital has always been seen as an integral part of Media Education, particularly after computers were introduced in schools and colleges in the 1980s.

But what are the media? All of us have a fairly good idea of what the media are. There are, for instance, folk media like Ramlila, the Krishnalila, the nautanki and the numerous performing arts of the subcontinent. Then there are the mass media like radio, television, cinema and the press. And now we have the digital media, also known as the new media or online media, which incorporates all the folk media and the mass media and make it accessible to users through computers, tablets and mobile phones. Social media like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are unique to the online space: they connect the world across time and space.

Literacy, however, is a much more complex concept. It is generally known to be of three types: Functional, Critical and Rhetorical. Functional Literacy focuses on how to use the many facilities (also called 'affordances') offered by various media platforms. These include websites, search, social media, blogs, forums and most recently AI-based generative sites like Chat GPT. Critical Literacy goes beyond mere usage; it raises questions on the misuse and manipulation of media for commercial and political purposes and promotes critical awareness of how the media work, who funds and supports them and how they affect society and the state. Rhetorical literacy turns our attention to the linguistic and other devices like structure and style that are employed to persuade and enlighten. Digital media literacy encompasses all these three types, though the stress is invariably on the first two.

Principles and Goals of Digital Media Literacy

The first and perhaps the most important principle is that all media content is constructed, made up to look good (appealing) and interesting – most often for profit and politics.

Second principle is that media messages are shaped by institutions, professionals, news agencies, advertisers, sponsors and now most of all by the influencers.

Third one is that audiences are active readers of media content; they interpret messages in their own unpredictable ways; they post, comment, forward and follow too in unpredictable ways; for instance can say, which messages may go viral.

If these are the basic principles, then what are the primary goals of Digital Media Literacy? The first and the most vital is to empower citizens of a democracy to participate more actively in public and political life. The next is to promote the social, cultural and political values of the Constitution. The other goals are; to develop intellectual strategies for discriminating between facts and opinions, authentic and fake information, misinformation and disinformation, free speech and hate speech. And last though not the least is; to learn to respect people belonging to multiple communities in the country and their differing views and perspectives – such views, perspectives and beliefs are not anti-national. In fact, they enrich our pluralistic and secular democracy.

Doing Digital Media Literacy

Prior to starting the training, I would like to suggest that you do a quick survey of the online and offline media the participants engage with the most. This should give you a fairly good idea of the kind of media and content you should be focusing on in your training sessions.

Simple role-playing in individual and group exercises work best to impart digital literacy skills. Here is one that I use with my students, which I think is of equal relevance to senior citizens. Say you wish to raise their critical awareness about how newspapers or TV news channels or even news websites put their news packages together? The point of the exercise is to introduce participants to newsworthiness or news values (such as conflict, timeliness, proximity, human interest and prominence), with the focus on the selection of news stories and the order in which they are placed on a front page or homepage or in a TV news bulletin. Provide members of each group (who take on the roles of reporters and editors) a list of around 10 news stories ranked in no particular order. The list should contain a mix of stories on disaster, crime, human interest, the Prime Minister’s statement in the parliament, Indian wins silver in Asian Games event, an international story (elections in Ecuador?), a high court verdict, etc. Some of these could be purely imaginary.

Each group would have a group leader who should lead and guide the discussion (for 15-20 minutes) on the selection of the top five stories for publication on the front page (or for a TV news bulletin). Group leaders present the order of the five stories selected to all the participants, providing clear reasons for the selection and the order of the stories. At the end of all the presentations, the animator or trainer displays a set of news values followed by journalists and how it shape the gathering, processing and presentation of news stories. Concepts of gate keeping and the agenda setting can then be introduced. These are fundamental to making sense of the news media, of how journalists work and why news about the poor, Dalits and minorities is largely missing in the media.

In conclusion, may I offer a list of six precautions recommended by Nandan Nilekani and Tanuj Bhojwani in their recent publication The Art of Bitfulnes: How to Stay Calm in a Digital World:

These are particularly pertinent for senior citizens:

1. Think twice before you post, retweet, comment, share or forward.

2. Don't use public wifi. (like at airports or in shopping malls)

3. Log out of public computers every time you use them.

4. Never re-use your passwords.

5. Be careful of what you post on social media.

6. Check your privacy settings from time to time.

SOME RESOURCES FOR MEDIA LITERACY TRAINERS:

Pratik Sinha, D.R. Sumaiya Sheikh and Arjun Sidharth (Eds.): India Misinformed: The True Story, New Delhi: Harper Collins, 2019.

Nandan Nilekani and Tanuj Bhojwani : The Art of Bitfulnes: How to Stay Calm in a Digital World, New Delhi: Penguin Random House, 2022.

Peter Gonsalves: Exercises in Media Education, Mumbai: Tej-Prasarini, 2007. Third Edition.

Gaurav Sood: Fake News: How to Spot It, and How to Stop it, New Delhi: Penguin, 2023.

Keval J. Kumar: Mass Communication in India, Mumbai: Jaico Books, 2021. Fifth Edition.

(About The Author: Keval J. Kumar is an adjunct professor at Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA), Ahmedabad.)