Digital Wildfires: Tending to social media in the ELA classroom
Citation
O’Byrne, W. Ian; Crandall, Bryan Ripley; Dail, Jennifer S; Goering, Christian Z; Mora, Raúl Alberto; Price-Dennis, Detra; Witte, Shelbie. (2023) Digital wildfires: Tending to social media in the ELA classroom. Critical Media Literacy, 2, 19–26.
Abstract
As the internet becomes the primary source of information for most, a perfect storm has erupted around the ways in which networked publics consume and critique information online. The internet and social media apps are integral to society, research, and learning today, but increasingly we are questioning the trustworthiness of digital information. As ordinary citizens are expected to be digitally literate, they are facing an unprecedented challenge: weighing and evaluating the accuracy, reliability, and authenticity of public pronouncements as rival entities propagate “alternative facts” online. This piece examines the phenomenon of digital wildfires — the spread of demonstrably false information online, faster and more targeted than ever before — and considers how ELA educators can help students develop the critical media literacy skills they’ll need to navigate these challenges in their futures.
Notes
The term “digital wildfire” comes from the World Economic Forum’s risk reports, and I’ve been thinking about it since I first encountered it. The metaphor is apt: wildfires spread fast, they’re hard to contain once they start, and the tools built to fight them can sometimes make things worse. That’s misinformation online in a nutshell.
This piece was written with the Divergent Research Team — the same group behind Finding Exponential Hope — and it reflects our ongoing work at the intersection of digital literacy and critical media literacy. The Audre Lorde epigraph is doing real work here: “For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” The platforms spreading misinformation are the same platforms we’re asking teachers to use for instruction. That tension doesn’t get resolved by adding a media literacy unit.
For ELA teachers specifically, the digital wildfire frame offers something useful: it names the problem at scale without making teachers responsible for solving a systemic issue alone. What they can do is help students slow down, examine sources, consider who benefits from a piece of information being spread, and understand their own epistemological commitments. That’s not nothing.