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This lesson plan develops students' ecomedia literacy skills by focusing on identifying and analyzing climate disinformation. Students will engage with various media sources, learn to recognize common tactics used in climate disinformation campaigns, and create their own fact-based climate communication. This learning activity engages students in hands-on analysis of climate disinformation, helping them develop critical ecomedia literacy skills. It encourages active learning through group work, fact-checking exercises, and creative projects, all centered around the crucial topic of climate change communication.

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This lesson plan enhances students’ ecomedia literacy skills by teaching them to identify and analyze climate disinformation in various media sources. Through hands-on activities like group analysis, fact-checking exercises, and creative projects, students develop critical thinking skills focused on climate change communication.

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Looking for ideas about how to bring the environment into your ecomedia classroom? This quickstart guide introduces educators to ecomedia literacy by providing a framework for integrating environmental awareness and media studies into curricula, covering key concepts, analytical approaches, and learning objectives, while offering practical examples, case studies, a glossary, and further reading suggestions to demonstrate the interconnectedness of media, technology, and ecological systems.

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Free Ecomedia LIteracy Quickstart Ebook – ecomedialiteracy.org

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Chart the Course for K-12 Data and Media Literacy! 

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Chart the Course for K-12 Data and Media Literacy! 

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Empower students and educators to shape the future of data literacy through the Chart the Course campaign. This interactive initiative invites participants to vote on the top data science learning outcomes that will be used to create the first-ever national K-12 data science education framework. Help students understand how data is used to inform decisions and narratives, fostering both media and data literacy. Voting is open until October 31, 2024—get involved today and make your voice heard!

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Imagine if you had

the power to shape

the future of education:

Chart the Course

Vote for your top data learning outcomes - or add your own - and help ensure students gain the skills needed to navigate the information era (AI included):

Scroll down to learn more

Our partners in developing a national K-12 data science & data literacy framework:

Cast your vote for the future of K-12 data science in three easy steps!

Cast your vote for your top K-12 data science learning outcomes in the "virtual ballot" below.

Download your official "I voted" sticker and social toolkit so that you can share the opportunity across social media! (Available after voting).

Industry Focus Group

Jehangir Amjad

​Antonia Arnold-McFarland

Greg Becker

Ed Dobbles

Kelly Krogh
Jessica Lyons

Henry Quinn

Evan Shieh

Yan Sun

Marc Wagner

Mark Zachar

| Software Engineer, Google ​

| President Emeritus, National Society of Black Engineers, RTP Chapter

| Director, Data Science & Analytics, Target

| Vice President, Advanced Analytics, Diageo

| Director, Senior Medical Science Liaison, Pfizer

| Senior Manager, Tableau Software, Salesforce

| Director of Analytics, L.L. Bean

| (fmr.) Applied Scientist, Amazon
| Business Development Advisor, Cargill

| Applied AI, J.P. Morgan Chase

| Talent Program Manager, Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute

​

Brian Conrad

Michael Dorff
Alan Garfinkel
Blanca Himes

Brendan Kelly
Kathryn Leonard
Jelani Nelson

Carolyn Rosé
Dev Sinha

Padhu Seshaiyer

Thema Monroe-White

Unislawa Williams

| Professor of Mathematics, Stanford University ​

| Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University

| Professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology, UCLA

| Associate Professor of Informatics in Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania

| Director of Introductory Mathematics, Harvard University

| Associate Dean of Curricular Affairs, Occidental College

| Professor and Chair, Computer Science Division, UC Berkeley

| Professor of Language Technologies and HCI, Carnegie Mellon University

| Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of Oregon

| Professor of Mathematics, George Mason University
| Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Policy, George Mason

| Associate Professor of Political Science, Spelman College

​

Higher Education (Multiple Fields) Focus Group

Higher Education (Undergraduate Data Science) Focus Group

Kristina Dance

Suyen Machado

Colleen McEnearney

Chris Orban

Emmanuel Schanzer

Evangeline Schepper

Jim Stigler

Adam Tashman

Kristin Hunter-Thomson

| Director of Data Science, Youcubed

| Director of Introduction to Data Science Project, UCLA Data Science Ed

| Math Curriculum & Instructional Leadership, Tuva

| Professor, Ohio State University; STEMCoding Project

| Chief Product Officer, Bootstrap

| Instructional Designer, QuantHub

| Co-Founder, CourseKata

| Associate Professor, Data Science, University of Virginia

| Director, Dataspire

​

Policy Leader Focus Group

Computer Science Educator Focus Group

Mathematics Educator Focus Group

| Math Teacher, Ogden City School District
| | Math Teacher, Nebo School District

| Elementary Mathematics Specialist, Salt Lake City School District

| Math Teacher, Jefferson Elementary School District

| Math Teacher, Teays Valley High School

| Math Teacher, Brooklyn Technical High School

| Director of K-8 Mathematics, Northeast Georgia

| High School Math Teacher

| Math Teacher/Curriculum & Instruction EdTech Coach/DEIB Coordinator, Dwight Global Online

| Math Teacher, Fairfax County Public Schools

| District Instructional Coach, Elizabeth City- Pasquotank Public Schools

| Math Teacher, West Springfield High School

Christel Bruno

Kyan Butler

Sandra Davis

Sierra Fisher

Ryan D. Johnson

Grace Lugo

Zoe Li

Christopher Randles

Aaron Reedy

Maggie Renken

Eric Wong

Xiao Zhang

| STEM Specialist, Arizona Department of Education

| Science Teacher/Science Instructional Specialist, Spring Independent School District

| Science Educator, Baldwin County Public Schools

| Science Educator, Mapleton Public Schools

| Science Educator, Idár Acero Schools

| Biology Teacher, Passaic Public Schools

| Chemistry Teacher, Otay Ranch Senior High School

| Chemistry Assistant Professor, University of Central Florida

| Co-founder and CEO, Data Classroom

| Director of Modern Learning, Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School

| Science Educator, Mercy Academy

| Science Educator, Francis W. Parker School

Social Studies Educator Focus Group

Teacher Educator Focus Group

Gail Burril

Stephanie Casey

Rick Hudson

Cliff Lee

Hollylynne Lee

Colleen McGowan

Asli Ozgun-Koca

Susan Peters

Eva Thanheiser

Josh Radinsky

Rob Schoen

Felice Shore

Tamara Shreiner

Travis Weiland

| Specialist, Program in Mathematics Education, Michigan State University

| Professor, Mathematics Education, Eastern Michigan University

| Professor of Mathematics, University of Southern Indiana

| Educator

| Educator

| Professor of Mathematics Education, Wayne State University

| Professor, Mathematics Education, University of Louisville

| Professor of Mathematics Education, Portland State University

| Associate Professor, Learning Science Research Institute

| Associate Professor of Mathematics Education, Florida State University

| Professor & Assistant Chair, Towson University

| Associate Professor of History and Social Studies Education, Grand Valley State University

| Assistant Professor, Mathematics, University of Houston

What is data science? What is the relationship between data science and data literacy?

ANSWER In short, if you're drawing insights from data, that's data science. Data science skills are essential to 21st-century living and create data literate individuals who are comfortable visualizing, analyzing, and making decisions based on data. This is already necessary for both work and personal life. While not all data literate individuals become data scientists, they will all become data users and consumers. By designing and paving the way for data science education, we ensure that today's learners can apply those skills in a wide range of contexts. Visit www.datascience4everyone.org for more informational resources.

Is data science just for mathematics or technical disciplines?

ANSWER No. Many believe that data science is a technical skill, only for statisticians or machine learning experts. But the reality is data literacy is a skill for all. Anyone in any role who interprets, visualizes, or communicates data is leveraging data science skills - and the approach goes well beyond math. Data scientists process, analyze, and draw insight from data. Students who are data-literate must be able to read, work with, analyze, and argue with data. They must be competent and comfortable reading, understanding, and synthesizing information displayed in the many forms data may take (graphically, in a data table, written words, etc.). Through our Commitments Campaign we are building a Coalition that calls upon industry leaders, schools and universities, policymakers, funders, and individuals to commit to action so that all students have the opportunity to gain data science skills.

Why now? Is there existing momentum to expand access to data science education?

ANSWER Yes! The DSE Coalition mobilized more than 150 organizations and individuals to call for the incoming Biden Administration to prioritize Data Science education in a letter aimed at spurring executive actions. There are already initiatives underway across the country, including more K-12 schools offering data science classes, institutions of higher education accepting data science as a math prerequisite, states rewriting math standards to include data science as an advanced course, and organizations creating public data sets to make sure all communities and stakeholders have access.

Who is organizing the Data Science for Everyone Commitments Campaign?

ANSWER The organizing team includes members at the University of Chicago Center for RISC, Schmidt Futures, Citadel LLC, the Learning Agency and Concord Consortium. For partnership or press opportunities, contact info@datascience4everyone.org.

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Help #ChartTheCourse and expand data science education

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Shaping the future of data science education is a collaborative process and we invite you to get involved! Your insights will help develop the first-ever national K-12 data science education framework, ensuring it is comprehensive, inclusive, and reflects the data skills students need to succeed.

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"What's Going on in This Graph?" is a compilation of visual data representations previously published in the New York Times. Each graph is linked to an article with more context on the data origins and collection methods.

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Graphs, maps and charts from The Times — and an invitation to students to discuss them live.

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Hundreds of news organizations show who and what is behind their work through the 8 Trust Indicators®. You can rely on these sites to display them clearly and completely, with practices that back them up. In fact, you can look for them on any news site. They’re an easy way to evaluate news credibility for yourself. They're useful for youth all the way through to older folks, and available online or for download as a poster or flier in English and Spanish. https://thetrustproject.org/trust-indicators/

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When a journalist is developing a news story, they may use information from eye witnesses, documents and other places - called sources. When a journalist shows their sources, we can check their reliability for ourselves.

Questions To Ask

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When a journalist is developing a news story, they may use information from eye witnesses, documents and other places - called sources. When a journalist shows their sources, we can check their reliability for ourselves. Questions To Ask

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This figure portrays a broad conceptualization of media literacy, regardless of media type, explained in an 2024 article that synthesizes decades of research and evaluation studies, including meta-analyses. The theory offers a focal point to integrate different approaches and perspectives through the lens of a decision-making process by which individuals use content obtained from any and all technologies or media to catalyze the development of beliefs and behaviors for a myriad of topics. Content or media-specific literacy research can benefit from using the Media Literacy Theory of Change in tandem with the Message Interpretation Process Model and other theories and approaches to compare and contrast findings across the broader environment of content and technologies that empower individual decision-making, such as digital, social media, and news. The open-access article is available at https://academic.oup.com/ct/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ct/qtae018/7756519

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These steps don't need to be followed in order; you might try checking step 3 first! For a complete instructional Toolkit focused on Science Media Literacy, developed by Washington State University's Murrow Center for Media & Health Promotion Research, visit https://8907224.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/8907224/WSU%20Toolkit%20Edition%205%20Aug%2031%202024.pdf

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Recognize Misinfo Infographic-July 2022 Color Palette 1 updated after teens - Copy

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Media Literacy and Online Critical Thinking Curriculum

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Media Literacy and Online Critical Thinking Curriculum

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Explore the Santa Clara County Office of Education's free, engaging, and easy-to-implement social justice-centered media literacy curriculum!

