Is Justin Bieber Actually a Cleverly Disguised 51-Year-Old Pedophile?

No, but during a lesson with one of my S4 (approx. 9th grade) classes, no fewer than 10 students asked me if this were true. I thought it an odd question, considering the assignment was for students to give a brief presentation on a fictional country of their own design. I told them that there's no way Justin Bieber is 51 years old, but they kept insisting they saw it on the news and I started having my doubts.*

Turns out that one of their friends had found this news report from way back (September 28, 2010) and posted it on Facebook:


Justin Bieber Found To Be Cleverly Disguised 51-Year-Old Pedophile

Now everyone in the school has seen it, and from my unofficial survey, 100% of them think it is a real news report. Since everyone who reads this blog most likely knows me personally, they also most likely know that I'm a huge fan of The Onion. I've read/heard/seen stories about people confusing an Onion article or video for an actual news report, but I never expected to have one of these misunderstandings interrupt my amazing English lesson.**

The whole incident, I think, raises a larger question: What does this say about the overall intelligence of Hong Kong students? My initial gut reaction is to say, "not a lot." Let's look at this objectively: My students don't know enough English to know the word "pedophile." So right off the bat, the most ridiculous thing in the video, the thing that makes the whole thing obviously fake, is lost on them. Many of the jokes are spoken too quickly for my students to catch, and there are no subtitles. What's left? A professional-quality news report with fairly convincing photos that aesthetically gives no clues as to being fake. The music, the anchors, the "experts" all sound and look real enough. Throw in the fact that they're probably only picking up 1 out of every 4 or 5 words, and I understand how this could confuse them.

But still. Why would anyone believe a video on YouTube that says that Justin Bieber is 51 years old from a news organization named after a vegetable? Aren't people a little internet savvy? These aren't kindergartners; these are high school kids. My measured reaction after some consideration is, "I shouldn't think too much about this, but come on guys. Use your brains."

Some conclusions:

1) Critical thinking and media literacy should be stressed more in Hong Kong schools.
2) Students should probably use a little more common sense.
3) The Onion is awesome and students in Hong Kong now know what it is and how awesome it is.
4) Students should probably use a lot more common sense.


Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.


*Probably because I'm a moron.

**I stopped the lesson to show the students the video in question, explain what The Onion is, and show them a few China related articles, as well as that video about Disney Stars being manufactured in a lab. My students aren't usually too interested in English-language pop culture, so I took the opportunity and ran with it.