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Last Updated: September 2, 2024

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101: "My first piece of advice is to not rely on social media to be your main form of news consumption." Media literacy with Kara Handley

AD Navy Public Affairs Officer, Navy Spouse, and San Diego State University Graduate Student Kara Handley shares her knowledge and experiences with media literacy, and why education in this space is so important for children, service members, and their families especially with the social dilemma that most of us are experiencing.

Connect with Kara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kara-handley-apr-m-35974788/

Episode Highlights:

• What is media literacy education and its importance
• Resources available to parents to get media literacy education
• Why did it take so long for us to finally start with media literacy education?
• The immediate call to actions for our military families
• Common mistakes that people do without a critical understanding of media literacy

Key Points:

• Media literacy is the ability to access and analyze media messages to drill down and know what the intent is. 
• The biggest suggestion to tackle the social dilemma that we are facing is to educate children and adults with media literacy. 
• Do not rely on your social media feed to be your main form of news consumption. Fact-check the information from verified news sources and make sure to get different opinions. 

Media Literacy Resources

1. International Research and Exchanges Board Resources - The International Research & Exchanges Board is an international, nonprofit organization that specializes in global education and development. https://www.irex.org/
2. National Association for Media Literacy Education - the leading nonprofit membership organization dedicated to advancing media literacy education in the United States. https://namle.net/
3. News Literacy Project - The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan national education nonprofit, provides programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information and equal and engaged participants in a democracy. https://newslit.org/
4. Checkology -- free online learning platform for news literacy. https://get.checkology.org/
5. Get Smart Newsletter -- provides and debunks current examples of misinformation https://newslit.org/get-smart-newsletters/
6. Informable - free media literacy skills-based gaming app https://informable.newslit.org/
7. Is That a Fact? Podcast -- News Literacy Project’s podcast https://newslit.org/podcast/
8. Media Literacy Now - Media Literacy Now is leading the grassroots movement to create a public education system that ensures all students learn the 21st-century literacy skills they need for health, well-being, economic participation, and citizenship. This advocacy group focuses more on K-12 education legislation but their resource page has a ton of great information and modules. https://medialiteracynow.org/

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Jen Amos 0:00

All right. Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the award winning podcast show holding down the fort. I am your co host, Jenn aimost, also goldstar daughter and veteran spouse. And as always, I have with me my co host, Jenny Lynch troop who is active duty military spouse going on 12 years now, mom of two, as well as a mental health advocate. jennylyn Welcome back. Hey, glad to be here. Thanks for having me. Yes, it's so great to have you here. Especially because it's just, I'm not gonna say gets lonely doing podcasting, but it helps to have a co host, you know, to like, add to the conversation, so I can't thank you enough for being a part of it. And I know that you always look forward to these conversations no matter what they are. So just, you know, again, I always just want to take a moment to thank you for your involvement with this show.

Speaker 1 0:46

I am super happy to be here. I miss it when you're off on your last week of the month, and we have no recordings to do it makes my week not as exciting. So I'm glad to be back today.

Jen Amos 0:58

Yeah, I had a feeling you would be I was like, Oh, I'm gonna see Jenny Lynn like twice this week. And she's so thrilled and but that last week was a really good time. For me. I literally had my phone shut off for an entire week. So that's a story for another time why I did that. It wasn't by choice. It was kind of like a negative experience that led me to turning it off. And then realizing that was like the best thing ever did for myself. I

Speaker 1 1:18

was a media literacy where you overtax with media, because that would be on brand for today.