There are three versions:

• Student-paced high school online course

• Teacher-facilitated high school blended learning unit

• Online course for adults (English & Spanish)

Access resources at sccoe.to/medialit

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How to teach news: transform your classroom into a newsroom!

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How to teach news: transform your classroom into a newsroom!

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Join our free NewsWise webinar:

Understand the importance of reading and writing real news stories.

Empower and motivate pupils by creating opportunities for pupil voice.

Create a real audience and purpose for news writing.

Enhance the writing process through newsroom roleplay

For: Primary school educators, school advisors, Literacy subject leads, librarians, school leaders

Full of expertise and resources from The Guardian Foundation, PSHE Association and National Literacy Trust.

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how to teach news: transform your classroom into a newsroom!

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how to teach news: transform your classroom into a newsroom! tickets

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How to teach news: transform your classroom into a newsroom!

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Eventbrite - NewsWise presents How to teach news: transform your classroom into a newsroom! - Tuesday, 21 November 2023 - Find event and registration information.

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Talking about the news and supporting children's wellbeing

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Talking about the news and supporting children's wellbeing

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Join our free NewsWise webinar about how to safely talk about major, upsetting news stories with children. Full of resources + guidance from The Guardian Foundation, PSHE Association and National Literacy Trust.

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Led by news literacy specialists Elli Narewska and Sorcha Hughes from the Guardian Foundation and PSHE subject specialist Florence Ackland from the PSHE Association.

Strategies and activities to help support children's wellbeing when news feels overwhelming:

Understand the ways in which news and media can affect children's wellbeing.

Learn tips for discussing news in the classroom whilst creating a safe climate for learning.

Explore a range of practical ideas and activities to support children's wellbeing in relation to the news - both in the classroom and at home.

For: Primary school educators, school advisors, PSHE and IT subject leads, librarians, school leaders

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talking about the news and supporting children’s wellbeing

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talking about the news and supporting children’s wellbeing tickets

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Talking about the news and supporting children's wellbeing

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Eventbrite - NewsWise presents Talking about the news and supporting children's wellbeing - Tuesday, 14 November 2023 - Find event and registration information.

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Learn to Teach a News Literacy Project in 6th-12th grades

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Learn to Teach a News Literacy Project in 6th-12th grades

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Want to engage your secondary students?

Bring the magic of journalism into your ELA classroom today.

With the 10-week Effective Communicators project, your 6th to 12th grade students will build critical reading, objective writing, effective speaking, and close listening skills in a cohesive, meaningful way. No prior journalism experience needed. Language arts teachers gain access to professional development and a community of practitioners that empowers them to embed media literacy, interviewing, public speaking, writing, editing and publishing in a cohesive project. https://journalisticlearning.org/effective-communicators/

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The internet is the backbone of today's world. The internet powers education and economy, it supports our health and well-being and it connects us to our neighbors and to those we love. Americans without internet miss out on many of these benefits. 1 in 5 American households aren't connected to the Internet which means a fifth of our country that's unable to fully participate in modern life. Access to the internet is a necessity because it creates jobs and opportunities, helps us connect to one another, and saves time and money. High speed internet service is important fir students to access high quality education and training, increases sales and creates jobs, used for Telehealth which increases access to care at anytime anywhere reducing hospital visits and stay time while reducing costs and improving patient care, strengthens our ties to friends family, connects us to our elected officials, and lastly improves access to job opportunities and high quality workers.

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The Internet is the backbone of today's world.

It powers education and economy. It supports our health and well-being. And it connects us to our neighbors and to those we love. Americans without Internet miss out on many of these benefits. Roughly 1 in 5 American households aren't connected to the Internet. That's a fifth of our country that's unable to fully participate in modern life.

Access to the Internet isn't a luxury. It's a necessity. That's why the Biden-Harris administration is providing $65 billion to expand Internet access. We want to make sure that everyone in America has access to reliable and affordable high-speed Internet. High-speed Internet doesn't just help individuals. It helps our country. It saves us time and money. It creates jobs and opportunities here in the United States. And it helps us connect to one another, building a stronger, more free society.

These are some of the ways that high-speed Internet has transformed our world:

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It powers education and economy. It supports our health and well-being. And it connects us to our neighbors and to those we love. Americans without Internet miss out on many of these benefits. Roughly 1 in 5 American households aren't connected to the Internet.

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Media Literacy Guidebook Special: Anti-Racist Pedagogy 

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Media Literacy Guidebook Special: Anti-Racist Pedagogy 

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This episode of the Media Literacy Guidebook explores Alexis Romero Walker's "Using critical media literacy to create a decolonial, anti-racist teaching philosophy". It briefly overviews the key points, including highlighting ways she recommends both decolonizing the classroom and creating an anti-racist pedagogy.

Media Literacy Guidebook Special: Anti-Racist Pedagogy

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Media Literacy Guidebook Special: Anti-Racist Pedagogy

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Media Literacy Guidebook #2: 5 ways to question what you consume

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Media Literacy Guidebook #2: 5 ways to question what you consume

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In this second edition of the Media Literacy guidebook, we discuss ways you can question the media that you consume.

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The Media Literacy Guidebook #2: 5 Ways to Question What You Consume

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Find Evidence-Based Approach for Lessons and Activities with Center for Media Literacy's Resources

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Find Evidence-Based Approach for Lessons and Activities with Center for Media Literacy's Resources

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CML Special Curriculum Programs and Services: Educator Resources

Through the years, CML has not only advocated for media literacy education, but also designed, developed, implemented and evaluated resources for educators and communities to comprise the CML MediaLit Kit™. CML's framework for media literacy is now evidenced-based, with a peer-reviewed longitudinal study by UCLA. The following resources -- all utilizing CML's methodology -- are available:

Global OnRamp Materials for Getting Started (Free)
Professional Development Starter Package: Free Download includes Literacy for the 21st Century, Q/TIPS, A System for Change: Professional Development, Five Key Questions That Can Change the World
Literacy for the 21st Century available as Free Download in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish
Questions/TIPS (Q/TIPS) Chart available as Free Download in English, Spanish, Korean, French
MediaLit Moments Archive of Activities
Teaching Democracy: A Media Literacy Approach

Theory
CML's Basic Framework: A Research-Based Approach
CML's Reading Room a searchable library of research and articles in the field
Empowerment Spiral of Awareness, Analysis, Reflection and Action

Practice
Beyond Blame: Challenging Violence in the Media/Middle School Unit - Highly accalaimed evidence-based curriculum
Five Key Questions that Can Change the World includes 25 basic lesson plans
Smoke Detectors! Deconstructing Tobacco Use in Media
Breakfast Epiphanies: Project-based Learning Through Media Literacy and Nutrition
A Recipe for Action: Deconstructing Food Advertising

Implementation
Media Literacy: A System for Learning AnyTime, AnyWhere
Project SMARTArt: A Case Study in elementary school implementation
Professional Development PowerPoint Slides
Assessment
Research & Evaluation
Student Made Media
CML Lesson Plan & Activity Archive

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CML Special Curriculum Programs and Services: Educator Resources Through the years, CML has not only advocated for media literacy education, but also designed, developed, implemented and evaluated resources for educators and communities to comprise the CML MediaLit Kit™. CML's framework for media literacy is now evidenced-based, with a peer-reviewed longitudinal study by UCLA.

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Explore the Important Role of Media Literacy in Security and Defense with NATO and Center for Media Literacy!

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Explore the Important Role of Media Literacy in Security and Defense with NATO and Center for Media Literacy!

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Propaganda: Media Literacy's Role in Resilience

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Discover the essence of media literacy education through CML's short, free online course. You will find short explanations of the CML's evidence-based Core Concepts, Key Questions of Media Literacy, as well as the Empowerment Spiral of Awareness, Analysis, Reflection and Action.

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Welcome to the Center for Media Literacy's Global On-ramp to Media Literacy! Today, we are all media consumers and producers who have the ability to communicate, influence and be influenced by others anywhere in the world. So, CML has designed this course as a public service to help people become more informed participants in our complex, global media environment. This 90-minute, self-guided course will give you a strong, foundational understanding of the concepts of media literacy. You will explore topics that range from CML's long-proven Five Key Questions and Core Concepts and Empowerment Spiral, to CML's MediaLit Kit - a collection of core ideas and tools that are fundamental to media literacy's inquiry-based pedagogy. We hope you enjoy the journey as you discover CML's foundation for building new skills to navigate the thousands of messages that we send and receive each day.

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Welcome to the Center for Media Literacy's Global On-ramp to Media Literacy! Today, we are all media consumers and producers who have the ability to communicate, influence and be influenced by others anywhere in the world. So, CML has designed this course as a public service to help people become more informed participants in our complex, global media environment.

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The Center for Media Literacy Celebrates U.S. Media Literacy Week! We have advanced media literacy since 1989 -- and media literacy is more important than ever!

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Media Literacy K-12 & Collegiate Curriculums

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Media Literacy K-12 & Collegiate Curriculums

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To license "Trust Me" Documentary and curriculums for teaching media literacy, checkout www.trustmedocumentary.com

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"Trust Me" Educator, Student and Parental Guides

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"Trust Me" Educator, Student and Parental Guides

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Learn or teach how to become digital citizens with award-winning documentary and lessons created by experts in news, digital, and media literacy like News Literacy Project, Center for Media Literacy, and the RAND Corporation by licensing curriculum at www.newday.com/films/trust-me or www.kanopy.com/product/trust-me.

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"Trust Me" Collegiate, Parental, and K-12 Guides written by News Literacy Project 

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"Trust Me" Collegiate, Parental, and K-12 Guides written by News Literacy Project 

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Learn or teach how to become digital citizens with award-winning documentary and lessons created by experts in news, digital, and media literacy like News Literacy Project, Center for Media Literacy, and the RAND Corporation by licensing curriculum at www.newday.com/films/trust-me or www.kanopy.com/product/trust-me.

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🌍 Join us for a groundbreaking global online watch party of the thought-provoking documentary, "Trust Me"! 🎥✨

📅 Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 21st at 12:00 AM through October 31st, as we embark on a journey to explore the power of media literacy in building a world of peace and understanding. 🌟🕊️

🤔 Have you ever wondered about the influence of media on our perception of reality? This eye-opening film will take you on a captivating exploration of the need for media literacy in today's fast-paced, information-driven world. 💡

🌟 Don't miss this incredible opportunity in celebration of @UNESCO's #GlobalMediaandInformationLiteracyWeek to be part of a worldwide movement toward greater media literacy and peace. Invite your friends, family, and colleagues to join us for an unforgettable watch party that will leave you inspired and empowered! 🌍✨

👉 Click the link below to RSVP and secure your virtual seat in this groundbreaking event. We can't wait to see you there! 🎉👀

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/732388582967?aff=oddtdtcreator

#TrustMeDocumentary #WorldWideWatchParty #MediaLiteracy #BuildingPeace #civildiscourse #trust #hope #polarization #mentalhealth

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Media Literacy Can Start By Inspecting 7 Bias Sources of Overall Impartiality, a complement to lessons from the award-winning 57-page nonprofit book, Bias Is All Around You by Erik Bean, Ed.D., with foreword by Tim Vos, Ph.D., director, School of Journalism, Michigan State University. More info visit https://biashandbook.com.  Recommended for English, journalism, civics and philosophy classrooms, book clubs, or individuals. Available to libraries from Baker & Taylor, Ingram, and Vitalsource. 

