Dan Gillmor

Dan Gillmor discusses media literacy and civic engagement in a digital age. Nowadays, the information and ‘news’ are created at an increasingly rapid pace. Social media like Twitter and Facebook contribute to the spread of information but oftentimes the first wave that information is inaccurate. Consumers of news must learn to be skeptical of absolutely everything they read and hear – but not to the same degree. Skepticism, judgment, research, and free thinking are just some of the principles we must actively engage, and a credibility scale must be put in place, measuring all of the information we get each day against evidence. We can no longer be passive consumers of media. We need to become active users—as consumers and creators—participating in the conversations that inform communities and societies. In the process, we have to decide what to trust.