(Social) media manipulation in one image

Re:(Social) media manipulation in one image by jawns on Monday December 22, 2025 @10:28AM (#46354878)

Former journalist here. I would argue that it's a shared-responsibility model. We, the public, are at least partly (and I would argue mostly) responsible for developing the media literacy that helps us end up with the right understanding, rather than requiring media outlets to publish general disclaimers and PSAs.

When I was in high school, I took a one-semester media literacy course where we examined topics like reputable sources, bias, sensationalism, moderating one's consumption, why watchdog reporting is so important but often goes unnoticed, etc. I would love to see more high schools offer this.

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Re:(Social) media manipulation in one image by dahart on Monday December 22, 2025 @10:54AM (#46355125)

In this shared responsibility model, if the public is mostly responsible, then what can and should be done by the public to fix these issues? And how long will it take? And how would you propose getting the bipartisan support needed, or avoid it becoming a partisan political issue? Are more high school media literacy classes realistically going to fix this problem? Today it feels to me like agenda-driven manipulative reporting is fueling a decrease in media literacy, which appears to be precisely what some people want. What can the public realistically do to counteract this?

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Re:(Social) media manipulation in one image by palmotea on Monday December 22, 2025 @10:34AM (#46354933)

That's true, but I don't think the burden can reasonably fall completely on schools and individuals.

I think regular "general disclaimers and PSAs" and necessary to 1) reinforce and refresh the proper lessons and 2) give them to people who never had the proper lessons in the first place.

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