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Media Literacy Can Start By Inspecting 7 Bias Sources of Overall Impartiality, a complement to lessons from the award-winning 57-page nonprofit book, Bias Is All Around You by Erik Bean, Ed.D., with foreword by Tim Vos, Ph.D., director, School of Journalism, Michigan State University. More info visit https://biashandbook.com.  Recommended for English, journalism, civics and philosophy classrooms, book clubs, or individuals. Available to libraries from Baker & Taylor, Ingram, and Vitalsource. 

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https://www.mlar.sk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/3_Bean.pdf

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The C.R.A.A.P. Test Tool (A Teen-Friendly Aaptation of the C.R.A.A.P. Test developed by the Meriam Library at California State University, Chico).

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The C.R.A.A.P. Test Tool (A Teen-Friendly Aaptation of the C.R.A.A.P. Test developed by the Meriam Library at California State University, Chico).

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iThrive Sim: Follow the Facts is a tech-supported role-playing simulation game that supports high school students in building the skills to source, evaluate, analyze, and respond to the media and information they encounter in an increasingly digital world.

Curricular surrounds developed by social and emotional learning experts and tested by H.S. social studies educators pair with Follow the Facts to deepen civic learning for teens. Our C.R.A.A.P. Test tool, an adaptation of the C.R.A.A.P. Test developed by the Meriam Library at California State University, Chico, is one resource teens actively reference and use throughout the game-based learning experience. Learn more about iThrive Sim: Follow the Facts and the tools and resources it includes at www.ithrivegames.org/ithrive-sim/follow-the-facts/.

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iThrive Sim: Follow the Facts, A Media Literacy Skill-building Simulation Game

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iThrive Sim: Follow the Facts, A Media Literacy Skill-building Simulation Game

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A storm is coming. A mysterious

illness has the community on edge.

Residents have questions about

their safety and the state of the

city's infrastructure. Officials stand

by their reports. What's the truth?

Invite your high students to uncover

and report it in the media literacy

skill-building simulation game,

iThrive Sim: Follow the Facts: https://www.ithrivegames.org/ithrive-sim/follow-the-facts/

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An award-winning prosocial video game exploring some of the ways young people's attitudes and beliefs regarding dating relationships are influenced by media. Culture Overlord is a 2022 Games for Change Awards 'Best Learning Game' Finalist, a 2021 GEE Learning Games Award Finalist, and a winner of the 2020 Life.Love Game Design Challenge.

In-game content is designed to foster conversations and support use in classrooms.

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About Culture Overlord
Culture Overlord is a media literacy video game developed by Lucas Vially presented by the Gaming Against Violence program and produced by the nonprofit organization Jennifer Ann's Group. It was a 2022 Games for Change Awards "Best Learning Game" nominee, a 2021 James Paul Gee Learning Games Award finalist, and is the winning game of the 2020 Life.Love. Game Design Challenge. Culture Overlord was created for the Gaming Against Violence program which focuses on the use of games for violence prevention. Published by Life Love Publishing.

This prosocial video game explores media and cultural impacts on the attitudes and beliefs that young people have regarding healthy dating relationships. For information and resources about Media Literacy and Healthy Dating Relationships please see below.

Artist Statement

"Making a game is quite a challenge. Making a game to adequately teach something is even more difficult. The topic of culture and its influence on our daily lives is complex and important. I hope my game manages to effectively introduce players to the subject."

- Lucas Vially, Creator of Culture Overlord

Latest: Resilience Game Design Challenge

The 15th Annual Life.Love. Game Design Challenge has launched. The theme for the 2022 competition is resilience. The winning resilience games will be announced October 2022.

Media Literacy
An important goal of Culture Overlord is to encourage players, especially young people, to consider the impact of movies, books, songs, games, websites, and more. More specifically, what attitudes and beliefs are they acquiring from popular media? In their Parent's Guide to Media Literacy The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) asks parents " where do children get their beliefs?" and " what messages are they receiving?"[1]

Similarly the Center for Media Literacy (CML) conducts research to study how media impacts students in the areas of " violence, nutrition, body image, and sexuality."[2] Media Smarts in Canada encourages educators to engage students about media in the classroom in order to " become active, enaged media consumers" and that the need for this media literacy education " needs to start at the very early stages of learning."[3]

According to common sense media [4], encouraging early education in media literacy is intended to help young people:

1. learn to think critically

2. become a smart consumer of products and information

3. recognize point of view

4. create media responsibly

5. identify the role of media in our culture

6. understand the author's goal

Unfortunately media literacy is not taught in classrooms very often. According to Media Literacy now, fewer than one-third of states include media literacy in their education standards.[6] Further, the media literacy curricula include for-profit corporations that don't sufficiently consider the roles played by " power dynamics, profit motives, or their own internal beliefs and biases."[7]

Select Media Literacy Resources

Healthy Dating Relationships
The primary goal of Culture Overlord is to prevent abusive dating relationships, in particular, teen dating violence. The aim is to do this through the promotion of healthy dating relationship ideals and attitudes for adolescents. Media literacy is important to achieve this goal because young people's attitudes and beliefs regarding healthy relationships and gender norms are heavily informed by the media to which they are exposed.

The Making Caring Common project's report The Talk: How Adults Can Promote Young People's Healthy Relationships and Prevent Misogyny and Sexual Harassment reveals that young people are tired of the media's overhyped focus on "hooking up" and would prefer to instead learn from their parents and their schools about healthy relationships. Some of the key findings from their report:

► 70% of the 18 to 25-year-olds surveyed would have liked more information from their parents about emotional aspects of romantic relationships

► 65% of those surveyed would have liked more guidance at school about emotional aspects of romantic relationships

► 76% of respondents never had a conversation with their parents about how to avoid sexually harassing others

► 32% of male and 22% of female respondents thought men should be dominant in romantic relationships

► 14% of males and 10% of females thought women should be dominant in romantic relationships

► 57% of responsdents never spoke with their parents about the "importance of not having sex with someone who is too intoxicated or impaired to make a decision about sex"

Jennifer Ann's Group, a nonprofit charity focused on teen dating violence prevention, uses prosocial video games in an effort to engage and educate young people about healthy relationships and related topics. Their program, Gaming Against Violence, has been producing, publishing, and researching video games intentionally designed to assist adolescents about a variety of topics including consent, healthy relationships, and teen dating violence prevention since 2008.

Healthy Dating Relationship Resources

Culture Overlord
Game Credits

Game Design

Lucas Vially

Art and Programming

Lucas Vially

Producer

Jennifer Ann's Group

Advisory Board

Katherine Brehm, Ph.D. - Clinical Psychologist

Myrna Deckert, Paso Del Norte Health Foundation

Elizabeth L. Richeson, Ph.D., MS PsyPharm - Clinical Psychologist

Paul Richeson, LCSW - Marriage and Family Counselor

Blake Riddell, Psy.D. - Clinical Psychologist

Game Reviewers

Leigh Alexander

Harley Baldwin

Maria Burns Ortiz

Simon Carless

Brian Crecente

Drew Crecente, JD

Sabrina Culyba

Dr. Pat DeLeon

Mark DeLoura

Dr. Ruud Jacobs

Keen Seong Liew

Stephanie Mathes

Dr. Brooke Morrill

Dr. Elizabeth L. Richeson

Jo Sharpen

Peter Willington

Testing & Diverse Help

Vincent Vially

Noé Sultani

Péter György Szabó

Mil Beges

Sandro Ferrand

Stephanie Mathes

Game Soundtrack

f-r-a-g-i-l-e

Kevin Mac Leod

Monplaisir

Komiku

JNGS

axtoncrolley

andrewkn

Sponsors

The Estate of Dr. Angela E. Ladogana

Dr. David Wilbanks

Carefree Homes

Drew Crecente

Freeport McMoRan

Helen of Troy

Industrial Realty Group

Dr. Elizabeth L. Richeson

Paul Richeson

Schell Games

Stanlee & Jerry Rubin

Verlander Enterprises, Inc.

El Paso Electric Company

WestStar Bank

Dr. Katherine and Russell Brehm

Judge Linda Chew

Fox Auto Team

Tomas G. Marino, DMD

Peak Behavioral Health Services

Dr. Cynthia Rivera

Tropicana Homes

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Culture Overlord is an award winning prosocial video game about media's impact on attitudes about healthy relationships. Developed by Lucas Vially. From the 'Gaming Against Violence' program and produced by Jennifer Ann's Group, a nonprofit organization. Published by Life Love Publishing. A 2022 Games for Change Awards nominee for Best Learning Game and 2021 GEE Learning Games Award finalist.

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About Culture OverlordCulture Overlord is a media literacy video game developed by Lucas Vially presented by the Gaming Against Violence program and produced by the nonprofit organization Jennifer Ann's Group. It was a 2022 Games for Change Awards "Best Learning Game" nominee, a 2021 James Paul Gee Learning Games Award finalist, and is the winning game of the 2020 Life.Love.

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Video on Building Resiliency: Media Literacy as a Strategic Defense Strategy for the Transatlantic

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Video on Building Resiliency: Media Literacy as a Strategic Defense Strategy for the Transatlantic

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A short video dialogue, highlighting important take-aways from Tessa Jolls' Fulbright-NATO Report (2022) features a conversation between Michael Danielson, chair of the State of Washington's  Action for Media Education (AME) advocacy group and a high school teacher at Seattle Preparatory School, and Tessa Jolls, CML's President and report author.

The video addresses Jolls findings on the state of the field, and the current need for scaling and institutionalizing media literacy, so that it becomes part of the cultural fabric of democratic societies.
Link:  https://youtu.be/VYPjDfHWzX4

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Media Literacy in the Transatlantic: A Conversation with Tessa Jolls and Michael Danielson

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Expand Your Media Literacy Skills Today. Take these self-paced courses at your own pace and work towards the PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification!

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https://teach.kqed.org/

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Free self-paced online courses and workshops on media making and teaching for all educators!

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Pre-K Edu Coloring Pages & Hands-On Halloween "I Spy" Media

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Pre-K Edu Coloring Pages & Hands-On Halloween "I Spy" Media

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Parents and educators can turn everyday events into media literacy activities, even Halloween w/wee ones, like Trick or Treating.

Our Pre-K coloring pages and activities for kids have now ‘appeared’ to get kids thinking EARLY ON about the media that surrounds them.

These free coloring pages and activities inspire inquiry about ‘data trackers’ with the DigitalDogsBook.com pack of pups. As kids play ‘I spy’ on their Halloween haunts, they become ‘data detectives’ raising awareness of how they walk through the world seeding early questions about digital devices, facial recognition, safety vs surveillance, privacy and intent.

FREE downloads of more coloring pages and hands-on activities are available in the new, FREE 20pp parent/educator guide at DigitalDogs.com. All activities tie-in with with the new children’s kidlit media literacy book series, “The Secret of the Vanishing Bones, Tracking the Data Trail.” Book Two and Three are now in production/development! https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Vanishing-Bones-Tracking-Literacy/dp/1954361009/

Also, throughout Media Literacy Week, our main site, ShapingYouth.org will be highlighting teaching tools and interviews with prominent media literacy authors who create media magic through their own projects, from podcasts to newly published books and enrichment!