Jen Amos 1:22

Yeah, you know, it's a combination of things, but definitely the media being one of them. So without further ado, let's go ahead and bring on our guest for today we have Kara Hanley, who is a Navy Public Affairs Officer, Navy spouse, and San Diego State University grad student currently in San Diego, my sort of hometown of 20 years. I mean, also genuine currently being there. I kind of feel like I'm at home right now. So with that said, Kara, welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah. And, um, fun facts, you know, you and your spouse are also you are dual military. So it must be a really crazy life for you both to be in service, I thought I'd start any opening thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 2:02

It's definitely an interesting experience, I think, you know, the positives are we understand each other's jobs very, very well. So we don't have to do as much explaining, or we kind of understand, you know, really, like the time constraints and everything that deployments and operations and everything kind of brings with it. So I'm very lucky to have him to bounce ideas off of as well. But it does get a little difficult when you're trying to balance you know, two military careers at the same time and trying to time everything, and hopefully having a family one day

Jen Amos 2:30

gets kind of interesting. Yeah, you're like, wait, should we have a family like, our lives are so chaotic. I'm in grad school right now. Like, you know, that must be an interesting time. And so speaking of which, you know, part of why Jenny Lynn gets to join me back at her hometown in Virginia is because you are swapping places with her husband. So let's talk a little bit about that genuine and kind of, I don't know, maybe your excitement and also like meeting Kara for the first time because you knew of her, you knew that this was gonna happen. And now you're virtually meeting for the first time.

Speaker 1 3:01

Yeah, I'm really excited Kara's here in San Diego like really, really, really excited. In fact, if she could start tomorrow, that would just make my whole year. That's not gonna happen. But no, it's great to have care on today. We did meet at like a PA to get together a couple years ago, and people got together in person and did things. But yeah, we've only met briefly. So it's great to like, have her on today and get to talk about her specialty, which is media literacy. And I mean, I hear about it a lot in my own house. That's how we got Kara on today was, you know, my pa o was like, Hey, this is something that's really important for Navy spouses, or well, military spouses in general to know because there's a lot of misinformation out there. And there are a lot of things that as far as like operational security, you know, you guys should probably know, and it's not something that I mean, admittedly, I'm not a media person, period, like all of my news pretty much comes from what I read on Twitter. And what Matthew comes home and says, was like the news of the day, because I don't do a lot of media and I have found that to be true among the spouse community for a variety of reasons, you know, whether it be overload, or just the increasing barrage of bad news, especially when you have a spouse deployed. So I'm excited to learn how I can be a little better at that today. I'm not so you know, anti media. I'm not anti media or anti, like watching the news. But

Jen Amos 4:27

Speaker 2 5:12

like you both mentioned the misinformation and disinformation environment the past couple of years, actually, a couple decades, you know, it's gotten a lot more interesting, especially with the 24 hour news cycle and the evolution of social media. So we're seeing a lot of different things enter the information environment that we really never had to worry about before, with these digital algorithms, who are kind of learning about us as we are clicking and sharing news items, and learning more about us and being able to feed us sometimes things that confirm our biases and whatnot. So one of the big suggestions out there to tackle this problem today is being able to educate children, adults with this idea of media literacy, which is the ability to access and analyze and create media messages and people to kind of really drill down into Okay, what was the purpose of this media message? And what was the objective of the author or the creator of this message? And are they trying to influence my behavior, change my attitude about something? So really trying to critically understand what the media and the people who create media are trying to get out of us?

Jen Amos 6:19

Yeah, you know, one of the documentaries that really got my jaw dropped was a social dilemma, just realizing that social media in general is truly based off of an addiction model, it purposely tries to notify you so you can just go back on and, and all these things. And part of why I went on a phone detox all of last week was because I was just sick of all of my notifications, and I just didn't know what to do with it. You know, so funny thing, Jenny Lynch, I was like, Okay, let's not like Scott, my husband, like the weekend, I decided to turn off my phone. I was like, okay, the thing is, though, I need an iPhone, that's not an iPhone, like, I still need the features of it. But I don't want to deal with like the notifications and the messages and stuff like that. So I got an iPad that I've like, integrated into my life in the last week. And I really use it mainly for like leisure and productivity. And then it's like, when I am ready to check my messages. Like if I feel like I have to, you know, then I turn on my phone. But it's been kind of an interesting like, shift. But part of it is like at this point, I just have such a negative reaction to notifications and getting pinged. And some of them are really important, but because I'm inundated with all of it, it's like it's overwhelming. I don't know how to decipher it. And I think part of the confusion is for me not knowing myself how to, like access and analyze media messages, like knowing what the intent is notification is not just to have a friend say like, oh, someone tagged you in a post, it's like, no, like, Facebook wants you back on, you know, kind of thing, and wants you to stay on there. And so, you know, it's just a lot, it just feels overwhelming. But I think like the start of media literacy can help, I think us better understand what we're walking into. Because if we don't really understand, like, What's taking our attention, it will control our attention. And I think that's what I've been more so more aware of lately is being hyper aware of like, okay, am I just passively paying attention to the news? Am I just passively going online? And if so, like, maybe this is why I'm feeling extra stress, maybe this is why I'm feeling this way. But anyway, any thoughts on that?

