Why creators should advocate for media and information literacy | Module 2

[Music] okay everyone's talking about media and information lersy but how do you put that in practice my dear content creator friends big words are not always easy to translate into action I get that but let's talk about some of the things you can do I want to go back to one of the key Concepts you'll hear me repeat again and again during these four weeks trust we want to talk about how social media users are pivoting towards consuming more and more news from Individual creators and less from media organizations but why is that is it

only because creators are better at using the storytelling techniques that are native to each platform or is it also because many users also trust them more than they trust traditional news organizations well data is still scarce to make generalized assumptions as someone who's both a journalist work for a media outlet and a content creator in my free time I will argue that it's a little bit of both personally I wonder if we'll start to expect from creators some of the things we expect from media organizations in terms of for example ethical codes or standards we

as creators can actively advocate for media and information literacy and it's not just a matter of it being the right thing to do in many ways advocating for media and information literacy speaks to the element of authenticity that social media users appreciate from creators many people like listening to creators speak about public issues because they're open about about where they're coming from or what their perspective is which is a big contrast to the journalistic principles of impartiality and neutrality but if you're a Creator yourself or every follower of one you'll probably have noticed that the

audience doesn't just believe creators blandly on platforms like Tik Tok sometimes people ask for the source they question how you got to that conclusion what kind of data you're working with when not Embrace and proactively promote critical thinking among our audience make informed engagement part of your personal brand as a Creator father it is very important for creators to present facts as facts and opinions as opinions something creators do very often is to collaborate either among themselves or with organizations to amplify their impact of the message think for example of a big feminist account platforming

the story of a small women's rights organization in a country which is often under represented in mainstream news same goes for media and information literacy I for example partner with media wise a media and information literacy initiative powered by the pointer Institute which is a well-known journalism organization in the US to make a few videos about how misinformation in this information targets lgbtq plus people and their rights from the perspective of a journalist who covers queer topics the obvious benefit for both parties is that they is that they can tap into each other's networks and

boost each other's trust if your friend salar Roa tells you that her friend Enrique is a really good friend you're very likely to also have that same perception of Enrique it's not very different for Creator collapse something else content creators are doing to be transparent about their work is to publish a video where they talk about who they are what they do and what their values are and pin it to the top of the social social media channels it's not only a great way to reintroduce yourself to people that might know you from only a

few videos or from one of the areas of your work but also a resource you can always refer to when someone's curious about your ethical approach to content creation your political lenss or how your perspective or background influence the topics you talk about the next step will be to write down a sort of code of conduct for yourself or for the whole content creator industry we may not have one yet but why not most professions particularly those whose work has a big tangible impact on the life of other people have the ontological codes of some

kind from journalists and doctors to lawyers and teachers another form of collaboration that has become increasingly common as Society becomes aware of the impact platforms have on our lives from our mental and physical health to election results is a collaboration between these platforms and the creators that are active on them Tik Tok has been particularly active on this front with many campaigns where they gave individual creators Charities and media Outlets the opportunity to create informational and educational content around some of social issues and dates from Black History Month and trans awareness days to disability PRI

but Tik Tok isn't at all the only platform actively pursuing Partnerships of this kind Instagram has a channel where it spotlights certain creators where as Snapchat has created a program to amplify news Partners back when it was called Twitter the social network now called X had a team dedicated to creating and amplifying new stories and features in the form of threats and moments these Partnerships come and go as a priorities of those companies move in different directions and it will definitely be dependent on the interests of the platform in question but they can be a

tool to give exposure to content that is aimed at fostering a better informed Society now I'm pretty sure that if you're active on social media you know that the relationship between the Creator and Their audience is bilateral yes the Creator puts in most of the work but without the connection between both sides it doesn't work out that's also why media and information literacy cannot be seen just from a top toown approach no one wants to be lectur about how they're vulnerable to misinformation instead creators can take media and information literacy as a participatory process in

which Their audience can also take part transparency and accountability are key elements of that process you make a mistake we all do we're only human tur it into a learning opportunity that shows people that it's not about you teaching them something but about all of us learning to tackle my and disinformation I'll give you a simple example I made a video for work where I wrongly said that Alberta was a Canadian State though it's actually a province instead of remaking the video and pretending that hadn't happen we posted a comment acknowledging the mistake and apologizing

for it and responded the same to people flagging the mistake in the comments guess what people thanked us for correcting ourselves [Music]