In a post-fact world where the news media no longer serves as the only and primary source of information, media literacy is urgently needed to help young people recognize the difference between fact-based information and propaganda.

Milica Pesic, the executive director of London-based Media Diversity Institute (MDI), told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) in Jakarta, that as the popularity of social media among youths was exponentially growing, governments needed to shield young people from being deceived by rampant propaganda online.

“The government can come up with a policy related to media literacy education so it can push schools and universities to introduce and educate [their students] about the role of media and roles of journalism,” she said.

Pesic said this tutelage was necessary because young people were exposed to media content, including social media that potentially did not adhere to journalism principles and educate young people in understanding what was fact-based and worthy information in order to avoid falling victim to the agenda of propagandists.

“Many studies show that young people prefer social media as their main source of information. Very often, the content is propagandist. They have to be able to recognize [propaganda] to be able to combat it,” she said.

Other than being an effective tool to spread extremist ideology, social media has also been used by politicians to lure voters by spreading misleading information.

As the country prepares to hold more than 100 simultaneous regional elections in 2017, many Indonesian politicians have been using social media to slander their opponents.

Indonesia is predicted to have the fourth most Internet users by 2020 with 215 million people connected, according to a recent Google-Temasek study.

According to a recent Twitter report, the country ranked fifth in Twitter use worldwide with more than 29 million users.

Pesic added that many people, including politicians, utilized media as their tools to spread hatred and lies. “Politicians have always lied. That’s part of their job, but the job of media is to make politicians accountable and to check whether what they are saying is correct. We can see globally politicians and journalist are forgetting about checking the facts,” she said.

She added that the government could force media to educate the public about journalism principles. “TV is a very important media platform in Indonesia. Explaining what is the role of journalism and its distinction with propaganda in an interesting way [could be effective] for young people.”

Indonesian Press Council chairman Yosep Adi Prasetyo, known as Stanley, has also urged the government to establish a school of journalism specifically for Indonesian reporters to improve their quality.

He said news media often used information from unverified sources, leading it to virally circulate as news. “[The] media business is about trust from the reader. The only thing that matters is journalism quality,” he said. (fac)

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