Digital Media Literacy

Misleading and false information is not a new concept, but its reach into our daily lives has created a constant barrage of information that we must navigate carefully in order to distinguish evidence from opinion. This guide explores the information landscape and provides practical tools for evaluating the credibility of information. Analyzing what we see and hear is vital to a functioning, healthy citizenry.

• Overview: Includes laws, policies, and regulations
• Glossary of Terms: Learn important vocabulary related to digital media literacy.
• Misinformation & Disinformation: What do the terms refer to, and how they spread. 
• Conspiracy Theory: What it is and how to engage with a conspiracy theorist. 
• Bias: Learn about what bias means, different types of bias, and how to recognize your own. 
• Journalistic Standards & Ethics: The standards and ethics professional journalists abide by, and where to find news sources in the FAU Libraries.
• Fair Use:  A doctrine needed now more than ever.
• Evaluating Sources: The KEY to media literacy, digital literacy, and all other literacies.
• Our Library Resources: Databases and resources with access through Florida Atlantic Universities LIbraries
• Additional Resources: Websites, professional groups, and other resources
• Quick Links: Links to basic information
• Need Help?  Just ask!

Laws, Policy, and Regulations:

• Overview Box: Approaches to disinformation from a legal perspective include topics such as censorship vs. free speech, company liability for content as reflected in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, privacy of individual data, anti-trust legislation, surveillance, regulating social media platform functionality and algorithms, and pursuit of existing criminal law. Globally, there are many researchers, think tanks, NGO’s and governmental bodies contributing to the policy discussion.
• Laws and Legislation:
  • Proquest Congressional (Comprehensive collection of congressional documents from 1789 to the present)
  • National Journal (Daily magazine covering US government and politics.
  • govinfo (United States government's database of government documents, covering documents and records from all three branches of the federal government.)
• Policy Papers and Studies Section:
  • Think Tanks & Policy Institutes
  • American Policy Directory - U of Oregon Library
  • Brookings Institute
  • Center for European Policy Studies
  • Homeland Security Digital Library
  • National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
  • Pew Research Center
    • Also see Technology Policy Issues
  • Rand Corporation
  • Yale Institute for Social and Policy Studies

Web tools have made creating misinformation, disinformation, and accurate information efficient and far-reaching.  Additionally, our current political climate evokes emotional responses to news that complicate our efforts to recognize and acknowledge our own biases.  As you decide whether information is or is not accurate, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Read extensively.  Doing so ensures you encounter various points of view, and that you gain a long-term perspective on a particular issue.

• Get comfortable with views and opinions other than your own.  Being challenged in your thinking, even to the point of discomfort, enables you to understand what other people think, and why they think it.  A reasoned, evidence-based argument is always optimal, but you have to know the ins-and-outs of what you disagree with in the first place before you can make such an argument.

• Be careful with what you create and/or share.  It's simple: If you create information, make sure it is credible and verifiable.  If you share information you or someone else has created, make sure what you're sharing is credible and verifiable.  Refer to the Evaluating Sources section of this guide to know how other people might evaluate what you create and/or share.