OPINION | Misinformation Is An Epidemic. Journalism Education Is The Solution
Photo Credit: Alistair Blee
Forty-five per cent of Canadians say it’s possibly, definitely, or probably true that the 2020 US election was stolen from Donald Trump, or aren’t sure either way. Twenty-five per cent think that COVID vaccines possibly or probably contain microchips that monitor and control human behaviour. Twenty per cent say it’s definitely or probably true that the “9/11 attack was an inside job.”
These are the results of a 2022 Abacus survey, and they point to a disturbing trend. False information, spread widely online, threatens to upend democratic society and create a citizenry that can be blindly manipulated by foreign governments and pseudo-science influencers. As Canadians lose the ability to discern fact from fiction – and media literacy levels are on a decline – expanding journalism education has become crucial.
False information has become rampant on social media, incentivized by algorithms that propagate its spread.
Twenty per cent of videos that appear in search results for news content on TikTok contain misinformation, according to a NewsGuard study, and 40 per cent of health-related videos on the platform contain misinformation, according to the University of Arizona.
During US elections, 25 per cent of political posts contained false information, and research from the MIT Media Lab found that posts with false information are 70 per cent more likely to be retweeted.
Seventy-three per cent of Canadians encountered misinformation online within the past year, according to a 2022 Statistics Canada survey, and 62 per cent of people aged 15–24 regularly access news on social media, indicating the disinformation and misinformation epidemic’s disproportionate effect on youth. Additionally, forty-one per cent of TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24, while 70 per cent of Instagram users are under the age of 35.
Social media habits like scrolling on Reels aren’t just ruining your mental health, they’re also undermining the outreach of Canada’s sovereignty, democracy, and healthcare system.
According to a 2025 study from the Canadian Medical Association, false information caused 35 per cent of Canadians to avoid effective medical treatments and led 23 per cent to experience negative health outcomes due to online medical advice.
In 2022, then-US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf told a health journalism conference that “misinformation is now our leading cause of death,” citing vaccine hesitancy, Ivermectin use, and vaping as contributors to the problem.
Misinformation is also affecting life expectancy in the US, Dr. Califf warns, which fell to 1996 levels in 2023, and lags behind other advanced economies.
The effects of health misinformation are also likely being felt in Canada. Statistics Canada found that a decrease in life expectancy in 2020 was “directly associated with COVID-19,” and given Canadians’ misgivings about vaccines, it’s possible that some deaths were caused by disregard of advice from public health officials.
Other forms of misinformation and disinformation are also penetrating Canadian society and causing significant harm.
“This global rise in misinformation is linked to the global assault on democracy and the rule of law,” Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner told reporters, following a discussion on the matter at a national conference of judges and communications staff from courts across Canada. He also discussed how journalism — the antidote for misinformation — plays a crucial role in maintaining trust in the rule of law, and respect for it.
Upholding the rule of law depends on trust from Canadians, added Glenn Joyal, chief justice of the Court of King’s Bench in Manitoba. This is where the media makes an impact, as journalists report information, educate Canadians about the justice system, and scrutinize courts’ decisions, he said.
According to some legal philosophies, one of the justice systems’ primary aims is to deter future offenders by highlighting punishments for those who break the law — an objective that’s impossible to accomplish without journalists covering court cases.
False information is also undermining democracy.
In 2020, Canada was ranked as the fifth best democracy in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit. As COVID-19, alongside election meddling from foreign governments, took hold, Canada dropped seven places in 2021, eventually reaching 14th place in 2024. And considering the findings of the Foreign Interference Commission, a large part of that slip is likely attributable to the rampant spread of false information.
“In my view, it is no exaggeration to say that, at this juncture, information manipulation — whether foreign or not — poses the single biggest risk to our democracy. It’s an existential threat,” wrote Justice Marie-Josée Hogue in her final report.
So where does journalism education come in?
In journalism, the greatest sin is manipulating information. By teaching students how to avoid manipulating information they will, unavoidably, learn how to identify manipulated information. How can a journalism student be sure that they’re not twisting facts, when they can’t identify information that has been exploited?
Journalists are responsible for fact-checking their work, corroborating evidence, and asking tough questions to their sources — we’re building critical-thinking skills by the second.
Offering a journalism course at Hamber is a feasible antidote to the rampant spread of false information that would be met with enthusiastic support from students, even from those who dread English class.
“I’m not interested in building a massive farm team for The New York Times. The real payoff is this, a slight edge in a game of inches: I hope students will have at least semi-functional B.S. detector, an antidote to the froth of online disinformation,” explains a high school journalism teacher in the Bay Area.
While the job market in journalism isn’t particularly promising — that’s why false information is such a critical issue — and learning how to discern health information on Reels isn’t exactly a priority for most students, I guarantee you that a journalism course will have enough students to run every year.
Because guess what? Writing still matters, and students want to learn how to get better at it — especially when antiquated texts aren’t involved.
Eight-six per cent of high school students think a high proficiency in writing is linked to success in life, according to a Pew Research study. Students are also more motivated to write if they’re allowed to write about issues pertinent to their lives and topics they’re passionate about, the study found.
And that’s the whole point of student journalism — students writing about students. News is also not as narrowly defined by what hits the front page of The Washington Post. Reporters write about books, science, pop culture, fashion, travel, entertainment, personal narratives, foreign conflicts, issues impacting their community, and everything in between.
Since the death of the English major, explicitly teaching writing should become an increasingly important facet of the high school English curriculum. Students aren’t taking English to major in medieval literature. They’re taking English to learn how to write compelling research papers, snappy social media posts, successful emails, cover letters, and UBC Personal Profiles.
This objective is inherently intertwined with journalism, which is defined by Oxford Languages to be the “profession of writing for newspapers, magazines, or news websites.” Eighty-six per cent of US high school journalism teachers say teaching writing is their top curricular goal, while the equivalent of 3 minutes per 50-minute class is spent teaching writing in regular English classes, on average.
Journalism teaches students writing, critical thinking, and countless other skills. But journalism and its ideals are in long-term decline, and democratic society is paying the price.
Any reversal of this alarming trend must begin with us — the citizens of tomorrow.