Media literacy

letters arranged on wooden board background to spell misinformation

Spring 2024

Slowing misinformation’s spread: Q&A with Porismita Borah

Porismita Borah, a professor at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, researches the spread of misinformation on digital platforms. While rumors, conspiracies, and falsehoods abound online, Borah says corrections and content warnings are effective ways to slow the spread of misinformation.

She talked to Washington State Magazine about why we are susceptible to false information and how we can be more astute about spotting misinformation.

Q: We frequently hear these two terms—misinformation and disinformation. What do they mean?

A: Both are false, but misinformation can be shared without the person knowing that it is incorrect. Disinformation is far … » More …

Fall 2020

An epidemic of misinformation

COVID-19 misinformation is widespread, so Washington State University faculty offer techniques to sift it out. » More ...

Fall 2018

Rescripting gender roles

Sex is everywhere, researchers Stacey Hust and Kathleen Rodgers point out, but, strangely, we get very nervous talking about it—especially with our adolescent children.

That’s a concern to the two Washington State University collaborators, who just published a book, Scripting Adolescent Romance: Adolescents Talk about Romantic Relationships and Media’s Sexual Scripts, that examines the power of media, so chock full of sex and violence, to shape the gender roles of children and adolescents in ways that last a lifetime.

So powerful are the … » More …

Winter 2012

A healthy dose of sex in the media

The average teenager will encounter 10,000 to 15,000 sexual references in the media each year. Sex-related scenes appeared on television at a rate of 4.6 per hour in 2005. Unfortunately, most of the sex portrayed in media has little to do with the reality of sexual health, says Stacey J. T. Hust, associate professor at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication.

In looking at movies, television shows, music, and magazines popular with teens, she and her colleagues “found that less than one-half of one percent of all sexual content is actually health-related content,” says Hust. “They’ll depict a whole lot of sexual … » More …