Project Overview
American youth spend more than 10 hours engaging with media content every day—content that is often discriminatory, manipulative, and in some cases, absolutely false. And even though today’s youth may be digital natives, they are digitally naïve: A 2017 study found that a majority of students tested lacked the ability to distinguish advertisements on website home pages, recognize the difference between an article and a sponsored post, or identify media bias. As a result, they are developing problematic beliefs with real-world consequences. When false ideas about minority groups circulate through mass media, African Americans receive harsher sentences from judges, less attention from doctors, and a higher likelihood of being shot by police. Launched by the social impact organization Weird Enough Productions, Get Media L.I.T. responds to misrepresentation with a comprehensive media literacy learning tool designed to teach students how to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media content. In the process, the program seeks to empower African American students to debunk stereotypes and disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, equipping them to take control of their own narrative and promote social justice in their communities.
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