As the digital world evolves, so does the risk of cyberattacks. Despite technology playing a vital role in nullifying these threats, the human factor is still regarded as one of the greatest weaknesses. End-user behavior is a major cause of information security breaches. This quantitative empirical study used a single-group, pre-post-test,…

Social media are a popular source of information for young people, serving the purposes of not only communication but also the creation and distribution of content as well as advertising. However, that content may contain science-related information that in many cases is not based on scientifically proven sources. Content creators and/or…

Increasingly, criminal justice practitioners have been called on to help solve breaches in cyber security. However, while the demand for criminal justice participation in cyber investigations increases daily, most universities are lagging in their educational and training opportunities for students entering the criminal justice fields. This…

Many young people are unprepared to encounter misleading news and information that they find online. As civic educators, we are able to teach them the media literacy skills required to navigate this environment and critically evaluate the information. These lessons may be well-suited to the research methods classroom, where students will learn to…

Advocates of digital education have increasingly recognized the need for young people to acquire digital media literacy. However, this idea is often seen in instrumental terms, and is rarely implemented in any coherent or comprehensive way. This paper suggests that we need to move beyond a binary view of digital media as offering risks and…

In the post-truth era, information is harder to trust than ever before. News has become more about entertainment than information and consumers now subscribe to media in order to have their view reinforced and not challenged. The media environment has become more tribal, defining the people who consume it. On top of this environment, the plague…

One of the central challenges educators face today, especially in higher education, is the gap between warranted (domain-specific) knowledge and the prior beliefs students hold about certain concepts and phenomena (preconceptions). In the Internet age, students often self-directedly acquire knowledge from an increasingly large number of…

Social studies teacher educators must confront the new realities of democratic citizenship education in an era dominated by misinformation and fake news. Using the Teacher Education Technology Competencies (TETCs) as a guide, the authors provide a five-part action plan for situating media literacy within social studies teacher education:…

In recent years--and especially since the 2016 presidential election--numerous media organizations, newspapers, and policy advocates have made efforts to help Americans become more careful consumers of the information they see online. In K-12 and higher education, the main approach has been to provide students with checklists they can use to…

The Internet poses a variety of risks at both the individual and societal levels including scams and the spread of misinformation. Older adults are especially vulnerable to many of these risks. This paper argues that one important strategy for combating such threats is through digital media literacy education. Although a good deal of research on…