Media Literacy: A Cure for Internet-born Extremism?
With the rise of QAnon, the insurrection at the capitol, and far-right extremism seemingly at an all-time high, one has to wonder, why is this happening now? Of course, you could argue that the Trump administration gave a voice to these groups of people, which empowered them to take action and grow in numbers. There has also been evidence of more of a political and cultural divide now than the past few decades, which feeds into the animosity that some feel towards people who live differently. So, what can be done about the phenomenon of internet-born extremism?
It seems that we can not rely on the same federal intervention that keeps a close eye on foreign terroristic threats to take this domestic issue seriously. However, there are experts studying how it might be prevented. One method that seems promising is to focus on media literacy. This has to be more than formal, school-based education (even though that is equally important to set a foundation of knowledge for our youth) -- the average age of the rioters who stormed the capitol was 40.
Here are some resources I found on the web:
National Association for Media Literacy Education
I think you are right, media literacy could play a large role in this. In my opinion, part of the reason that people are operating in such a fashion is that they feel they can't trust anyone. Can't trust their media, can't trust their politicians. So the only response is to burn it all down, because they feel there is nothing else they can do. But I think if you educate people, show them how they can fix the system, they would be far more likely to channel that into something productive.
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