DETAILS FROM THE STORY: A federally-funded two-year initiative is expected to launch next week to help combat misinformation in Rhode Island and help minimize online violence and extremism.
The new program, dubbed Courageous RI, was designed by the University of Rhode Island’s Media Education Lab, and was funded through a $700,000 grant from the US Department of Homeland Security. The initiative, which will be rolled out in three phases, has been tasked with fostering community conversations, providing training and education, and engaging youth. The trainings look to help participants across sectors become “more resilient to propaganda and disinformation.”
The initiative will formally launch at an in-person event at 3 p.m. on Tuesday at the Rhode Island State House, kicking off a series of free virtual sessions that are open to the public. Officials including Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore, Republican State Representative Brian Newberry, and Democrat State Senator Hanna Gallo are expected to offer remarks.

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This should be good.

Maybe this is the post where r/rhodeisland can discuss free speech?

Ooh, behind a paywall.

I taught a course like this at a RI institution of higher ed a few years back.I was utterly blown away by the complete lack of knowledge about source credibility. 20-ish students in the class, and I bet 16 of them walked in the door on the first day convinced that "if it's on the internet, it must be true."

I honestly have no idea what the local public high schools were doing.

It’s always good to fight misinformation and fake news (actual fake news, not just the stuff the right doesn’t want to hear) but as always I’m sure the same assholes will cry that fact checking is biased against them.

Which I suppose is accurate, facts tend to not work in the favor of liars

You mean people do that? Just go on the Internet and tell lies?!!?

I've actually been told that when I fact checked republicans in my area.

A federally funded program to really muddy the waters that where already part of the swamp. You can’t make this stuff up.

And who will watch them??

Just take Matt Allan off the air. Would be the same thing.

It’s their only tactic when confronted with facts. The truth isn’t on their side so they pretend the problem is with everyone else but them

People don't trust the media or the government so let's have the government tell people who in the media to trust. I don't see how this could go wrong....

They also love attacking the source of the information.

>I honestly have no idea what the local public high schools were doing.

I had this epiphany when helping administer ASVAB testing to high school seniors. You'd be shocked at the number of students leaving the Providence public school system who are functionally illiterate.

Or we could fix our embarrassingly poor public education system and teach our students to think critically.

I personally only read far left wing news sources then I counter it with far right news sources then I laugh at both and go back to not caring.

More like DHS is sponsoring a program to only read govt propaganda instead of private new media propaganda

My thoughts exactly.

Michael Flynn’s home state being infiltrated by the deep state.

But this seems to be conversational and hopefully they get the type of engagement needed for something like this to be effective.

Who decides what is disinformation ?

Mockingbird talking points about information that’s not backed by any real facts ? Follow the science with no actual evidence or studies. Enjoy those death shots

Lol! What “death shots”?

This should be good

Flynn was the deep state

The US and Americans are the most propagandized people on the planet. Your propaganda is so good it makes the Chinese and Russians salivate.

It’s mind blowing. I went to public school in CT and remember teachers always stressing the importance of source credibility. Bibliographies and citations were always required and Wikipedia was never acceptable.

I also remember learning back in middle school how to determine whether a source is providing opinion or fact and if that source is credible or not.

Learned about source credibility in a public speaking course. Very important.

I made a critical comment on his FB page and he blocked me. I don't listen to his nonsense either.

Throughout the whole pandemic local/national media was infested with misinformation. Now everything is coming to the surface. When people brought up simple logic on natural immunity, people got shot down and called crazy and selfish. It's funny how all the people who were hell bent on vaccines and hurting our local small businesses. Now they are afraid to come out and admit and apologize that they let the media control them.

Imagine teaching children critical thinking skills? While this sounds like a good idea on its face, and "bipartisan" support is a good thing, I can't find a way where I'd trust the government to do this job.

The government, news media, and social media are all just one giant misinformation machine.

Has anyone seen the people who comment on news stories on the local news Facebook pages? It’s fucking scary. These people are incredibly ignorant.

I really like the idea behind this, but it seems like a gigantic waste of money

Who the fuck named it Courageous? How the hell is that adjective relevant for fighting misinformation?

It's just virtual training online? No one is going to watch it.

It needs to be incorporated into schooling, although that's an impossible ask with the current state of schooling in this country.

Media/information literacy is already being incorporated into public school curricula across RI and the US in general, though not to a huge extent. I worked for the Media Education Lab on their Media Literacy in RI Report Card project, which analyzed how/if media literacy was being taught in RI. You can see the results here: Media Literacy Report Card

Part of the reason for initiatives like the one in the article OP linked to is to raise awareness for the need for media literacy education in schools.

If you don’t mind me asking, what sorts of classes did you take in high school?

In my experience (as both their classmate and as a TA) the difference between AP/IB kids and everyone else coming into introductory level college classes is pretty staggering, especially when it comes to avoiding plagiarism, in text citations, using reliable sources, etc.

Dunno but I'm confident that if I believe the opposite of what you believe, I'll always be right.