“Who produced the content you are watching?”: In Finland, the skills to spot misinformation online are taught in schools, crucial knowledge to counter a growing evil.
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“Who knows what a troll is? », asks Finnish literature and language teacher Saara Varmola to her 14 and 15 year old students at a school in the capital Helsinki. Everyone raises their hands.
The essential questions to ask in an information-saturated world are “who is behind the content you are watching?” What do you produce yourself and what is your responsibility? “, lists Ms. Varmola for AFP.
By teaching its citizens how to critically analyze media content, thwart hoaxes and identify fake news, Finland aims to promote media education as a civic skill.
Critique
This Nordic country was one of the first in Europe to define a national policy in this area in 2013.
In 2019, this was integrated into all subjects of the school curriculum, taught from primary to secondary.
“Information education is essential to strengthen the resilience of society, and Finland understood this very early,” Anders Adlercreutz, the Minister of Education, told AFP.
The share of information coming from traditional media is decreasing and it is therefore “particularly important to be able to critically evaluate what we read,” he emphasizes.
Finland ranks first in the European Media Literacy Index, which annually compares the ability of 41 countries to deal with disinformation, since its creation in 2017 by the Open Society Institute of Bulgaria.
The index is based on criteria such as the quality of education, media freedom and the level of trust within society.
Last year, Finland was closely followed by its northern neighbors: Denmark, Norway, Estonia and Sweden.
According to the Minister of Education, the key to Finland’s success lies in the collaborative approach between several sectors of society.
“Schools, the media, newspapers, businesses, libraries, museums… Everyone participates in this work” for the country’s 5.5 million inhabitants, specifies Anders Adlercreutz.
Finns also trust their institutions, notes Leo Pekkala, deputy director of the National Audiovisual Institute of Finland (KAVI) — an institution responsible for implementing media education policy and the information.
“We have very great confidence in the defense forces, the army, the police and the government. We also trust our politicians and the media,” he says.
“Put to the Test”
Finland, which has a 1,340 kilometer-long border with Russia, is however not immune to the influence of disinformation campaigns, warns Mr. Adlercreutz.
“I’m not sure we’ve been fully tested,” he notes, while the rise of AI worries as much as it excites.
In the snow-covered Helsinki school, Saara Varmola distributes homework to her students.
Can YouTubers and streamers mislead? Is sponsored content a way to use information to influence?
“Yes, it happens that YouTubers, streamers and people on social networks do it,” notes Bruno Kerman, a 4th grade student.
“Yes, and who is stopping them? » asks Niilo Korkeaoja, his classmate.
Check the source of information disseminated on Tiktok, Snapchat or Instagram, have a critical mind… The students met by AFP say that the Finnish education system provides them with the necessary tools to thwart disinformation, especially online.
“The school taught me to interpret the messages conveyed by the media, but also to read between the lines,” explains Ronja Turunen, another student.
Finland is experienced in this area. The first traces of education in the use of the media date back to 1970, when teaching on mass media was introduced into school curricula.
While education has evolved and adapted to changes in the media environment and the advent of digital technologies, the key objective of teaching, which is critical thinking, has persisted, believes Pekkala , from KAVI.
With the aim of creating enlightened “members of a democratic society”, he hopes.
What remains for Finland is to take up the big challenge of the times: ensuring that all its citizens are aware of the rapid developments in the digital world, including the growing number of older people, who may never have learned to detect false information on the internet.
