Skip to page content

Media Literacy

Featured

Report

Guidance for Teaching Media Literacy in Schools

Aug 4, 2021

Media literacy education can help counter “Truth Decay” by teaching young people how to consume media and contribute responsibly to the information ecosystem. To this end, RAND researchers developed recommendations for implementing media literacy standards in the classroom.
Essay

American News Habits and the Challenge of Truth Decay

Mar 4, 2020

RAND researchers asked people where they get their news, how reliable they think it is, and whether they seek out viewpoints that are different from their own. The results provide some new clues to help diagnose and treat Truth Decay.

Explore Media Literacy

Blog

How the Media Can Help Fight Truth Decay

"Truth Decay" is the diminishing role of facts and analysis in U.S. public life. As part of this phenomenon, Americans are losing faith in once-trusted sources of information, including the news. What could media organizations do to address this?

Feb 25, 2020
Multimedia

How the Media Can Help Fight Truth Decay

Truth Decay is the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life. As part of this phenomenon, Americans are losing faith in once-trusted sources of information, including the news. How might media organizations address this?

Feb 20, 2020
Report

Fighting Disinformation Online: Building the Database of Web Tools

This report describes a database of online tools that are developed by nonprofit, civil society organizations and are designed to reduce the spread of online disinformation.

Feb 18, 2020
Commentary

Our Actions Determine What We Read and See Online. Algorithms Are Only a Part of That Process

As social media has increasingly become the main outlet for people to acquire news and opinion, there are concerns about the effect of algorithm-driven services on the spread of misleading information. But the issue doesn't merely lie with how social platforms use algorithms to deliver content.

Feb 7, 2020
Commentary

Artificial Intelligence and the Manufacturing of Reality

Humans carry flaws in deciding what is or is not real. The internet and other technologies have made it easier to weaponize and exploit these flaws. And artificial intelligence will likely be used to exploit these weaknesses at an unprecedented scale, speed, and level of effectiveness.

Jan 20, 2020
Blog

How Americans Get the News, Iran, Caregiving: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how Americans consume the news, U.S.–Iranian relations, how federal disability payments help caregivers, and more.

Dec 13, 2019
Report

How Americans Consume the News

Where do Americans get their news? What news sources do they view as reliable? And how are choices about news consumption linked to demographics or political affiliation? Results from a national survey provide insights into these questions and more.

Dec 10, 2019
News Release

One-Third of Americans Use News Sources They Consider Less Reliable

One-third of Americans rely on news platforms they acknowledge are less reliable, mainly social media and peers. The other two-thirds of the public consider their primary news sources trustworthy, mainly print news and broadcast television.

Dec 10, 2019
Tool

Fighting Disinformation Online: A Database of Web Tools

RAND researchers created a database of web tools that aim to fight the spread of disinformation. These include fact-checking tools, bot detectors, media literacy applications, and more.

Nov 12, 2019
Tool

What's Being Done to Fight Disinformation Online

With the rise of the internet and social media, false or intentionally misleading information can spread further and faster than ever before. What tools exist to fight disinformation online?

Nov 12, 2019
Commentary

The RAND Institute for Civil Justice: 40th Anniversary Reflections

The RAND Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ) has supplied government and private decisionmakers and the public with the results of objective, empirically based, analytic research. In this era of Truth Decay, the diminishing role of facts and analysis in public life, the ICJ's mission and research have never been more important.

Nov 6, 2019
Journal Article

Study on Media Literacy and Online Empowerment Issues Raised by Algorithm-Driven Media Services

Researchers explored the challenges of algorithm-driven media services, including the interplay between the biases in algorithms and people's own cognitive biases.

Oct 30, 2019
Blog

RAND's Summer Reading List for Congress

For busy staff, August's respite from back-to-back meetings, hearing preparation, and late votes is hard-earned. The summer recess also provides an opportunity to get ahead of issues that will resurface in the fall. To that end, we have compiled recent RAND research on topics likely to top the congressional agenda come September.

Aug 5, 2019
Blog

Truth Decay, Principals, Augmented Reality: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on media literacy education as a way to fight "Truth Decay," turning screen time into outdoor time, the importance of school principals, and more.

Jul 12, 2019
Report

Media Literacy Education as a Tool for Mitigating 'Truth Decay'

Can media literacy education help counter the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life? To find out, RAND experts analyzed what we know—and don't know—about the subject.

Jul 11, 2019
Blog

New Book by Arthur Brooks Tells Americans to Answer Hate with Love

Arthur Brooks spoke at a RAND event to discuss his new book, Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt. He stressed that we don't have to disagree less but that we have to disagree better.

Jul 8, 2019
Blog

DMZ Meeting, Students with Disabilities, Iran: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on Trump's meeting with Kim Jong Un, supporting students with disabilities, the flawed logic of a proportional response in Iran, and more.

Jul 5, 2019
Periodical

RAND Review: July-August 2019

This issue spotlights a strategy to reduce roadway deaths to zero; a school principal initiative that yielded positive results for schools and students; and a data-driven effort to enhance equity in a major U.S. city.

Jul 1, 2019
Q&A

Searching for Truth: Q&A with Jennifer Kavanagh

Senior political scientist Jennifer Kavanagh helps lead RAND's work on Truth Decay, the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life. In this interview, she discusses her latest research on how news presentation has changed over time and across platforms.

Jun 26, 2019
Blog

Journalism, U.S.–Iranian Tensions, School Reform: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how the news has changed in the digital age, rising U.S.–Iranian tensions, how educators feel about school improvement plans, and more.

May 17, 2019

Previous
1
2
3
4
Next

Research conducted by

RAND Education and Labor