Coming of age in the era of ‘fake news’

‘Let’s get media lit(erate)!”

The punny slogan was my attempt to get students excited about fact-checking, current events and finding alternative sources to Wikipedia — a crowd-sourced platform anyone can edit.

That’s why I scribbled it on the front whiteboard inside Room 29 at Earl Grey School.

In response, a young member of the school’s press club declares I am “so cringe.”

“Guys, let’s not be mean to the person who could end our careers!” another boy says.

I laugh in the moment — but this interaction will stick with me long after dismissal on Tuesday afternoon.

It’s symbolic of a far bigger concern of mine: the alarming state of media literacy, including among pre-teens who remind me of younger versions of myself.

An 11-year-old Maggie Macintosh — who grew up in awe of the bylines I read daily at my kitchen table in the early 2000s — would never have thought to fear a reporter. (I would have been left starstruck and speechless by meeting Lisa LaFlamme, though.)

Then again, I was a cub reporter at the Kidz Chronicle long before “fake news” became a buzzword and a sitting U.S. president declared journalists “an enemy of the people.”

Ever since I graduated from the Ryerson School of Journalism (now Toronto Metropolitan University), I’ve volunteered to share my early-career insights with anyone willing to listen.

I’ve visited classrooms, conferences and even Seven Oaks School Division headquarters on one occasion to run a journalism 101-themed professional-development session.

I always emphasize that I, Maggie Macintosh, am first and foremost a neighbour and fellow taxpayer, as well as a big sister, retired competitive curler and Ontario expat who adores the Canadian Prairies.

I am a practising journalist who cares deeply about my community and wants to expose truths to make it a better place. While I want to be respected in my profession, I do not want to be feared.

Being the only reporter on the education beat in the province, I interview dozens of students, teachers and school leaders every year. I have a lot of teacher friends, too.

And while there are outliers, such as Earl Grey teacher-publisher Lily Godinez Goodman (see: my colleague Melissa Martin’s feature on the Earl Grey Press), most well-meaning educators I’ve met have an incredibly basic, if any, understanding about what freedom-of-the-press looks like in practice.

Given I was enrolled in “J-School” during Trump’s first term — an ironic albeit fitting time to be studying how to verify information and win a defamation lawsuit — I feel a moral obligation to share my takeaways to reclaim the title I grew up idolizing for so many reasons.

That’s why I’m overjoyed to add Earl Grey Press “media coach” to my resumé.

Isabel, Axel and other keen members of the press club have already started to help me preach about just how cool it is to read the newspaper via filming videos of me for social media.

Gen Alpha has grown up alongside TikTok, Twitch and other apps that prey on their attention spans. Clickbait is a staple in the margins of their screens.

Outside work hours, I’ve started posting videos about my day job — along with DIY projects, get-ready-with-me videos and other recipes for virality — to attract viewers.

I want to tap into brain rot. Or, in non-internet slang terms, to meet students where they’re at, which is often in front of a screen.

My ultimate goal? Interrupt doomscrolling via @maggiemckmac to teach internet users of all ages to be critical and careful consumers of content.

I am employed by the only independently owned major daily newspaper in the country. I adore the Free Press — it’s the reason I and my now-husband packed our bags for Winnipeg in 2017 in the first place.

Consider this a warning to my editors if they or anyone else asks me about our new media literacy platform. I am verbose at the best of times, but I definitely won’t meet deadline if someone raises this labour-of-love subject.

I feel incredibly privileged to be a part of this partnership with Manitoba Education.

This project was born out of a high school teacher’s pitch to my editor-in-chief, Paul Samyn. It was later brought to the attention of the late education minister Nello Altomare and his then-deputy minister Brian O’Leary.

Manitoba’s largest school division has since become involved — even though the Free Press often publishes stories about issues involving the Winnipeg School Division.

With chief superintendent Matt Henderson’s blessing, we’ve been piloting the beta version of our kindergarten-to-Grade 12 platform at Earl Grey and nearby schools.

We plan to dispatch working journalists to help students and teachers of all grades navigate it once it’s live.

Henderson is already calling it “world class.” I agree and although I’m heavily biased, a good reporter should always be biased towards the truth.

As for the keen student reporters who were arguing about my dad joke on Tuesday, their journalism careers have only just begun.

I have a feeling Free Press readers may learn their names, inked in this very paper, one day.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca