{"id":30554,"date":"2018-10-01t10:51:40","date_gmt":"2018-10-01t15:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=30554"},"modified":"2018-10-01t10:51:40","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01t15:51:40","slug":"a-conversation-on-teaching-media-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2018\/10\/a-conversation-on-teaching-media-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"a conversation on teaching media literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

by chelsea yarborough, graduate teaching fellow, and derek bruff, director<\/em><\/p>\n

on september 14, 2018, the 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 kicked off its new learning community on teaching digital literacies. with four panelists and a room of ready participants, we engaged in a rich, interdisciplinary conversation about the difficulties and possibilities of teaching media literacy in the classroom. to begin the discussion, derek bruff, director of the 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分, offered this question to the four panelists: how can we help students become more critical consumers of media and information, particularly in online spaces?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>claire king<\/strong>, associate professor of communication studies, opened with her gratitude that the conversation was framed with students as both consumers and producers of digital media. she stated, \u201cconsuming itself is a form of production,\u201d noting that the liking and sharing media produces data for the businesses that host that media. king drew on two disciplinary streams, critical rhetoric and critical media studies, to support her opening remarks. she argued that we should teach students about the history of the media they encounter and about the sources of power in the media landscape. she described some of the ways the platforms we use online direct our use of those platforms, often in ways students don\u2019t recognize. and she pointed to traditional forms of rhetorical analysis that continue to be important ways to make sense of digital media.<\/p>\n

lisa fazio<\/strong>, assistant professor of psychology and human development, answered the question with another question: why is it hard to process misinformation? to demonstrate that processing misinformation is hard, she led us in an activity in which most of us quickly agreed with the statement the biblical story of the flood featured moses, not noah. the activity showed that most people do not notice discrepancies in the stories they hear, which is how misinformation can first enter the mind. according to fazio, people only catch 30% of errors such as these, which is why information literacy can be so difficult. many of the errors that we hope for students to catch slide past their cognitive faculties, especially things that are repeated. as a response, she says that as teachers we should ask students, \u201chow do you know that what you are reading, hearing and\/or consuming is true?\u201d this will help them depend on their prior knowledge base and slow down their process of deciphering information in order to catch more errors than they would have otherwise.<\/p>\n

with this in mind, paige clancy<\/strong>, student media advisor, invited us to consider the importance of curiosity. \u201cthat\u2019s what we need from journalists,\u201d she said, like the student journalists she advises at vanderbilt. she noted how easily doctored photos and videos are shared online, and how some media outlets try to craft narratives without regard for facts. she said that we are \u201cunder the weight of digital life,\u201d which makes it critical for students to learn strategies and best practices for engaging with media. she provided three suggestions to resist poor media literacy practices based on her work with student journalists: show students how media is created, encourage them to talk to relevant humans instead of taking a report at face value, and involve students in debunking projects like international fact-checking day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

to close out the opening remarks, frank lester<\/strong>, librarian for government information, laid out the expansive nature of the problem. he reminded us of the mass consolidation and what he called \u201ccannibalization\u201d of major media companies and corporations. in the past, the news came from a much wider range of resources but the larger corporations have bought out so many of the smaller ones that the sources are exponentially more limited. he also named the decline in newspaper circulation and the reality that many people are getting their news from facebook and youtube. lester\u2019s remarks helped to frame the challenge that educators face as they help students understand the media landscape.<\/p>\n

the rest of the conversation with the panelists and the participants in the room centered heavily on resources that respond to the challenges that we know are prevalent in the arena of media literacy. several language instructors noted that students are often able to be more objective and critical in their second language than in their first. as a result, having students work with media in other languages can help. more generally, asking students to step out of their own habits and their own culture (\u201cstrange-ification,\u201d as one instructor put it) can provide them useful perspectives. other tactics included<\/p>\n