Speaker 2 8:14

I think what you're describing, it's happening with a lot of people, it's not just you, and you mentioned the movie, the social dilemma, I think that maybe kind of portrayed exactly how those algorithms work to keep us tied into those apps on our phones, or on our iPads or whatever. And, you know, we've also seen that children in America are consuming more and more media more than they ever have. I know, we talked right before the start of this about, you know, kind of our age to right now, you know, early 30s. And growing up in the 90s. Like we didn't really have all of this media being thrown our way it was through mostly television, that would thing movies. And I just, you know, I think it's a whole entire new challenge that we're kind of experiencing today. But it's a tale as old as well, because misinformation, disinformation has been around. So there's one element there that's like the entertainment element where you're getting sucked in here. But then you also see this really malicious intent by some foreign actors and people who are opposed to democracy as well trying to kind of show that division within Americans as well. And that's what kind of really freaks me out. I mean, why I think we need more media literacy education for children and our servicemembers and their families, just to be able to understand that this is a true vulnerability that a lot of people American servicemembers, everybody has, and we kind of need to put up a defense to kind of assist with that.

Jen Amos 9:29

Yeah, definitely. Daniel, and you've been listening very patiently, any thoughts?

Speaker 1 9:34

As we continue to talk about like educating our children, I think of my own who are almost 10 and 11 and a half, and especially is like the pandemic has dragged on, I mean, their screentime has gone up, because really, what else is there to do? Like we've done our best to go outside and do the things and also the screen time has gone up. And my children can tell you more about YouTube influencers than probably anything else. They do. And I am still fundamentally astounded at like some of the things they say. And also very cautious about how much that's on because you just don't know what's popping up, and how it affects them. And I mean, I live with someone who does information for a living, like Kara. And it's fascinating that even in a house like ours, where that is such at the forefront, like, I mean, both Matthew and I communicate for a living, that is our whole job, like we message people all the time, to have something that like, is totally out of our control. As far as messaging like the YouTube thing for our kids, and trying to teach them like what that means is really fascinating. And so it's interesting to me to hear like that there may be education in process, like, you know, things coming out to help parents especially, I mean, with my kids ages, because they're old enough to know, and also not like they're at that weird, like they understand the lot. And also there are things still above their level that they shouldn't hear and shouldn't see. And, but because they think they're old enough hearing from a parent going, that's really not appropriate, doesn't really, you know, go so well. So they need some extra, some extra support there.

There's actually a lot of advocacy across the nation right now trying to get media literacy education into the public school system as a standard across the board. And there's a couple organizations that are trying to assist with that. And then also there are resources available to parents as well, there's a couple of different resources I can list. And I think we can link them in the podcast notes, too. So the international research and exchange for they're an international nonprofit organization, and they put together it kind of curriculum for educators and parents, you know, to kind of talk through these problems with their kids. And there's also adult based media literacy training as well. There's also the news literacy project, which is a nonpartisan national education, nonprofits. And they also provide resources to parents and educators on like, definitely recommend checking them out online. And then there's also the National Association for media literacy education. And they are the ones who are pushing a lot of, you know, like trying to get that policy implemented on like a national level. So we can really see this because, you know, part of it lies in the classroom, right? All all the elements of education. But it's not always best received in a sit down environment. media literacy is something that kind of needs to be incorporated into, like everyday life, if you, you know, can be able to have these conversations with your children when they're watching your commercial. And you can ask them like, hey, why do you think that commercial depicted the message in this way? Like, what do you think the object of that commercial is you think it's to buy something, you know, so I think just like being able to deconstruct those individual messages for people in a young age you I think you can start doing that. I think little stuff like that are really helpful.

