Learn To Spot Fact From Fiction At Free Media Literacy Workshop In Lawton

Literacy looks different in 2025. It no longer solely applies to reading and writing. Media literacy is a new challenge people face. As the internet changes every day, and with the increasing implementation of AI, it make it difficult to spot fact from fiction. Lawton residents have an opportunity to learn new literary skills during a free Media Literacy Workshop hosted by the City of Lawton and McMahon Auditorium Authority.

The Media Literacy Workshop will take place from 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30 at the Carnegie Library, located in downtown Lawton at 425 SW B Ave. The workshop will be conducted by David Stringer, who is the past president of the Oklahoma Press Association and member of the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation. He currently serves as Publisher at The Lawton Constitution.

Lawton residents who wish to attend the Media Literacy Workshop can call the City of Lawton's Arts and Humanities Division at 580-581-3470 to register.

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Why media literacy is important.

As a millennial, I grew up alongside the internet and the rise of social media. I learned how to illegally download music. MySpace taught me HTML. AIM's SmarterChild was my introduction to AI. I created a fake university email and lied about my age to access Facebook in 2008. Xanga taught me that you can't just say anything you want on the internet without any external repercussions.

Truth be told, if they were online enough, millennials were unknowingly teaching themselves media literacy. Today, those chronically online millennials are the internet Yodas for their parents, grandparents and sometimes younger siblings, or even their own children or nieces and nephews.

We're the ones who clocked the internet's influence on the 2016 election and were increasingly annoyed with it during the 2020 and 2024 elections. You try telling your grandparents that the AI images of Taylor Swift wearing Trump paraphernalia is fake but they share it anyways.

But regardless of your age or political affiliation or history with the internet, media literacy is absolutely a subject that must be taught. And we're at a point in time where it needs to be taught to every single generation, including millennials. Until media literacy is a subject in grade school, society will continue to be dupped by an excess of fake news, AI videos and memes.