May 19, 2020
The Peace Corps Needs a Media Literacy Program
Last month, a hoax circulated online that people wearing shoes indoors led to a spike in coronavirus cases in Italy. Worldwide, rapidly spreading misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19 is negatively affecting people’s behaviors towards the virus. Action must be taken to curb the spread of false information on a global stage, and the Peace Corps has the capacity to do it.
Media literacy, or the ability to critically evaluate media, is an integral tool that can be used to combat false information online. Despite the need for this skill to discern COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation, there is no formal program geared toward teaching digital skills and media literacy internationally. We need to implement a program to stymie the spread of general misinformation and provide intellectual tools to help discern what is real and what is fake in order to protect public health, trust, and safety.
Read the full article in Inkstick.
More from CNAS
-
Podcast
Technology & National Security
Defense One Radio, Ep. 200: Paul Scharre Explains the Global AI Arms RacePaul Scharre, executive vice president at the Center for a New American Security, joined Defense One to discuss science and technology. The former Army Ranger explored how AI ...
By Paul Scharre
-
Video
Technology & National Security
AI Is Changing Everything CISCOs Need to KnowIn this episode of The Cyber Circuit, Michael Morgenstern sits down with Caleb Withers from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) to unpack his recent report "Tipping ...
By Caleb Withers
-
Commentary
Transatlantic Security / Technology & National Security
Look Before We Leap on Artificial IntelligenceThis article was originally published on The Dispatch. A debate about the role that artificial intelligence should and will play in society, and how it will affect humanity fo...
By Jon B. Wolfsthal
-
Podcast
Technology & National Security
Caleb Withers on the Cybersecurity Frontier in the Age of AICaleb Withers, research associate at the Center for a New American Security, joins Kevin Frazier, the AI Innovation and Law Fellow at the University of Texas School of Law and...
By Caleb Withers
