Countering Misinformation Early: A Sustained Media Literacy Intervention for School Children in India

As evidenced during the Covid-19 crisis, medical misinformation and false beliefs in alternative treatments may have dramatic consequences, especially among populations with low levels of digital literacy and education. This paper examines whether a sustained, classroom-based media and information literacy intervention can help school children in Bihar, India, to become more discerning consumers of public health information. Collaborating with a branch of Bihar’s state government, we developed and fielded a multi-session media literacy RCT across 583 villages, targeting over 12,000 students. Unlike previous anti-misinformation interventions, this project focuses on rural populations, long-term engagement, and adolescents aged 13 to 18. Results from intent-to-treat estimates demonstrate that our intervention had significant impacts on a number of counts: treated students showed heightened ability to discern between true and false information. Notably the intervention also changed health preferences, diminishing reliance on alternative medical approaches and decreasing dependence on untrustworthy sources of news. We are able to detect effects up to 2 months post intervention, speaking to the strength of the treatment in changing attitudes long-term. These findings hold significant implications for assessing the efficacy of media literacy measures in light of previous studies that often yield null or mixed results. Our intervention demonstrates continued effectiveness among a particularly challenging sample and difficult context.

Sumitra Badrinathan is an assistant professor of political science at American University’s School of International Service. Her research focuses on political communication in South Asia, with an emphasis on new platforms like WhatsApp and their effects on political misinformation, media trust, and the quality of democracy. She uses experimental and survey methods to investigate potential solutions to misinformation in developing countries along with the consequences of misinformation on political and societal outcomes, including violence, vote choice, polarization, and social cohesion. Her work has appeared in academic journals such as the American Political Science Review as well as popular press such as The Washington Post. She received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Made possible with the generous support of the Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education.