Here's the first one, interviewing media literacy pro Frank W. Baker about his new graphic novel, a history and civics teaching tool in itself:  https://shapingyouth.org/frank-w-bakers-new-graphic-novel-we-survived-the-holocaust/

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Booster Troop! Animated Adventure with Lesson Plan

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Booster Troop! Animated Adventure with Lesson Plan

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Is misinformation wreaking havoc in your school or neighborhood? It's Booster Troop to the rescue! Booster Troop follows an elite squad of action hero kids who promote health and fight misinformation. It comes with a 7 minute video (in both English and Spanish), a lesson plan, classroom materials, gifs and a 1 minute trailer in English and Spanish. It's created by Emmy Award-winning TV writers, Black doctors, Latinx scientists, and educators. Materials are here below and 1 minute trailer in the preview window. https://web.enable.us/room/1ea8ba71-426a-4a82-8702-89b20040b9e3

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Get ready for Booster Troop! Booster Troop follows an elite squad of intergalactic action hero kids who fight misinformation and promote health.

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Muscle Up Against Misinformation by Pranav Karthikeyan

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Muscle Up Against Misinformation© Booklet by Pranav Karthikeyan

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Muscle Up Against Misinformation© Booklet by Pranav Karthikeyan

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Muscle Up Against Misinformation© Booklet

Misinformation is tricky, sticky, and spreads very fast. It is important to know how misinformation traps are all around us and how easy it is to fall victim to misinformation. This brief, information-packed booklet with lots of examples will automatically empower you against these traps and help you gain credible information.

This booklet will cover

- What is misinformation?

- Why do we fall victim to misinformation
- Lazy brain vs. Active brain thinking

- Discuss with examples, various traps that make us victims:

Emotional traps

Mind traps

Digital traps

- How to protect ourselves from these traps?

We saw very clearly during COVID-19 how our local community members, both young and old, became victims of misinformation. I hope this media literacy booklet will help to keep our family, community, and our country safe.

Pranav Karthikeyan

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SiteLogic created a series of podcasts and interviews around fake news, digital literacy, media literacy, and click-bait. While the audience is primarily business professionals, they experience many of the same click bait headlines in business media. Author Nolan Higdon is featured in the podcast and provides practical steps for increasing digital literacy skills.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Matt Bailey: Well, hello listener, thank you for joining us again on the Endless Coffee Cup podcast. And today I'm excited. I have a returning guest Nolan Higdon, and now you may remember Nolan, uh, we interviewed him from his book, The Anatomy of Fake News, a couple of weeks, maybe a month or two ago now, but Nolan's returned for another conversation about fake news and media. And Nolan, how are you doing? It's good to have you back.

[00:00:31] Nolan Higdon: I'm doing well. This is so great to be here. It's one of my favorite podcasts to come and chat. It's always a pleasure to talk with you. So this is cool.

[00:00:38] Matt Bailey: I appreciate that. Uh, since the book has come out, uh, what have you been doing and, uh, how has that, how has the reception of the book been?

[00:00:47] Nolan Higdon: Well, I've been, I've been zooming everywhere. Um, there was because of the election day was on the horizon, um, there was a lot of demand for me to come give talks about how to detect fake news and what is fake news, and I got to say in the last, you know, four to six weeks, I've been talking at least somewhere once a day, if not more.

And you know, across the ideological spectrum, right, left, and center, people are interested in detecting fake news, so I was pretty optimistic by the response.

[00:01:12] Matt Bailey: Oh, that is cause for optimism. That's a, that's a ray of sunshine there in an otherwise, you know, judgmental world that, you know, people are now realizing it's a problem and we have to solve this. I, that's very, very hopeful to hear. I'm glad to hear that.

[00:01:29] Nolan Higdon: Yeah. It's um, you know, for years I've been kind of beaten on this door, um, but I think something about, uh, maybe the last four years or so, uh, woke people up to the fact that it's not something we can keep ignoring or just kind of laughing at it's a, you know, really serious problem, and so I've been heartened to see people's interests and, um, changing their own news using habits.

[00:01:49] Matt Bailey: Well, and just the, you know, the willingness to sit down and talk. I mean, that's, that's kind of the idea behind, you know, my podcast is even having people that might think differently. There's a value in conversation and learning something that you may not know.

[00:02:05] Nolan Higdon: Yeah. Uh, you know, there's, there's so much, you can just learn from other people, and you can also learn about your own biases. You know, there's a great book by Malcolm Gladwell he wrote, it was called Talking to Strangers.

[00:02:16] Matt Bailey: Ah.

[00:02:17] Nolan Higdon: And in it he talked about how we have all these preconceived notions of people, like whether they're, you know, we're scared of them or whether we think they're harmless, and then they do things that disprove that, that thesis.

And so the way you really get to know folks is by talking and engaging with them, you know, that's a jump right back into the election, but I thought this was one of the interesting thing about the electoral outcomes was people's perceptions of the "other side" and the way they treated so many identity groups like monoliths, um, you know, proved it, you know, really to be, you know, off if not totally inaccurate.

And I think it, it's another kind of example of why we need spaces, like, um, you know, the Endless Coffee Cup and things like this, where you can just engage in ideas in a, in a comfortable space.

[00:03:00] Matt Bailey: Yeah. And, and that's one thing that bugs me, especially around election time is all of a sudden, it's a, it's a binary view of people. That you either left or right. And if you're right, this must be what you're about, and if you're left, this must be what you're about. And, and, you know, it ignores the nuance of what people go through. Now, granted, I will say there are people that, you know, "I'm a diehard Republican always have been. I'm a diehard Democrat always have been."

There are those people, but I think for a lot, you know, there is some agony, there is some questioning. Where will I go, uh, or, you know, as we joked here at our houses, holding your nose and making a vote, there's a lot of nuance and yet, it's always framed in binary that you voted this way, you must believe that.

[00:03:52] Nolan Higdon: I think it's a critical point. People are, um, complicated. They're, they're contradictory. It could be a new gas station opened down the street, that's why they vote one way versus another.

[00:04:01] Matt Bailey: Yeah.

[00:04:01] Nolan Higdon: And people make decisions off random things, and I, you know, there's so many just examples coming out of the early election data of like increases in like people of color voting for Trump from last election. There was some women who voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton, and these voting patterns are just outside of our binary discussion.

[00:04:21] Matt Bailey: Right.

[00:04:21] Nolan Higdon: And I'm, you know, not interested in justifying them or anything like that, but getting deeper to understand people, like why did they vote a certain way? We know, like in 2016, you know, about 13% of Trump voters had voted for Obama previously.

Like what's, what's that like, what, what goes into the decision-making? To me, I'd like to engage in those conversations rather than, you know, label or dismiss these folks.

[00:04:41] Matt Bailey: Absolutely. I mean, you're getting to the heart of nuance. You're getting to, you know, where things become personal. And this is something that, you know, occurred to me and, and just really kind of, I guess the day I came to this realization, it just struck me that, wait a minute, we're all trying to solve the same problems.

I, you know, for example, homelessness, no one thinks it's a good idea. And no one is advocating that we keep people on the street. It's that we all have different ideas about how to solve the problem based on your experience, based on, you know, how you grew up and, and those types of things. And it's not until we come together to talk about these different ideas and yeah, we're going to disagree, but at least you heard what's driving someone else's opinion or passion about the subject.

[00:05:30] Nolan Higdon: Yeah, I think we're in a much better place if we can agree on what the problem is, but maybe disagree on the potential solution, but we're in a, you know, we're in a bad place when we disagree on what the problems are. I mean, if you think half the country is the problem, I mean, that's, that's a problem in itself.

You know, we, we need to at least agree on what these, these problems are, and I, you know, not to bring everything back to, to news media, but I think news media has gotten so lazy that it, it draws our attention to, "Look what the Democrats did today," or "Look what Trump tweeted today," and we get fixated on that.

We disagree about it, but those discussions are not going to address homelessness, they're not going to improve the lives of your children, they're not going to combat climate change, they're not going to make food more readily available. That, they're, they're really distractions in, in that sense. I think if we start to get an understanding of that, then we can have a context in which we can engage with each other.

[00:06:22] Matt Bailey: Yeah, absolutely. Well, and this tends to go along with the theme of, of your book, which I really enjoyed, which was, it's personal responsibility. We can't rely on the government to, you know, manage or make laws about communication or even, you know, restrict free speech. And then also we can't expect the companies to self-regulate. It's an individual responsibility.

[00:06:49] Nolan Higdon: We live in a democracy, and we really forget how, one, radical the idea of democracy is, and then two, like how serious it is to live in a democracy. Democracy is a 24 hour a day job. That's why I sort of balked at this notion that democracy was on the ballot this year. Democracy is on the ballot, it's on our radar, or at least it should be every single day.

And so the whole reason we have the press is to serve our democracy. It's supposed to inform us, so the fact that we treat it like, you know, trivial entertainment or, you know, clickbait we can post online, it's really doing a disservice to democracy. And so my plea is to, you know, reassert our commitment to democracy. Don't be a media consumer, be a media user, you know, use this stuff to, to strengthen our democracy and to, to make the world look a little more like you'd like it to look.

[00:07:35] Matt Bailey: That's a great, great point. It's interesting that, you know, you're writing from a political perspective, but, you know, my background is in marketing and business and the connection and the correlation between what you write about political news media, I see it also in business news, as well.

That there is the clickbait about, I like to call it the new shiny object, you know, we see it, you know, right now Tik Tok is the shiny object, and you know, it's getting people's attention and marketing managers are, you know, say we've got to be on Tik Tok. Everybody else is there. And it's just so funny to see a lot of the same parallels that happen with clickbait and sharing news and not really fully immersing yourself in it or participating in it, but rather following the headlines and making decisions based on headlines. I'm amazed at how pervasive it is in business, as well as in personal and political arenas.

[00:08:36] Nolan Higdon: I think of a, there's a, there's a commentator named Krystal Ball, who, she says that like the stock market is a graph of rich people's feelings.

[00:08:44] Matt Bailey: That's great.

[00:08:45] Nolan Higdon: And they basically respond to these new things like Tik Tok and things like that. But that's fascinating because I've always wondered, and I know you could probably speak to this, like the opposite. Do those of us who are not in business and finance, we look at those things like market indicators and we overemphasize them or make decisions off of them that maybe we shouldn't, where those inside of the industry kind of maybe like balk at those quick ups and downs from Tik Tok and things like that?

[00:09:10] Matt Bailey: Not really. I, you know, I'm not watching the market as much as I watch the media and how it talks about different social media platforms or different trends. It, you know, a couple of years ago it was all the millennial trend and how to talk to millennials and how to market to millennials.

And you know, now it because of Black Lives Matter and because of some of the social issues, well now it's, well, how do we connect with Latinx? How do we connect with them? And, and this is the new marketing, and you have to be more inclusive, you know, and it's, and it's a trend. It'll go away in another six months, and it will be replaced with something else. So in that way, it's, it's like the business media is a perfect reflection of the 24 hour news cycle.

[00:10:00] Nolan Higdon: That is fascinating. But yeah, I definitely see those trends, you know, the banners and kind of the, the signaling, but then it does dissipate as the next important thing comes along.

[00:10:06] Matt Bailey: Well, and that signaling, I, it's so interesting. I was reading something the other day, especially through this pandemic, about people overwhelmingly are saying, "Yes, we're relying on brands to make us feel better and make us feel safe."

