Dear teacher,

The development of technology and the accelerating change in media are challenging societies – and naturally, social studies education. The purpose of this site is to provide tools to tackle these challenges. We hope to be able to support your work in strengthening students’ information literacy, critical thinking, participation and advocacy. Our work has been guided by the idea that media education, democracy education and human rights education belong together.

The process entails discussing the connections between the contents of lower secondary school social studies and the media. We have tried to create content that supplements the existing content in social studies as smoothly as possible:

1. Everyday life, life management and the media
   In recent years, disinformation, that is, the deliberate production and dissemination of false information, has become an increasingly widespread societal threat globally. It is part of the “playbook” used by authoritarian leaders: it is aimed at manipulating opinions, increasing instability and polarisation in societies, and making public discourse more divisive. One central counterforce is journalism, a method used by the news media to produce reliable information.
2. Democratic society and freedom of expression
   Since 2006, the deterioration of democracy has progressed faster than its positive development. In the development of democracy, the media are a powerful tool – for both good and bad purposes. Restricting press freedom is at the forefront of the methods used by those who would wish to tear down democracy. According to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) annual press freedom index, less than one per cent of the world’s population lives in a country with good press freedom.
3. Active citizenship and the media
   The media are also a tool and a channel for exerting influence ourselves. From the point of view of democracy, this is both an opportunity and a threat. The point at which the scale tips depends on each media user. Media pluralism is critical for democracy, but “social media outrage” can reduce the desire to participate in public joint discourse. In addition to freedom of expression, we should also talk about responsibility in expression. Legislation serves a holistic purpose: freedom of expression cannot override other fundamental rights.
4. Data economy and the media
   With each click, online data is collected from media users, which is “processed” into a commodity of the data economy by means of data analytics. Machine learning-based algorithms dictate what information is recommended to us next. In the data economy, information is never free – we always pay for it with money, data or a combination of both.

This material is complemented by the Media literacy alphabet, an ABC book that goes from algorithms to harassment, which explains many concepts that we, the authors of this material, have also found important to mark in bold in the text.

The information packages include:

Videos
Slideshows
In-depth texts on which the videos and slideshows are based
Team tasks
Independent tasks
Precise sources to support teaching around the topic

The material was produced in the Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences’ journalist training on behalf of News Media Finland.

Please feel free to contact us if there is something we could improve or add.

Responsible producer: Anne Leppäjärvi
anne.leppajarvi@haaga-helia.fi
040 488 7525

Layout and technical implementation: Juuso Koponen 
Design and implementation of videos: Matti Elo and Anne Leppäjärvi 
Working group: Pauliina Grönholm, Laura Kettunen, Elina Kuismin, Elia Lennes, Tuomas Pulsa, Kaijaleena Runsten, Kim Suponin and Katja Wirenius

Steering group: Susanna Ahonen, Media Education Specialist, News Media Finland
Kati Hynönen, Chair, Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies in Finland
Nina Penttinen, Counsellor of Education, Finnish National Agency for Education
Kirsi Ruhanen, Executive Director, Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies in Finland