I like that. You mentioned that to start early. Because when you think about media, at least when I think about media, it's like one of those outlets where I just don't want to think, you know, I just want to take it in, like growing up part of how I got through my childhood, while my mom was working all the time was video games. Now, if my mom sat down with me say, Hey, this is why video games are bad for you, you know, I'm like, No, you know, it just makes me want to play him that much more, which I did you know, and like you said, if we can start at a younger age, and have that critical thinking and say, Oh, what is it about this game? What is it about this piece of media, like what are they trying to convey, which isn't always easy, especially in time right now, where like, all we want to do is unplug, but like what we use for work, and what we use for leisure is basically the same thing, you know, and then on top of that, you're asking us to critically think about like, what we're looking at on screen. Like, it's a lot, it's a lot, but of course it needs to be done right. And so I really appreciate you listening those resources. And of course, for our listeners will have those in the show notes. So Kara, you'll definitely give that to me afterward, which I'm very much looking forward to, especially the news literacy one they were talking about. For adults, I was like, I need that. I'm curious to know from your research, Kara, why is it only taking us till now I think like in let's say, the recent years to start talking about media literacy. I've actually never even heard that phrase until we started talking. I just think media, media, media, media, mass media, you know, evil media. I don't know, I made that up just now. But you know, just media like, why is it till only now that this is sort of becoming into fruition? Like, you know, trying to create more awareness of like, why didn't it come sooner? And part of my guess is, like you mentioned, like, coming from, like the 90s. It's like, we weren't like kind of born into this. We grew into it. And so maybe there was just this whole, like, later on, we started to see the consequences of and we're like, Oh, we got to do something about this. So any thoughts on that? And also, from your research as to how you discovered Why did it take let's say, so long for us to finally start, you know, presenting something such as media literacy.

I think we finally saw the repercussions of coordinated and misinformation and disinformation campaigns on a national scale a couple years ago, you know, and we're really seeing our adversaries kind of being able to manipulate us from afar which is kind of scary to think about you finally saw that on like this national level of scale, I also do think it has to do with the rise of social media and with the algorithms and the ability to share information so quickly and have it spread so quickly I 100% that think that that contributes to it. But a large part of it was also the 24 hour news cycle, you know, it's getting more competitive for media outlets to compete with each other. And back in the day, we had time to sit down with newspapers and read through articles. And actually the first time, they didn't call it media literacy back then. But the first time I ever kind of like understood, like a basic idea of this was my sophomore year in high school, and a social studies teacher who used to give us an assignment. It's called current events. And we had to go into our newspaper, and we had to clip out an article and then summarize it, in our own words, check for bias, which, you know, you don't really hear of like that, too, too much. Like being able to practice that and identify it. But I love that my teacher kind of forced us to go in there and be like, Okay, this is how it's being covered from this angle. This is how it's being covered from this angle. And we pull out all the quotes and research the people who actually sent them to verify like, kind of like, what their motivations were for saying that quote, and then we would present this in class to him. And it was a really interesting concept to me at the time, because I love not just taking something as surface value and being able to really like delve into it. So I didn't really know that that was media literacy. But that is totally a form of media literacy or being able to develop that skill set. So later in life, I think the first time actually heard the term media literacy was a pw singers book like war, where he talks about the national security implications that social media and the internet are driving. And as one of the solutions, he proposed this idea of media literacy, education to really kind of be a defense against that kind of environment. So that's really when I started hearing about it. I think it was 2017 2018 timeframe, although it's been a effort that's, you know, culminated over the past couple decades.