And yet the same amount of people say, "I don't trust brands because they're opportunistic." And this was about the pandemic, it was about race relations, it was about social issues, that we want the brands to take a stand, but at the same time, if they do, they're opportunistic. So I love the duality of what people think and the responses there.

[00:10:42] Nolan Higdon: There does seem to be like a, you know, and I, you know, you would definitely know this from a marketing perspective, I'm sure you have some thoughts on this, but to me it does seem like perpetual signaling from both, like, industry and politics. Like the Democrats are really good in my opinion, about comparatively to the Republicans about talking about gender and race.

And the Republicans increasingly are better about talking about class because Democrats ignore it. But when it comes to actual like policy or structural changes, then like everybody is silent. And I see that like from industry like, you know, Amazon was putting up like a Black Lives Matter banner while at the same time, it was stamping out an effort of unionization by a black man, you know, getting him fired from their warehouse. So it's, I don't know those kinds of, I guess, dualities of behavior that, that really, I think, feed into people's cynicism.

[00:11:29] Matt Bailey: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, well, we just saw it, uh, what I think yesterday, uh, Gavin Newsom apologized for attending a party that was illegal under his recent, uh, proclamation there. And yeah, it's got to make the everyday person just cynical about the whole system.

[00:11:48] Nolan Higdon: Yeah, the ways in which like, uh, elites, those in power and the economic elites, whether it be Newsom or Trump or Pelosi behave, um, is, is really like in your face at the same time, they're kind of lecturing you on values and morals and ethics. It ends up ringing hollow.

[00:12:02] Matt Bailey: Yeah. Yeah. And that's, uh, you know, and that's what I get from the business side when I see brands trying to bring an ethical or moral message and, uh, you know, we all know you're beholden to investors, and this is geared towards sell more stuff.

[00:12:17] Nolan Higdon: Yeah. I mean, that's, you know, that was the, like the Nike/Kaepernick ad was, you know, I think, you know, symbolic of that, they're were appealing to young millennials and activist millennials, um, with that ad.

Um, but again, they didn't lead to Nike changing any like internal business practices, as far as I know, or, uh, overseas practices that, you know, contribute to the same type of, um, exploitation and manipulation that African Americans have experienced in this country since its inception.

[00:12:42] Matt Bailey: That's a great point.

[00:12:43] Nolan Higdon: So those kinds of moments, I think are important. Yeah.

[00:12:46] Matt Bailey: Yeah. And that's, uh, I mean, we see a lot of that and, and that was something, I think someone even brought up, uh, I was trying to think who it was, but, uh, yeah, when they, I think it was very early in the Black Lives Matter when Nike put out some press releases and did things and said what they were going to do, and someone wrote, "Well, Nike, if you really care about this, maybe you should pay your taxes."

And, uh, and then just went in and showed how they owe billions of dollars that's offshored, uh, that they're protecting from taxes. And if you truly wanted to invest in your community, that would be one way to do it.

[00:13:24] Nolan Higdon: Well, yeah, to hit the, hit the nail on the head there, I wouldn't hold your breath.

[00:13:27] Matt Bailey: Exactly, exactly. Well, one of the things I wanted to ask you about is, is clickbait, and especially from a news perspective, uh, you know, kind of what are those things that you can identify about clickbait, uh, to help protect yourself from it?

[00:13:45] Nolan Higdon: The most effective clickbait, um, like all, you know, fake news really tries to appeal to quick reactionary emotions. These can be things of like, you know, the, the happiness we get from confirmation bias, the, uh, appeals to like fear and hate, like, "You don't know who's coming," or "You're never going to guess what's about, you know, Trump's about to do," those types of things.

And where they leave it like an open-ended question, an actual headline is supposed to sum up the story in some degree, so you know what you're reading about and why. If they leave it like open-ended or questioning, or they appeal to reactive emotions and you know, or where you just feel like you have to click on it to know what is in it's rather than expand upon the headline.

Those are generally signs of clickbait, uh, you know, clickbait, I, you know, some of it's like earliest antecedents were actually things like, um, business practices would use. They would use like sponsored content or video news releases. And they would, you know, use these in different formats.

By the time of the internet, they would use them on actual news websites. So there'd be like a gray box around it and say sponsored content, but then you had supposedly journalistic outlets, like the Huffington Post, where they try to, you know, make everything they did clickbait, um, and so they would get you to click on their supposedly legitimate journalist stories.

Well, the other, like Legacy Media, they saw the internet going in this direction, they started doing it as well. And so now, even though it's all clickbait at some level or much of it as clickbait at some level, um, it's hard to determine whether or not that clickbait is going to lead you to a journalistic story or, you know, some paid ad or, or some eternal clickbait, like, you know, twenty-five pictures Matt Damon doesn't want you to see, and you have to click through each one or, you know, something like that. But that's kind of the state of it as of now.

[00:15:30] Matt Bailey: Yeah. I always tell people, yeah, if you have to click to the next page, that's a big sign that you're in the wrong place. That's uh, that's big number one red flag right there. If you have to click to continue or, or things like that, or click to go to the next page that, that right there, they are totally ad funded and that's, that's driving the story. It's funny.

[00:15:53] Nolan Higdon: You know, it does illustrate though, larger economic trends, problematic economic trends, and news media that, you know, kind of going back to our conversation began about recasting ourselves as media citizens, rather than media consumers. Media citizens, you know, they use news media, but increasingly, people are using it for entertainment, not democracy.

And so click, click bait is trying to get folks' like, attention drawn to the content because that, you know, desire to, to inform yourself doesn't exist, so this is the way they're drawing people to content.

[00:16:28] Matt Bailey: Oh, absolutely. I, you know, Taboola being one of the larger companies in this space, it just defaults to, I think what is probably the most salacious or the most clickbaity of all clickbait headlines and they employ, you know, just what you said, the 10 reasons why, or pictures they don't want you to see.

And again, it goes against every journalistic practice in creating a headline. Uh, it's supposed to summarize what the article is about, and then you get in and see the details. The big payoff is, is not in the article. It's the headline. That's the number one thing that is supposed to get your attention and also let you know, here's what the story's about.

[00:17:08] Nolan Higdon: Yeah. And you can see this with stories that, uh, go into print and like other outlets, like if they have an online magazine or if they have a traditional newspaper back when print was a little more accessible, but the internet was still being used, they would have different headlines for the same story if it was on the internet versus if it was in print.

[00:17:23] Matt Bailey: Sure.

[00:17:24] Nolan Higdon: Um, because yeah, clickbait, you know, it gets more eyeballs on the internet than like the traditional standard journalistic headline.

[00:17:32] Matt Bailey: Absolutely. And so I'll, I'll give you a little bit of insight here. So I've been in my digital marketing career, I started out with search engine optimization back in the nineties, and I would say about probably 2005, 2006 is when clickbait started really getting popular in the search engine optimization community, because they knew if you can publish an article and then get people to link to it, you would rank higher in Google.

And everyone was in love with this case study where someone wrote an article about, I think it was like a 12-year-old kid who stole his father's credit card, bought an X-Box, and then hired a hooker to come to his house and play games with him.

And this was an article that they wrote and put out, and all of a sudden everyone's linking to it. And they were saying, "Look, we got all this traffic, we got all these links." Well come to find out it, I think it was a website for a car dealer, and this is what they produced in order to get better rankings in Google.

And so it started this snowball effect of, "Let's write content with crazy headlines and we get people to link to it." And the thing was, it had nothing to do with the business. There was no business objective at all, and it took probably about five years for people to realize that yeah, maybe the content of these articles should relate to the business somehow. But in some ways, I feel like the search engine optimizing community has a lot to apologize for.

[00:19:17] Nolan Higdon: I mean, well, I concur with that, but, uh, I think that it also, you know, speaks to something, and your story there illustrates this really well, which is that a lot of internet users have, I think this false sense that the internet is like this boundless window into all information, and we can do whatever.

But really the internet experience is very managed by the structures that were put in place. So like, just the idea that if it gets clicked on more, it should be higher in the search engine, that's not a fact, or that's not necessarily the best way to deal with things, right? But it's the way that served like search engines' models.

[00:20:00] And so now people change their content as a way to do that, and as a result, we get that content in our searches. And so I think it speaks to the faux sense we have that the internet is organically giving us information. In fact, it's really managed from the side of companies, but also in fairness also managed from our side.

We like, we click, we pick our friends, we, um, you know, choose which websites to go to and, and those kinds of things, as well, so we also manage it from our side as well.

[00:20:17] Matt Bailey: Oh, highly manage it. I mean, just think about any social profile that you've created, you know, it's, some of them are, you know, they're better than a CV. There, they are, "You are awesome. It's only the best pictures. It's only the best accomplishments." I mean, we have incredibly managed social presence and in the same way, everything else has managed to that. That's a great observation.

[00:20:43] Nolan Higdon: Yeah. Um, you know, we, we find, we block, um, and the algorithms remember our choices and customize future ones accordingly.

So in that way, I see the internet as much more of a managed space and also, um, you know, communication theorists have long talked about this, that, uh, you know, we, we have a different like public face than we do private face. And as we increasingly are on screens, more and more, whether it be like zoom meetings, zoom for school, social media profiles, uh, we're getting more and more used to playing a character, um, in this public, in this public sphere.

And that also speaks to our interpretation of other people is really managed as well, we only get to know them in this very like public setting, which is different than how those folks may be in like a private setting, for example.

[00:21:24] Matt Bailey: Oh, absolutely. I, one of our past podcasts, we were talking to someone who, they're a coach when it comes to presentations and making pitches, and they were talking about adapting to the Zoom pitch or selling through Zoom. And, you know, they went through the basics of how you are framed on camera, where your lighting should be, what you should wear. And it really was a managed production of how you appear on camera. And he said, how people see you and your lighting and your eye contact have everything to do with it, has everything to do with your credibility.

And people will accept your sales pitch if you look good, if you look the part, if you're easy to listen to, and you're making eye contact, which means you're looking at the camera, not your screen and throughout all of that, it was, wow. This is a curated image, but it's a necessary thing to do if you're going to do business this way.

[00:22:27] Nolan Higdon: Did you send that podcast to Jeffrey Toobin?

[00:22:29] Matt Bailey: Uh, no.

[00:22:33] Nolan Higdon: He could, he could, he could have used that.

[00:22:35] Matt Bailey: Yeah.

[00:22:35] Nolan Higdon: No, but I think it, all jokes aside. Um, no, it does, it does speak to that man's persona. We're learning how to kind of make pitches for lack of a better word through Zoom screens, which is fine. It's, you know, it's a, it's a part of interaction and there's always been some public dimension to being social, but, um, I think we oftentimes conflate that public persona for a private persona.

[00:22:55] Matt Bailey: Yeah. And that's, uh, he said one thing that I thought was very interesting that, that people will make judgements based on what they see in the background, and then immediately, you know, I'm looking behind me to see, "Well, wait, wait a minute. What do I got on the wall here?" That's, but that was, you know, all part of what creates that, that persona, that you're broadcasting out.

