opinion

How Swifties Will Bring Back Media Literacy

4/1/2025

by Sophia Nigro

Nowadays, misinformation and conspiracy theories run rampant, especially online. More and more people take what they’re reading at face value, not realizing they’re being deceived. This is due to the fact that media literacy is at an all time low. According to The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), media literacy is “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication.”

Taylor Swift at the Eras Tour. Photo by: Paolo V via Wikimedia Commons

Basically, instead of only analyzing works in school, like in an English course, we take those skills we learned and apply them to any content we consume on a daily basis. Studies have shown that many people are not learning these skills, and therefore can be more susceptible to conspiracy theories and fake news. It seems that teens are the ones mainly affected by this misinformation, as multiple studies revealed they are more likely to fall for these things compared to adults. It’s incredibly concerning that so many people, especially the younger generation who is our future, cannot correctly analyze information and tell what is real and fake. This is only made worse by the introduction of AI, as now we also have to worry about the spread of fake images and videos. So, how exactly can we combat this media literacy drought? In our desperate time of need, I think we should look to possibly the largest and most influential fanbase in history: the Swifties.

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Burying a Buzzword: Is Anything Unprecedented?

2/1/2025

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by Jamie M. Roes

Unprecedented means “unknown”: we have never done this before. We do not know how to do this thing and we do not know the level of success that lies before us. It is an intimidating word. Sometimes, we like this feeling of the unknown; it’s why mystery novels are so popular. Reading a mystery novel does not impact the larger areas of your life though. In 1927, writer H.P. Lovecraft stated, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is the fear of the unknown.” This phrase was eventually reduced to “the fear of the unknown” and it is a fear caused by a lack of information and a low tolerance for uncertainty. Uncertainty does not allow us to predict an outcome, which means we can not make a future plan.

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Booktok: A Community of Readers Rekindling My Love For Literature

1/1/2025

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by BriAnna Sankey

When you read a good book, one that leaves you absolutely stunned--all you want to do is share it with someone! Preferably someone who has already read it, and understands your emotion behind the most specific scenes. Most times though, we find ourselves calling up a friend and forcing them to stay on the phone for an hour as we explain the whole plot of the book, and continue to give a thirty minute analysis breaking down the book in its entirety. Now I don’t know about you, but my friends would probably hang up after 10 minutes of word vomit because they aren’t readers. Since I’ve joined BookTok, I’ve seen how it brings readers together in a world where they can share their excitement over popular books and new, emerging titles. This sense of community is influential to the public because everyone wants to be “in” on the conversation. FOMO is no joke.

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Don't Stop Writing Fanfiction

12/1/2024

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by Bethaney Randazzo

“Stop writing fanfiction, and go get published.”

I often wonder where I would be if a twenty-three-year-old me had listened to that creative writing professor. Would I currently be in a masters in writing program, while teaching first-year college writing, on my way to transforming some of nearly eighty stories I’ve written over the decade since that comment was made into publishable works? Probably not.

via Canva

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Writing is One Big Genre Soup

11/1/2024

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by Ellie Cameron

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

It’s a winter night in your childhood, you have a cold. Snow is falling; it’s almost as icy in the house as outside. Someone--your parent, grandparent, sibling, guardian--brings you a steaming bowl. You ask what’s in it, receive a single word response. Soup. You wonder what kind, try to decide if you’re hoping it’s tomato, chicken noodle, alphabet, chowder. Who knows? Broth and some floating ingredients, it could be anything. It’s all soup.

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How Swifties Will Bring Back Media Literacy

Burying a Buzzword: Is Anything Unprecedented?

Booktok: A Community of Readers Rekindling My Love For Literature

Don't Stop Writing Fanfiction

Writing is One Big Genre Soup

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