Yeah, well, I appreciate kind of the like, the little history lesson on there. And yeah, I remember in school, doing current events and analyzing current events. So really interesting to see how the term has changed, you know, in a sense today to media literacy, or that's what we're doing back then we just didn't call it media literacy. What it's getting me to realize is that, you know, when we're not paying attention to something that we're consuming, it could be the most persuasive, you know, thing that can happen in our lives, it can persuade us into things that we don't realize, you know, like, for angry for no reason, or we feel competitive, or whatever, that the media can make us feel. Like, if we don't analyze that, it is interesting how you could just let you like, feel those emotions, you know, all of a sudden, and so it's almost like dissecting a magic trick. If you ever watch like a magic show, or whatever, it's like, you want to be like surprised and odd stuff like that, when you really dissect it, like, Oh, that's what's really happening. It's like, oh, if we follow the magician's eyes, we don't see what he's doing with his hands, you know, he's really doing something, we're just not paying attention, you know, or whatever. And so it is really cool to take a step back, and understand, like, why we have all these issues today, and really see that media already had these formulas, they've already kind of mastered persuasion, in a sense. And now it's up to us to get educated on that. And in a way, kind of appreciate it. It's like, oh, like, if I could do that, in my day to day life, I probably be a lot more successful in a lot of ways. I mean, don't use persuasion for evil, but you know, there's a good way to use it. I think. So. That's what I'm trying to, like, think out loud.

Yeah. No, I mean, I think what really struck me is how both of you mentioned the current events thing. And it got me thinking like, do you even use that term anymore? Like, yeah, I mean, I used to teach elementary school through middle school. And I'm thinking if I assigned a project now, would it look the same as it did for all of us, like in middle and high school, wherever you clip the thing out of the newspaper? Any? Because now I think part of what this media literacy brings up is like, what was a current event in 1995, is no longer current within five seconds, because of the, like, 24 hour news cycle, because of the social media, like the things that, you know, it's the things that are, on a large scale, like a national level, are really what we consider current events. Now, things that last on the 24 hour news cycle, like more than 48 hours, which is typically a tragedy. So it's not a great thing to have as a current event, like but all of these other things, I mean, because I did the same project and Middle School in high school, like, bring a newspaper, you know, find something present. Look at the bias, like all of those things. And, you know, the truth of the matter is, we're being hit with so much of that so much of the time, like you said, what's become our work has also become our leisure like at the same 15 apps on my phone that are on, you know, my desktop right now. So, you know, it's hard then I was back to like the kids and literacy one, I don't think they'd know, the word current event, which I find sad and funny all at the same time. And to like thinking about how all these algorithms are. It is shocking to me like I said, when my kids watch YouTube, what actually comes up because like when I watch TV, As a kid, it was Saturday morning cartoons and you were getting commercials for tricks and Frosted Flakes, like all the sugary cereal that you really wanted your parents to buy or the new fancy toy. And that's not what's happening. Now my kids are getting stuff that really isn't even targeted for them because the account is like in my name. And so it's really interesting to see what rolls through and how it is targeting different people based on like, who's logged in or what you've watched, and for how long and yeah, I

mean, I think what we're sort of doing right now is just bringing to light, what the issues are in media today. I think that's what you're sharing genuine. And that's sort of what I was sharing as well. And so Kara, where do we go from here? I mean, obviously, you're in the space of media literacy. And you've mentioned some resources already. But let's talk about some, let's say immediate call to actions for our military families.

Right. So I think if you read the news, you notice that like, there's a lot of pressure on the social media companies to kind of make these big policy changes. And then yeah, might take a while to actually come into regulation, you know, but there's so much that we can do on an individual level. Right now, we talked about educating America's youth about media literacy for adults. Now, I also have some suggestions for how we can kind of increase our media literacy skills. My first piece of advice is to not rely on your social media feed to be your main form of news consumption, sorry, to anyone that is known attack. So Twitter's often. Or if you do, if that is like the quickest way for you to stay informed, being able to go and double check all of that information. Again, verified news sources, I highly recommend going directly to news websites whenever possible, but also making sure that you're getting differing opinions as well. So making sure you get someone who might cover it in a left leaning way, get someone who's covering in a right leaning way. I really like the wire outlets, writers and AP, I think they are pretty objective in the reporting, and they're mostly down the middle. So I try to get most of my news that way. I also recommend independent fact checking whenever possible. There's websites like Snopes out there, but I also recommend being able to do it yourself. so.gov and.edu websites have higher standards for what they're allowed to publish on their website. So highly recommend trying to go to those websites to verify information whenever possible, because they need to make sure all their information is accurate before they post not always the case with dot coms. Other things I think is being able to name those emotions, we talked about this, I know it's kind of some social media posts bring up some sort of rage and anger or sadness, or sometimes in occasionally the positive emotions, like hope, but typically, it's going to be those negative emotions, too. So taking a second after you see a headline or seen Instagram post and turning your head away from the computer, and saying, What am I feeling right now? And why am I feeling this way, and then also taking an extra minute before you go and share that make sure you're fact checking things before you go and increase the bonus of that as well. So all tangible steps that we as individuals can take today to kind of, you know, stop feeding the beast that we were talking about before him kind of just taking control into our own hands.