[00:23:16] Nolan Higdon: Yeah, and it's kind of, you know, in addition to the, the persona too, I mean, we we've gotten, uh, you know, I'm guilty of this as well that we, we were in a, you know, data collection age and all this, I've been a big advocate for privacy and trying to mitigate some of this surveillance that's become normalized in the war on terror era, but in the Zoom era, you know, it really is creepy how many people look into like my home office, you know, like on a daily basis through Zoom, but I, you know, become like awkwardly comfortable with it or like expecting it.

And it's like, there's a camera in the room and I, and I know that, and I account for it. Um, that sort of normalization is also kind of a odd thing that's happened in this pandemic to say the least.

[00:23:52] Matt Bailey: Yeah. I didn't realize that until one day, I think I had a promo picture taken and it was from my home office, and someone commented on one of the books in my bookshelf. I was like, "Oh, wait a minute. You know, maybe a high-resolution picture wasn't the best idea. I don't know." But yeah, that's when, uh, the problem privacy thing really comes around.

[00:24:16] Nolan Higdon: Oh, heck yeah. Just that, I don't know. The whole idea of that now the workplace is the home, I think this will be a new frontier because right? Traditionally the home has been a safe place away from work and that we fled, you know, workplace to go home. And now, uh, my commute is literally just across the stairs.

[00:24:33] Matt Bailey: Right.

[00:24:33] Nolan Higdon: And so, when do I stop working? When am I off work? When am I work Nolan? When am I home Nolan? You know, those kinds of questions I think a lot of people are wrestling with, uh, in this era as well, and that speaks to the power of media, you know, how's that going to change our relationships is a, is a question we're going to be facing.

[00:24:50] Matt Bailey: Absolutely. It's going to be interesting to see how this evolves over the next few months, and if things ever get back to some kind of normalcy, it'll be interesting to observe.

[00:25:00] Nolan Higdon: Yeah, for sure. I think that one of the mistakes that was made was this belief that if Trump, you know, leaves office or gets voted out, that things will go back to normal. Traditionally, and this has been a case throughout U.S. History, when things get bad, or get weird, or get scary, Americans try and vote for stability or normalicy or return to the past, however, you want to say it, um, but it never happens.

[00:25:22] Matt Bailey: Yeah.

[00:25:23] Nolan Higdon: You know, we, we always, we change, things change, um, and so learning how to, to address and deal with those changes, I think is a better way to position ourselves rather than, you know, "Make America Great Again," or go back in time, or "Returning Normalicy," which was the 1920 political slogan and things like that.

[00:25:41] Matt Bailey: I think people just wanted the news media to stop yelling headlines every day. To me, that seemed to be the biggest reaction. It's like, I just, I'm tired of hearing the screaming. I just want it to stop.

[00:25:55] Nolan Higdon: Yeah. The resistance elements, um, and then the, you know, conservative Trump mocking of liberals every day, uh I'll admit it was exhausting. I, I turned off, I had to look at 24-hour news media for my last two books, but I basically turned it off in, in February. And I'd like to say it was because I was just, you know, over it, but I literally just couldn't deal with it. I was too tired.

[00:26:15] Matt Bailey: Yeah.

[00:26:15] Nolan Higdon: Having like outrage fatigue.

[00:26:18] Matt Bailey: I think that's where most of America was, absolutely.

[00:26:22] Nolan Higdon: Like everything was doom, and gloom, and end of the world.

[00:26:25] Matt Bailey: Yeah. Which makes it so much harder to read into the results. I, I look at it as they wanted a return to media normalcy, that let's go back to the, you know, sort of the devil we know, and, and, and I'll be fine with that.

[00:26:39] Nolan Higdon: That's I mean, that's true. It's at sound level and that, that election coverage, I, you know, I tuned back into the 24-hour news networks for the election coverage. And I mean, that was like journalistic malpractice, as people should be arrested when they cash their paychecks, they're stealing money, the way that they kept giving in to numbers, and they follow the numbers, and the numbers, and the numbers, 24 hours a day for 7, 8 days.

You know, I was like, there's a whole other world of news happening out here, and these numbers won't matter until the election is certified. So like this, this, you know, glue people to their screen to watch, like some county will never visit and have their numbers come in, I think it was, was misleading, and it's also, distractionary from a lot of news that's going on in local communities, but also like major stories. Like our COVID cases were skyrocketing at that same time.

[00:27:21] Matt Bailey: Yeah.

[00:27:22] Nolan Higdon: You know, like that, to me, it was a much bigger story than what's going to happen in like Wayne County or something like that at that time.

[00:27:27] Matt Bailey: Yeah. I noticed that as well that, hey, there's some major events going on in the world that are being ignored and this gets to, you know, I'll bring up Postman again, where the news is the news, rather than reporting what's happening, they're reporting on themselves reporting something. And, you know, again, and we kind of, we can even go into the polls where the polls are, you know, the media taking a poll and then reporting on the poll.

And it almost that, that lazy kind of, "Let's report this rather than actually go explore something that's happening and, and inform people as to what's happening."

[00:28:06] Nolan Higdon: Yeah, my book, Fake News, uh, the, The Anatomy of Fake News, was all about how fake news is a pervasive problem, et cetera, et cetera. But one of the things I pointed out, I made sure to spend a lot of time on was that a lot of traditional news outlets and people in traditional media do produce and do perpetuate fake news. Um, but the, the catch is, they keep their jobs, and they keep getting to act like they're experts.

And I think you talked about polls, there's a prime example, like in 2016, I mean, the, the polling you could, you could argue was wrong because they were only looking at "likely voters" and Trump turned out new voters and perhaps that's true.

But in 2020, they polled and over polled and still got it wrong, and then you had people like candidates, like, uh, Harrison in South Carolina raising millions of dollars off these polls that showed them ahead, and then they lose by double digit points. And the news media, this, they thought it was their job. Like you said, it was to report these polls as fact. And it's just, it's mind boggling how these folks keep their jobs.

And I think that speaks to why the news is the news. I mean, I have to admit I've had many opportunities to create ventures of, you know, basically reporting on the news and I've always withheld cause I long for the day when the news is not the news, but you know, unfortunately it seems to keep becoming a bigger and bigger problem, or before I can even get to the issues I care about, I have to, you know, go through the process of disentangling the news media narratives around the problem.

[00:29:33] Matt Bailey: Oh, absolutely. I had to ask, you know, how many times can an expert get things wrong and still be called an expert? Uh, I don't know. Maybe we elect them. I don't know. It seems to me, you know, we, we used to joke, you know, you're failing up, you fail, you get promoted.

[00:30:00] And again, we heard this in 2016. We got it wrong. We got it wrong. Maybe we don't have enough empathy for people that disagree with us, or maybe we're not taking a step. You know, did they learn from that? I don't think so. It just seemed to get more resolute in what we're going to do. And these people don't know anything.

[00:30:09] Nolan Higdon: I think it does have to do a lot with where these media places are located. And also, the people in media tend to come from like Ivy League backgrounds and they're in, you know, their own bubble. And I don't, I don't mean that to disparage them, because I live in, you know, the San Francisco Bay area, which, my God, bubble doesn't even begin to describe what, what we have going on out here. But, you know, I'm lucky enough to, to travel a lot of the country giving talks and gigs.

And so, you know, unless you're in a big city, it's like Trump and Pence signs everywhere, and folks just have a different focus. They have different issues they care about that in like these giant cities. And so whether or not I agree with them is irrelevant. I'm just aware of them. But when you go back to the city centers and, and these like liberal bubbles, you know, they're just like, "Oh, yeah. You know, we're, we're getting all of these problems. We've got this big momentum, we're changing the country," and I'm like, you should really drive around outside of the bubble. It's, you know, there's, there's some stark differences that have not been addressed.

[00:31:02] Matt Bailey: Right. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And that's the thing. They start arguing about things and yeah, there's no issues. I, even through the debates, I was just not really surprised. I'm like, we're not talking about any issues. We, we successfully avoided any issues in these debates. That, that was the news.

[00:31:22] Nolan Higdon: Oh yeah. This has been, you know, a pet peeve of mine is that Democrats have treated demographics as destiny. And so basically their argument has been, you know, use favorable rhetoric toward demographic groups that are expanding in size, and those people will turn out to vote for you because you're not the other guy, and because you're using favorable rhetoric, and we don't have to get into policy, cause once we start getting into policy, we turn off potential voters. You know, they're always chasing that, um, Republican unicorn voter in the middle.

[00:31:50] Matt Bailey: Yeah.

[00:31:50] Nolan Higdon: Interestingly in this election, you saw a lot of that "demographics are destiny" start to break down and that, again, people are complex. Some are swayed by issues. Some are swayed by behaviors and attitudes. It's much more complex.

And so I do hope that part of the transition from the post Trump era is not only a recognition of the shortcomings of Trump's rhetoric and behavior, but also the shortcomings of the democratic party and neoliberal ideology that, you know, made people take a gamble on Trump in the first place. I think a dedication to policy is a step in that direction.

It, and again, some of the data shows that, that basically if you were for universal health care, regardless of whether or not you were progressive or conservative, you won in this election. And I think it speaks to how policy initiatives drive out votes. Um, you know, legalizing marijuana drives out votes, but catchy phrases appeals to demographics aren't necessarily that successful.

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[00:34:17] Matt Bailey: Yeah, that was interesting. Out of the state ballot issues were definite trends as to where the country is going, and it really doesn't fit the narrative of either a Democrat or a Republican. It really is almost a conflicting view of what we've been told people are alike. And so I was really fascinated by the different ballot issues around the country and the marijuana laws and things like that. Uh, very, very interesting to see.

[00:34:45] Nolan Higdon: You know, I have to say, I mean, I'm embarrassed for my state here of California with the prop 22 initiative, which if, you know, for listeners who don't know, uh, basically independent contractors like Uber and Lyft and things like that were reclassified as employees. So they would get more benefits and workplace rights by the state.

And voters had a chance to, to switch them back to independent contractors, and Uber and Silicon Valley were behind this transition, um, as was that the democratic party, as well. The, the interesting part was the messaging. They, they message it as, you know, being an independent contractor allows like entrepreneurship and some sort of like autonomy in the workplace, primarily for people of color and that's who we're in a lot of the commercials.

But it ignored like economic realities or God forbid I say it, like class issues that, you know, a lot of these folks, why are you working a second job? Like, you know, not, why do you choose to, like, why do you have to work a second job? What is it about our economic system that forces folks to do this while driving down the value of their vehicle and things like that?

And so I thought it spoke to, uh, in a, in a state in California, we can't blame Republicans cause we're a Democrat state top to bottom. And I thought it kind of spoke to the way that they're so focused on kind of demographic messaging, um, that like economic realities are like an afterthought, and unfortunately, a lot of those Uber drivers who are disproportionately people of color are on the losing end of that gamble.

[00:36:08] Matt Bailey: Hmm. Wow. That's interesting. Yeah. It's uh, it's almost like you can't play the same demographic games, you know, it kind of goes back to what we were saying before. It's, it's not binary. There's a lot of nuance, and unless you understand what that nuance is, you're going to miss the boat.

[00:36:23] Nolan Higdon: I think you see when they treat like communities of color, like monoliths, like the, the Latinx vote, right? Like if you know, Latinx only in, in this political discourse and media, Latinx voters only care about immigration. And, you know, Democrats want all folks to immigrate, and Republicans want nobody.

