The proliferation of fake media has been one of the biggest problems that has currently raised its head among young people living in Estonia. There are some lessons in schools on how to combat fake media, but they are few and do not go into great detail. There is talk of how dangerous it is, but no real in-depth look at the consequences of the problem.
Young people get their news from all sides, but mostly through the internet and social media. The problem in school lessons is based on the fact that teachers usually teach how to distinguish between fake media and yellow press only in so-called “important” channels such as: newspapers, radio, main Estonian TV channels, electronic newspapers.
It’s really important to know how to find fake media in these places. To tell the truth, however, it has been a fact for quite some time that young people do not use these media portals very much. There are thousands of media portals in hundreds of languages. There are hundreds of thousands of media outlets in hundreds of countries.
These channels also have a very popular tool called Algorithm, the function and operation of which young disciples are very reluctant to learn. The algorithm is one of the main reasons why propaganda of various situations spreads so quickly and widely in Estonian- and Russian-speaking youth environments.
Such a wide spread of propaganda and fake media can and has brought about discord between Estonian, Russian and non-English speaking youth in certain environments. The mismatches favour, for example, the return of stereotypical preconceptions; language-barrier conflict; and a diminishing sense of cooperation in society. Such mismatches are initially more dangerous, especially in schools where multilingual classes are the norm.
Fortunately, these same channels can also be used to advertise and convene young people to events, seminars, training and conferences where they can be brought to attention, recognised, spoken to more seriously, and their knowledge of yellow literature and fake media can be taken further through the very social media channels that young people actually use.
However, while schools do not teach in-depth how to identify fake media on the more national media channels, organisations outside school are creating training courses and seminars to identify fake media on the social media that today’s young people actually use more.
Christelle Mariely Rammul, Election Supervisor, Tartu.
PHOTO: Stocke Abode