Yeah, I appreciate that advice. Because, you know, however, you look at January six, I definitely had friends that were just sharing, like a bunch of things about that time. And, you know, if I were to fact check any of them, a lot of them probably were just out of anger, you know what I mean? Or probably just out of like, disgust or what have you. And it just makes it really difficult for me to take social media seriously. Now, I mean, Before, we used to really praise like, I think it was described citizen journalism, right, like, Oh, you can start your own blog, like, you can report your own news, you can do Independent News. But now that like everyone can do it. You know, and not everyone is informed on media literacy, or how to you know how to understand if it's a credible source or not, it is very easy to, if you're not paying attention to your feelings, to really just get into it, you know, to really just dwell on like, if that thing makes you angry to continue to dwell on it. And like you said, find other sources that sort of enforce that feeling. And it may not always be credible. And before you know it, you cause this whole ripple effect, and then all your friends are upset. And then Jen doesn't want to be on social media anymore. It's just too much. It's an echo chamber. I'm gonna say it. But anyway, I appreciate that, like really just, you know, looking at media or your media consumption with Yeah, with making more informed decisions about your media consumption while I'm like losing my words today. And yeah, just like you said, being able to take a step back and be like, wait, I'm feeling something really strong right now. Like, what am I feeling so rather than feeding into it, because social media will enforce that or, you know, the internet gods or the, you know, SEO, whatever, whatever. All the crazy things that go on in the internet really scares me. You know, they will enforce that, like you said, and so to be very mindful of that.

Yeah, I mean, I'm really glad that Cara brought up like the.edu and.gov I think I know for me as a writer, and someone who writes for legitimate websites like for a lot of military websites and things and they are all good and well intentioned and have a lot of really good information and also when I'm writing For them, I'm writing an op ed, like, I am not writing. This is factual information I'm writing about my experience. Now it may, you know, I can think of one I wrote about my experience with traumatic brain injury. And there are facts in there, there are things linked to factual, you know, pieces of information from a.gov account. Yeah. But I think a lot of us get caught up in that, Oh, well, I read this on the internet, and somebody had 1500 words on it. So it must be true. From a writing perspective. Of course, all of that was true, it was my experience. But that doesn't mean that it's like, going to be the same throughout. And I think that's what's really hard. And some of the fact checking is you can come across 15,000 opinions on the same thing. But without that extra piece of like, hard factual information, or something that masquerades as kind of both Yeah, makes it really difficult this day and age, to have that media literacy. And it's given me a really good perspective now, like a different perspective and writing going forward. Like, I am very aware that what I'm writing is my own experience. And I want to make sure that when other people read it, like they are very aware that I am writing my experience, I'm not writing a blanket statement about all military spouses everywhere. I'm not writing a blanket statement about the military in general, I'm writing my experience as a Navy spouse in a post 911 like, you know, warfare era. So, you know, it's fascinating, the more we unravel this to me to think like, oh, wow, this really has a lot of implications.