So it's obvious they're going to vote Democrat, but then you look at the numbers and it's like, first of all, within Latinx voters, they care about a multitude of issues. And it's totally different in Texas compared to Florida, compared to wealthy, compared to poor, compared to Cuban compared to Central and South America.

Um, and then you saw some folks actually vote for, um, you know, Trump and increase the, the Trump's Latinx turnout, despite his rhetoric against Latinx immigrants. And so again, you know, we said it just, it speaks to, we have to get out of this, this space where you feel comfortable talking about folks.

Like monoliths realize that we do have national elections, and when we pay attention to national elections, but what works in one area does not work in necessarily another area. And that, that takes like nuance thinking, like maybe Latinx voters in California care about X, and maybe Latinx voters in Texas, you know, disregard X for Y. And we got to start thinking, I think, in that way, if we ever want to really understand our country and our democracy.

[00:37:35] Matt Bailey: Yeah. Well, and like you said, uh, people may vote one way because a gas station went in down the street. It has everything to do with what my life is like right here, right now, in this moment, in this place. That's what's going to affect me more than what's going on nationally or anything like that.

[00:37:54] Nolan Higdon: Yeah. And we, politicians used to know this, this is the odd thing about Democrats and Republicans for like last 30 or 40 years. They've really forgotten how to like, kind of speak to people's realities, instead they just kind of make promises about what tomorrow is going to be. Um, and then I think they've lost that kind of connection.

And you see it, you know, it's at some level, I guess it's kind of funny watching these people struggle like, you know, Trump, the rapacious capitalist pretends like he cares about like, you know, the working class, and Obama, remember he like tried to go bowling and it was like a setback for bowling, and George W. Bush was trying to be a cowboy, even though he was like a rich Connecticut kid, right? And all that.

Um, so they're, they're kind of, they're kind of funny in that sense, but, um, it, it just, it comes off like, just so, so fake to people, but it speaks to how I think that the distance between the ruling class and the actual people that they can't even find like commonalities anymore.

[00:38:48] Matt Bailey: Hm. Wow. Well, this, I mean, it's strangely related. I did want to talk to you a little bit about this and you know, one of the things about rhetoric that I absolutely love are the logical fallacies, and especially in politics, we see a use of the fallacy of the straw man. I, and I love it because you, you, and I think Obama was particularly very good at this when he would say, you know, "Some would say that no one should have healthcare."

And you know, I'm like, "Wait, who said that? Where's that come from?" And, and then, you know, and that's the straw man, you prop up your opponent's argument to such an extreme case that no one in their right mind would say, well, yeah, that's a good idea. And then you knock it down. That's why it's called the straw man.

[00:40:00] But what has really impressed me or pressed itself upon me, I would say over the past four years, do straw men exist anymore? Because I would see things online and maybe this was part of the fake news or, you know, Russian interference. I would see people post things, and I would say "That is probably the most extreme case I would ever imagine."

And someone is posting it with no irony whatsoever. And I felt like we've lost the straw man. There's no such thing anymore.

[00:40:10] Nolan Higdon: That's, it's so true. I mean, yeah, like you said, a straw man, right? It, it occurs when you take another, you know, persons or sides, arguments, and, and you distort or exaggerate it, right?

Like, the reason why people usually commit straw man is because it appeals to audiences. You know, it's like, I would like to, I'm going to choose to argue against the argument I wish you made, rather than the one you did make, you know?

[00:40:31] Matt Bailey: Right. Yes.

[00:40:32] Nolan Higdon: So, um, but, but I think that the fallout from that in a messaging perspective is we have a straw man perspective of people we, we disagree with, and, and the news media is, you know, uh, recycles these, they play these clips of straw man arguments, but they don't break them down factually.

So like, you know, when, when Donald Trump is saying that, like Biden's gonna sell America to China and that Biden's a socialist, I laugh. I laugh, right? Because I'm like, like in California, you know, we'll, we'll teach you what socialism is. But, um, the, a lot of voters, you know, they buy it and you, you drive around again the country, and you see like, no socialism here and they're talking about Biden and Harris or, uh, you know, we're going to protect America from China and Biden and Harris.

And you recognize how powerful those, those straw man sort of arguments are. After the election, just to be fair and kind of point to both sides, Mike Pompeo made that comment about how he expects a fair transition after the election, and he said, you know, we're going to make a transition into the second Trump administration.

And then he followed it, he followed at any rate, okay, you laugh, everybody gets, this was a joke. And he followed it up and said, "Of course no matter what happens, all jokes aside, whatever the electoral outcome is, we'll, we'll make sure it's a fair and safe transition."

If you look in lefty circles right now, like John Oliver and all these shows, they're talking about how, "He's, he said, we're going to a second Trump administration." It's like, that's not what he, what he meant. To be clear, there's a context here. You're making a straw man argument. But now there's this fear of like Pompeo is leading the resistance to the, you know, the Biden election, which, um, at least that comment is no, not evidence to support it.

[00:42:08] Matt Bailey: No. Yeah, it was, it was half of what he said, and I have been so interested to see that spun around and yeah. And it turns into clickbait headlines, and it's just crazy to see that. But what fascinates me about the straw man, is that actually a, like you said, I'm going to argue what I wish you asked. Uh, but at the same time, if I were to use a straw man against you, it now forces you to respond to it and to respond to a baseless, uh, misrepresentation of your view.

And so rather than disputing, now you have to defend, and it really puts a lot of now the attention is on the statement, however, outrageous or incorrect, it's now, you've got to defend it. And that's what I think is so unfair about it, but that has become really the basis of policy debate of, uh, you know, left versus right. It's just been a fascinating watch to see how it's used.

[00:43:13] Nolan Higdon: Yeah. I would say it's a, you know, weird space cause like most people, myself, really, included you aren't trained at a young age on how to respond to absurdity. You know, that's not something we train people to like expect, right? In that sense. So how do you respond to absurdity?

Well, traditionally, what politicians used to do in the pre-internet days, you ignored, uh, ridiculous claims because if you gave them any attention, then you drew more attention to them. Like you said, now you end up defending something you never said. Um, but however, in the internet age, I mean, it's, it's been a different game.

Now they take these straw man arguments, they post them everywhere, they report them everywhere, they comment on them everywhere. And you not commenting, it's treated like you're somehow hiding and afraid of what you said or embarrassed by what you said or did or whatever like that, you know, whatever it is.

So it forces people to come out and respond. And again, as you mentioned, once they respond, then they're in a, in a space where they're defending something they didn't say. And then the argument becomes about what the argument was rather than like what they were trying to achieve in the first place.

[00:44:10] Matt Bailey: Yeah. And it's gotten to the point now where it is so extreme and what used to be a straw man, I feel like now, is there actually people that believe that? You know, I, and maybe I'm falling for the clickbait. I see things I'm like, wait, that's the most extreme position you could take. How is that a good idea?

[00:44:31] Nolan Higdon: You know, the, the, the straw man arguments are commonplace and they're, they're shaping our politics. And again, you know, we're kind of, we're, we're laughing at them at some level, but they are really powerful. You know, like, uh, a lot of the straw man claims that came out after the election about, you know, supposedly it was stolen and that, um, you know, the Biden camp was going to, you know, claim they were going to do whatever it took, which is not what they said, but, but these arguments resonate.

A lot of people are, you know, questioning, was the election legitimate, even though there's really no evidence to discredit the election. You know, and I think that's the, again, the power of those straw man arguments is, you have otherwise rational people believing irrational things. And one of the things I point out in a lot of my work is that the reason why, why false content or straw man arguments are so dangerous, it's not because they're, they're wrong or disprovable and people believe them.

It's because they get people to do things they think come from a place of moral righteousness, but actually turn out to be hugely problematic. So, if the election was stolen and you stood up to defend democracy, that's not a, that doesn't make you a bad person. I think that makes you a good person. You should always defend democracy.

But false content and straw man arguments about the election get, you know, good people to go out and discredit seemingly accurate elections. And so that kind of transition, I think, is important to, to recognize is that rather than make fun of people who fall for these arguments or act upon them, we should recognize that their reaction comes from a place of good in a lot of cases.

[00:45:57] Matt Bailey: Yeah.

[00:45:58] Nolan Higdon: And so how do we, how do we, you know, law to that while simultaneously recognizing that the problem with like news literacy skills or recognizing, you know, fallacious arguments.

[00:46:08] Matt Bailey: Uh, it comes back to kind of what we talked about earlier is, is everyone wants free, accessible, and fair elections. And I kinda, well, well then I'll add a comma, "Don't we?" That is what we want, right? And like you said, we have to agree on this first.

[00:46:29] Nolan Higdon: Yeah, like you have to. I mean, this is the, you know, the "ripping my hair out" thing about democracy. I think your question gets to this is that I have never, ever in my life counted ballots. I would wager that you never have either. Um, my entire life, I generally have accepted the results of electoral outcomes.

And I've been anchoring out election night for most of my life. But I, but I accept it, and that's because democracy is predicated on us having faith in the process. And there's a lot to say to critique the process, but if people, you know, not even a majority, just enough, don't have faith in the process, then you don't have a democracy.

So this is this whole debate and fake news and straw man arguments and things like this. These are really, really dangerous. I think we need to reassert that idea that look, the reason why we engage in news, and conversation, and discussion, and we have ballot counters, and we have mail-in ballots is because we want the most accurate results. We can, you know, trust in it. It's not because we want to "win" or "destroy" the other side.

[00:47:29] Matt Bailey: That is a great, great point. Again, yes, it comes back to, you know, we're agreeing on the same things and we, and we have to have that, "Let's identify the problem first." And if we can agree what the problem is, then we can create a better narrative for us to work together and solve that problem.

[00:47:47] Nolan Higdon: Yeah. I think you take two groups who normally are not put together, but they're the majority of the public, like a lot of them, Trump voters who were polled, although now I'm citing polls, which might be problematic, but, um, let us, Trump, you know, that they show general disdain for the system, and they believe elites in Washington don't address their needs.

There was also a Knight Foundation study that said there's 100 million people who are disproportionally people of color, um, who don't vote because they don't believe either party addresses their needs.

[00:48:16] Matt Bailey: Yeah.

[00:48:17] Nolan Higdon: You know, regardless of all the differences, you know, we're, we're talking somewhere between like 125 to 150 million people who share that, that same sentiment, they see the same problem. You know, imagine if you could have someone speaking to how do we address that problem together? That's a huge chunk of the country. You know, it's like 50% of the country.

[00:48:33] Matt Bailey: You could get another party or two out of that, which might not be a bad thing. But yeah, that's, I mean, I've always been fascinated, yes, at how many people don't participate in the process. This was a situation, I think this is probably, this was when Obama was running against Hillary in the primaries, and my wife and I went to France. I was speaking at a conference there, and in a typical French fashion, they split us up to different tables.

So my wife was left to fend for herself at a table, and I'm at another table. And the entire conversation was about, "Who are you voting for, Obama or Hillary?" And my wife is just sort of in this, uh, well, you know, I don't know, it's, it's, it's who, and she has, she lasts, you know. To me afterwards, she goes, "They assume I'm voting for either."

You know, it's, it's just this, but then one lady asked her, and it was a very interesting question. She asked her, she goes, "Do you believe that you can change things? Do you believe your vote will make a difference?" And my wife thought for a second, she goes, "Yes, I do believe it will."

