I have a solution for George Soros' worries about fake news – media studies at school could strengthen our democracy

No longer a Mickey Mouse subject, it’s important and relevant in this age of digital information

Soros said tech ‘monopolies’ were a threat to democracy (Reuters)

What’s the most important subject for kids to study at school?

I imagine most people would go for either maths or English, or both, because everyone needs readin’, writin’ and ’rithmetic.

But what about after that? With all the talk about the importance of STEM subjects I expect science would be many people’s choice for the bronze medal position. Some would make a case for modern languages. At a time when misremembered and romanticised versions of history so dominate our political discourse, that subject should be right up there. Much of the political class could do with re-sitting that exam.

Most people would probably scoff at the suggestion of media studies, however. Some would have to reach for their blood pressure pills, and not just those among the traditional education brigade. At least one of my thoroughly sensible, liberal-minded colleagues was really quite appalled when I put the idea out there. Is there anything in the curriculum with a worse reputation?

It might amuse millennials to learn that the upswing in the subject’s popularity when I was at school was one of the sticks used to beat Generation X as being full of lazy, entitled and self-absorbed wasteoids. But perhaps I should get to the point before the massed ranks of media studies students ask where the hell I’m going with this.

We live in the information age. And the new media age. And the dark side of that has become all too clear. We’ve seen Facebook and Google (through YouTube) disseminating content ranging from the deeply unpleasant to the out-and-out extreme. Then there are the rumours and out-and-out lies masquerading as news. And it seems that every few months some poor kid ends up killing themselves as a result of cyberbullying.

There was a lot of crap talked at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. There always is. But George Soros was worth listening to when he criticised the tech “monopolies” and described them as a “threat to democracy”.

They are. The power they have is truly frightening and, notwithstanding the fact that they’ve both hired more web cops, they still show little sign of grasping the responsibility that goes with that power. It’s dollars uber alles.

Soros is quite right to express concern that that stance might come at the expense of the freedom of us all. One only needs to look at the subtle way the jackboot has emerged to stomp on dissent in his native Hungary to see that. Then there is the way social media has been used to influence elections both here and in the US. No wonder Soros is worried.

Kids, digital natives all, see their tablets as their plastic pals. They often have little conception of the swamp in which they swim when they use them to go online. Parents should play a role in fortifying them against the nasty stuff, and this parent does. The trouble is, the older they get, the less inclined to listen they become.

I give you the view of a commenter in the Student Room. It describes itself as the world’s largest online community of students (so take that with a pinch of salt).

They said: “Don’t study media studies. It’s a Mickey Mouse subject that’s useless when applying for unis/jobs.”

Harsh, but not an uncommon perception. So perhaps we need a new subject, called something more respectable, like “Information Science”. You’d include some media studies in it, to give students an understanding of news, how it is put together, how to detect biases and the agendas different media organisations have. You’d include some internet safety, the role of social media, the way rumours and lies can be disseminated through it, how to recognise propaganda and extremist content.

The digital footprint would be discussed. Perhaps Toby Young could be called upon as a consultant in the formulation of this part of our new course. Having lost his position on the board of the Office for Students as a direct result of his digital footprint – I refer of course to his appallingly sexist tweeting among other sins – he’d be ideally suited to help students understand how their own online content can come back to bite them later on.

This sort of course could serve to equip and arm students to survive and thrive in a world that hasn’t really fully caught up with the implications of the dizzying speed at which technology, and the new media, has developed.

I can’t imagine the current Government going for it.

One of the more darkly comic developments of recent weeks was its creation of a fake news unit. It came just days after the Prime Minister was herself spinning fake news through claiming the credit for a ban on hidden credit or debit card charges, a change to the law that actually came courtesy of an EU directive. That’s rather relevant to this discussion, don’t you think?

But perhaps a more civic-minded future administration might like to mull the idea over.