Yeah, I think for me, it's like, what I feel like I'm struggling with right now is trying to find solid ground. It's like, what could I stand on? That feels true. And you know, I think it starts with you and what you believe in and what you stand for, and maybe finding content and also, you know, content that doesn't entirely agree with your beliefs. Like, I think it's just having that openness to study different sides. Like, since the last elections, I've definitely been studying all parties, like, I'm very curious to know how everyone perceives the last elections, you know, where in other cases, I have friends that just only focus on one side, the party that they stand for, and they're only going to push out that kind of content, and good on them. I don't think that's good. If your mental health by the way to be angry all the time, that's just me. But I like to study different sides. Because I always believe that there's a story behind the story. And and also, there's two sides to every story. I feel like for me, like consuming media, it's like, I almost have to take it as a grain of salt, because I don't entirely know what's true. But I think at the end of the day, I feel like I try to do enough research to feel like okay, I at least understand both sides, generally speaking. And I feel like that's how I can move forward. But I think it goes back to what you encourage cara, which is to really analyze what you are consuming. All that being said, Kara, any thoughts based off what Jenny Lynn and I have said, so far,

I think it's really encouraging to hear you both talk about the issue and talk about like, you know, just wanting to adopt these kind of behaviors just to kind of help instead of like, hindering and let the problem kind of perpetuate you know, and so I would really encourage like everyone to kind of try and go out and do that. And I don't want to paint the media journalists themselves as you know, the culprits here, because I do think that really, a lot of it lies on the individuals and the social media aspect plays into it. And a lot of our journalists are doing really good hard work with decreased staffing at their newsrooms. And it's also on us to be able to go and kind of take that and take their information piece, good journalism is going to be strict information, the journalism that starts to kind of influence or persuade and apply like a frame, or a narrative to that is going to be kind of, you know, edging off into a influence piece. But really good journalism is going to be right down the middle on include both sides. So if you're not seeing that, make sure you're going and seeking it out otherwise.

You know, the funny thing is I graduated San Diego State with a bachelor's in Journalism and Media Studies. And you know, it was already a decade ago now. And I'm just like, man, so much has changed. You know, I need to go back to school because, like, are those books I read 10 years ago even relevant anymore? Like it's, it's crazy. But Kara, thank you for also humanizing journalists, you know that I think that's really important as well, I think it is very easy. And admittedly, I've been doing this I've been scapegoating the media for all of my woes, and troubles and, you know, things that make me angry, and I realized, like, well, it goes back to what you said, you know, stop feeding into the beast, you know, like, like, if you don't want it, don't encourage it. Don't enable it. Right. And maybe not one person can stop that. But at least for ourselves individually, it's like, you know, the reason why you're seeing that is because you've intentionally, at least for me, I've intentionally went on that page, I intentionally followed my friend on Instagram, and I intentionally follow their stories. That's not their fault that I followed it, you know, that's not their fault that made me angry, I got sucked in. I got sucked into it. And so I admit that I will fall privy to that as well as sometimes and just being able to acknowledge that and say that out loud. Makes me feel like I'm going to be okay. I'm going to I'll be okay.

And the first step in like really demanding better for ourselves and for our friends and for our families and kids. So, you know, just wanting to increase that standard for everybody.

Yeah. Well, that's really refreshing. Kara. Thank you, Kara. Other than everything we discussed so far, is there anything else you want to share or inform our listeners in regards to media literacy,

I can talk about some common mistakes that people will do when they don't always have a critical understanding of media literacy. So I'm only reading a headline, and then sharing that article, make sure you read that article. I see it a lot where I'm like, I'll post an article after I've read it thoroughly. And then someone will comment based off the headline alone, I'm like, Did you read the article? First account of something is the best and only account of something because, you know, typically, the first article out, it's not going to have the whole entire picture, it's not gonna have all the information, when it's breaking news, your journalism will say, you know, the stories it's developing, we're going to add more to it. And whenever we know the facts here, so seek out articles after the initial breaking stories, and make sure you're keeping yourself updated with that information, falling for a trick URL, or not being able to identify that some a Twitter handle or an Instagram handle, you know, even to verify that it's actually the official one people will sometimes, you know, make really close and similar handles to try and share news and kind of make it seem like it's coming from this official news organization or this government agency. And if you're really careful that we're not susceptible to that. And finally, I'm not realizing a post is an ad, you know, we see this a lot with influencer marketing, I think, knowing that like, okay, you know, sometimes these things people are paid to advertise to us in this way. So I think a lot of people now you know, there needs to have a hashtag sponsored hashtag ad, I know, I have fallen victim to the airline magazine, news articles that I think are news articles, and I'll be flicking through. And I'm like, this is definitely an advertisement for a city in Florida that I was reading, like as a news article, and I look in the top corner, it says paid advertisement, more and more like close to the news. So we just need to be careful that we're not, you know, taking advertisements and other information pieces like that, and kind of, you know, consuming them as news meant to inform us and not influenced us.

