Everybody's An Authority: Fake News in THUAS

This research paper presents the findings of a survey conducted among university students at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) to assess their perspectives on their ability to recognize fake and misleading news, and their opinions concerning potential resources at THUAS to improve media literacy. The survey results indicate considerable demand for media literacy training, and students tend to grasp the importance of that in the digital media era. They express concern about biased and outright false media content, and the cultural stereotypes it can reinforce. In response to these findings, this paper provides recommendations for integrating media literacy into the university curriculum but notes the challenges such a change presents. Therefore, recommendations that are less intrusive and more immediately actionable are included as well. Additionally, a digital toolkit has been developed to support students and educators with practical resources, including fact-checking, fake news quizzes, news aggregators and tips for identifying bias in digital content. These recommendations can better equip students with media literacy skills, which become more important with every technological advance. The ability to assess the motives and veracity of the information they encounter aligns with the THUAS goal of promoting democratic ideals and is essential to function in society today.