May 08, 2023 At 03:59 PM EDT
Newsweek recently welcomed eight high school students—from Denver, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.—onto The Debate podcast for a series of special episodes, as part of the publication's new partnership with the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL). These recordings were done in anticipation of the students taking part in a live debate on April 14 at Newsweek's global headquarters in New York City's One World Trade Center.
The event signaled the beginning of an ongoing content initiative for Newsweek called Mightier, which covers youth debate and asks students to weigh in on some of society's most pressing issues.
The following excerpt, which has been lightly edited, is transcribed from a podcast debate on how best to curtail political microtargeting via social media. In the excerpt, debater Marianny Torres-Collado from the Denver Urban Debate League advocates for more education focused on combatting the effects of services selling political data.The full argument can be heard on Newsweek's The Debate podcast, below:
We all consume media constantly. From a picture in an album to a tweet sent out from the literal U.S. president, media is everywhere. The difference between a picture and a tweet is how data from the tweet can be collected.
While I agree with [fellow debater] Isabella [Long] that political microtargeting is dangerous, I will propose a plan on how we should be educated on microtargeting.
As Isabella noted, the point of political microtargeting is for political campaigns to use voter information and social media data to push their opinions and agendas onto that audience without them even realizing.
January 6, [2021,] the U.S. Capitol was attacked by right-wing extremists. Professor Barbara Bickart [author and senior associate dean of graduate programs at Boston University's Questrom School of Business] brings light to how social media had a huge impact on the events of that day.
Before the current social media platforms were established, we might have spread ideas in email chains or in phone calls, but those communications can only go to people we knew—those in our current networks. Bickart explains why the people who were on Facebook after the presidential election would not have organized this attack without having a platform or the algorithm bringing them all close.
The attack of January 6 is a perfect example of the dangers of microtargeting.
We need to teach our future generations to critically read and think about all the forms of media they consume so that they're informed to understand and interpret the world. We as a society need to understand what exactly we're participating in while we subconsciously scroll through pages on Twitter.
By doing so, we need to develop critical media literacy. These strategies permit students to critique the media they encounter.
Students should be considering the way the viewer's position identifies values and emotion the artwork appeals to, think about what information the creator has omitted, and so much more. School curriculum should include media literacy classes for high schoolers.
Further research shows that even using a meme to critically analyze can educate students on how to find a deeper meaning behind the media they're taking in. These courses can showcase the simple ways that the analysis from your observations of a piece of media can have so much more meaning than just a story on Instagram.
Schools in Finland use this exact strategy to make sure that their students are not exposed to fake news and [show] how to form their own opinions. School districts shall take action and make sure the teacher instructing the class is unbiased and solely there for the purpose of educating the classroom.
My plan will have the future of our world educated on microtargeting so that they themselves can find ways to be aware and decide what steps they want to take after.
When looking at educating versus regulating, there is one side that has more pros than the other.
In the context of limiting microtargeting, my opponent suggests that social media apps should charge a five-dollar to 10-dollar monthly subscription in order to keep younger audiences from using apps.
In the world we live in now, with TikTok and Instagram having booming audiences, teenagers are ruling the internet. They're showing to be spreading awareness to real-world problems and starting up movements for the greater good.
An amazing example of young people using their platforms on social media are the Glow Girls. These two tween sisters use their earnings from their online singing videos to donate each month to a food bank in Florida. In the year of 2021, they helped give out 12,000 meals to people in need.
Imagine if these two teen girls were stopped from being on a social media because of a $5 subscription. Along with that, Black and Latino youth are more likely to be negatively impacted by a subscription fee.
My plan is to not silence their voices but make their voices stronger. Our purpose here is to educate, not regulate.
The views expressed in this article may not necessarily reflect the personal beliefs of the author.