Yeah, this is very, very eye opening Cara and also really reassuring kind of knowing that there's a way to combat that there's a way to sort of, you know, reclaim the way that we digest media, because if I don't pay attention, I definitely, you know, my primal emotions definitely come down. I, you know, follow certain things and stuff like that. So, you know, I feel like I'm like actively processing everything you said, as we're talking or as I'm trying to speak but genuine, any other additional thoughts?

I mean, I was thinking, well, I really want to go to St. Augustine, Florida, that was like one of the last like, as she was talking about, like the paid advertisement in the back of the plane. Like, I think about how often I've read those, or I'm an avid Southern Living reader, because it just makes me think of home, you know, and I read it cover to cover, like, every month that it comes in, I read it. And there's like, there are a few places in there where it does look just like one of the articles. And then you realize in the top it's like paid for by Purina dog Chow, and it's like this whole thing about dogs or whatever. But I mean, it just just a really good reminder that there's so many things out there, that masquerade is real, that just aren't and aren't malicious and intent. Like that article about that article, no one can see my air quotes, I realized my air quotes that article, you know, about St. Augustine was great. I really want to go there now. And also, they paid to put that content there that wasn't like it wasn't meant it was meant to influence. It wasn't meant to just simply inform. And I think that's, yeah, like realizing that that things are written that look real, but are meant to actually, like influence us. Having that awareness is much like is really good moving forward.

Yeah, I think what I'm hearing from you jennylyn is like, it just starts with awareness. Right? Like, if we're asking for that immediate, like, what do we do now? Like now? What do we do now that we've addressed? Like, we've kind of like, open up the curtains be like, here's the truth, you know, what do we do? Well, be aware, just start by being aware and being more intentional, and paying extra attention and allowing kind of what you said earlier, Kara, to take a step back when you start to feel some strong emotion and analyze that. I think that is the way to go. And, and yeah, those sneaky ads, right. It's like you think this is like a real, you know, credible piece? And it's like, oh, wait, no, it's been sponsored, like, I definitely, you know, have seen that a lot, especially on Instagram, when influencers are, you know, advertising something and all that stuff. So it's all very interesting, but I think at the end end of the day, what we're saying is to be more aware, and just like what Kara had mentioned already, she mentioned a ton of tools, a ton of resources, a ton of ways for you to learn how to do it, because obviously this is not going to be an overnight fix. We've been inundated with this for a very long time. And media has gotten really good at it because we wanted them to get really good at it. So now we just need to recognize, and in a way appreciate, you know, like, how they were able to do it and what we can do to make a difference for ourselves. And I'm going to say our mental health because yeah, it just drives you crazy drives me crazy. But yeah, other than that, Kara, any closing thoughts before we go?

I just want to say thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate being able to share all this information with service members and their families. I think it's so important one for national security, and then for our own personal well being as well. So just really appreciative of the opportunity. So thank you both.

Yeah. And remind us if anyone does want to get ahold of you, do you want to be contacted? You want people to find you? And if so, how can they find you? My LinkedIn is great. I'm Karen Hanley on there. Yep. So LinkedIn is perfect. Cool. Love it very professional. All right. Well, I think that's it for us. We can go ahead and wrap up now. Jenny Lynn, do you want to do the honors?

Who I get to read it? Yes. We hope that today's episode gave you one more piece of knowledge, resource or relevant stories so you can continue to make confident and informed decisions for you and your family. We look forward to speaking with you in the next episode. Tune in next time.