[00:50:00] And the lady responded by saying, "That's the difference between you Americans and us." She goes, "We have no faith. We, we, there's nothing I can do that will change anything." And it was such a realization for her, and, and, and we're talking about that. That, you know, I think that number one, is an American thing that, you know, the stress on the individual.

But yet also, at the same time, I think we have also lost that with a number of people that believe that, "No matter what I do, my voice won't be heard. I'm not going to change anything." And I think, that I think is probably one of the larger failures, uh, that as a country, there's people that have been left behind, uh, that don't feel that anyone speaks for them. And that, that's a big problem.

[00:50:37] Nolan Higdon: Yeah. And I think that's a, you know, a great point to emphasize shortly, because we're on the heels of this election.

And for folks to remember moving forward, which is, there's all these different elements of democracy, which are, you know, like we talked about in this, uh, talk today, we talked about propositions, we talk about elections, there's presidential elections, local elections, state elections. Those are all part of the process.

So is reading news and informing yourself, which we talked about, but another element that we all often all gloss over because it makes us feel somewhat uncomfortable at times, is democracy is a full-time job that requires activism, organization, and agitation. And, you know, so people ask me, "Does, like, you know, voting work?"

And my answer is, "Well, it depends." If you go to vote for the guy, you want to have a beer with, and then you go home for four years, then no, it's not really going to work. But if you vote in someone who you try and, you know, organize, agitate, protest, push, annoy, to get to do, you know, X, Y, or Z, then democracy works and then your voting works.

And, and this is bared out by the, you know, examples historically. I always like to point out that these presidents who come into office on, you know, totally different agendas, end up doing like progressive legislation, because they're forced to. So like Woodrow Wilson never really talked about women voting in this country, but he was trying to sell democracy to the world, and women protest in the white house to embarrass him saying like, "How can you deliver a democracy world if you can't deliver it here in DC?"

So he was like, "Get them the right to vote and get them off my lawn so I can do my foreign policy." And...

[00:52:06] Matt Bailey: Great.

[00:52:07] Nolan Higdon: And, you know, an even better example is Dwight Eisenhower, right? Eisenhower probably did the most civil for civil rights of a president of 20th century, not because he was Mr, like, woke, uh, military man, but because the protestors on the ground were destabilizing the country and they were giving the Soviets propaganda to use against American way of life by highlighting his racism.

And so Eisenhower was just like, this needs to stop. We need to get this off TV because I'm trying to get all these, you know, post-colonial countries underneath, like the Western sphere, and then this is not helping. And so it's, it's putting that kind of pressure on leaders rather than having them be a friend or a hero, um, recognizing them as an employee you need to constantly pressure. That's how democracy works.

[00:52:50] Matt Bailey: Great. That is a great, great example. Wow. Yeah, they are an employee and I think we forget that.

[00:52:57] Nolan Higdon: Yeah, and it's, it's difficult to fire them, so it's important that you go through a good hiring process.

[00:53:03] Matt Bailey: Absolutely. Well, I wasn't satisfied with the hiring process and wasn't satisfied with the vetting process, it wasn't, I want another round of candidates, that's what...

[00:53:12] Nolan Higdon: Of course, the search committee has.

[00:53:14] Matt Bailey: Yeah. Nolan, hey, this has been, uh, a wonderful hour and I always look forward to talking with you and getting your input. So, uh, thank you so much for spending some time with us here.

[00:53:26] Nolan Higdon: This is always a pleasure and I'll come back any time, keep up the great work, and hopefully your listeners keep tuning in. Thanks.

[00:53:32] Matt Bailey: Well, Nolan, I want to have you back because as you said, you do a lot of work in privacy and, uh, you know, especially, you know my side with the business and media and you, you know, you're on the media side too.

I think we should absolutely have another conversation about privacy, and I think we could probably fill a couple of hours on that.

[00:53:49] Nolan Higdon: It's a date. I'm in.

[00:53:50] Matt Bailey: Alright. Listener, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the Endless Coffee Cup, and you can find Nolan's information on the show notes on the page.

So, Nolan, thank you again. Listeners, thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you next time on the Endless Coffee Cup.

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[Podcast] #49 Fake News, Clickbait, and Digital Literacy

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Fake News, ClickBait, and the Value of Conversation Nolan Higdon, the author of The Anatomy of Fake News, joins Matt again to talk about the post-election analysis of clickbait, fake news, and issues of digital literacy. This conversation reaches into many related facets, such as critical thinking,

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The U.S. Exits Afghanistan: Lessons from the Newspaper Front Pages

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The U.S. Exits Afghanistan: Lessons from the Newspaper Front Pages

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Students analyze newspaper front pages from August 2021 for messages about media representation of the U.S. exit from Afghanistan.

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Project Look Sharp provides lesson plans, materials, training and support to help teachers integrate media literacy into their classroom curricula.

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Halloween Costumes: When Does Fun Turn Into Hurt?

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Halloween Costumes: When Does Fun Turn Into Hurt?

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Students analyze a commercial and video analysis for messages about cultural appropriation in Halloween costumes and how identity impacts responses to media.

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Description for Project Look Sharp website

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Cyber Whispers, is a digital literacy adventure novel for young YA readers. It begins with a callout by Zeno, their cyber friend and superintelligent sentient being, after a year of silence. The Team rushes to gather in his virtual living quarters to hear what their first quest as his official ambassadors is. Stunned by a cyberspace awash with info junk, he asked them to stop humans adding to the daily deluge and to make better use of his world. Zeno, unpredictable as always, presents them with a BBC news article about the white stallions of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna becoming suddenly gravely ill. He splits the Team by asking Izzy (equestrienne and horse lover), Mia, and Rob to travel to Austria to find out what is going on, while he tasks Beamer and Chi to create a virtual lie detector to sort out truth from fiction. A ghost, for his own reasons, complicates their efforts as they experience the full impact of the very thing they are trying to prevent - fake news. 

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Cyber Whispers, is a digital literacy adventure novel for young YA readers. It begins with a callout by Zeno, their cyber friend and superintelligent sentient being, after a year of silence. The Team rushes to gather in his virtual living quarters to hear what their first quest as his official ambassadors is. Stunned by a cyberspace awash with info junk, he asked them to stop humans adding to the daily deluge and to make better use of his world. Zeno, unpredictable as always, presents them with a BBC news article about the white stallions of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna becoming suddenly gravely ill. He splits the Team by asking Izzy (equestrienne and horse lover), Mia, and Rob to travel to Austria to find out what is going on, while he tasks Beamer and Chi to create a virtual lie detector to sort out truth from fiction. A ghost, for his own reasons, complicates their efforts as they experience the full impact of the very thing they are trying to prevent - fake news. 

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This novel playfully teaches young teens how to sort fact from fiction using the easy to remember acronym R.A.P.P.E.R.

Soon to be released. Please pre-order now through the author’s website: https://www.casperpieters.com/team-savv-i

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Empower students through media making and authentic audience. Challenge your students to share their voices beyond the classroom. These standards-aligned projects, for multiple content areas, are ideal for distance or in-person instruction and come with ready-to-use curricular supports for self-directed learning. All student media submissions will be published on the online public showcase. Challenges are open to middle and high school students across the U.S.

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Teachers Transform: Media Fluency Professional Development Program
Building Media Literacy to Empower all Learners

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Who is it For?

K-16 Educators

Why Participate?

Media literacy is a requirement to be future-ready. Participation will enable educators to embed media literacy into educational content to develop critical thinkers and meaningful student interactions relating to media and learning. Designed to meet diverse educational needs, this program focuses on localized approaches for transformation and success with media and technology in your unique classrooms.

What are the Teachers Transform Program Components?

In-person or online boot camp traning Monthly (virtual) coaching sessions Online coursework on integration of material and practices into current classrooms Professional learning community Participants to receive coaching and support on methods and integration throughout the year.

Can I Choose the Program Parts I Want?

Yes! You have the option to pick and choose what you would like to focus on: Two-hour mini-online courses on basic concepts Five-lesson mini-online courses as part of a theme Master 16-week online courses Professional learning community with a team Coaching sessions Full day or half-day PD sessions It's a great opportunity you won't want to miss!

What is Teachers Transform: Media Fluency Boot Camp?

The boot camp is a component of a year-long program. It is a three-day professional development intensive focusing on the media fluency of educators as it relates to teaching and learning. Participants will learn how to integrate media literacy content discipline, get hands-on time for playing with digital tools, understand expanded literacy and gain the confidence to meet the needs of students. Educators will leave the conference energized with plans for action that make sense for their needs and resources. The bootcamp has been held in-person but can be accessed virtually.

What is the Cost?

The cost dependis on your needs and wants. Contact us to find our more thorugh this link. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Suzie

Middle School Educator

Department Chair

"I am so grateful to have been a part of this training. It was absolutely the most beneficial and positive professional development experience I have ever been a part of in my 25 years as an educator. "

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K-16 Educators Media literacy is a requirement to be future-ready. Participation will enable educators to embed media literacy into educational content to develop critical thinkers and meaningful student interactions relating to media and learning.

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Making Meaning Course -learn how to read multimedia texts and make meaning of media messages

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Making Meaning of media Spring 2021 course. How to read media messages practice for middle and high school teachers and administrators.

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Truth Matters - Digital Literacy in the Post-Truth Era

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Truth Matters - Digital Literacy in the Post-Truth Era

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This LiveBinder is filled with resources for educators and students including information and activities.

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Truth Matters - Digital Literacy in the Post-Truth Era

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Originally created as part os a larger Live Binder used as a workshop resource, this Live Binder focuses on Digital Literacy in the Post-Truth Era.

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10 Lesson plans for educators and students grades 5 and up. Five focus on ELA skills and five on math skills.

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The problem is that, for a variety of reasons, many people have difficulty differentiating between fact and fiction in the media. And, despite the fact that people often assume that this conversation focuses primarily on politics, that's not necessarily the case. There are myriad examples of facts being manipulated in all areas of life.

The free materials offered on this site were created for middle school students and educators as supplemental materials for my book entitled The Media-Savvy Middle School Classroom: Strategies for Teaching Against Disinformation (available on October 20, 2020), but can be used by anyone who wants to learn these critical media literacy skills.
The Assessing Words and Assessing Numbers Instructional Activities are currently being piloted. If you use one or more of these activities, please complete a Feedback Form for each.
Susan Brooks-Young: sjbrooksyoung@gmail.com

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The problem is that, for a variety of reasons, many people have difficulty differentiating between fact and fiction in the media. And, despite the fact that people often assume that this conversation focuses primarily on politics, that's not necessarily the case. There are myriad examples of facts being manipulated in all areas of life.

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Mucktracker Lessons on Personalization, Microtargeting, & the News

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Mucktracker Lessons on Personalization, Microtargeting, & the News

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Mucktracker Lessons on Agenda Setting and Gatekeeping in Media

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Mucktracker Lessons on Agenda Setting and Gatekeeping in Media

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https://www.mucktracker.com/uploads/1/2/4/9/124991862/media_literacy_tips_poster.pdf

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This tool that a colleague and I created is useful for helping students critically analyze any type of media--from books to videos to songs--any form of media. What I like about it is the "critical" component. Plus, it teaches students to look for the objective pieces first (the "evidence") that they can later use to support their claims.

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Media & Information Literacy Undergraduate Course Syllabus

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Media & Information Literacy Undergraduate Course Syllabus

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Natasha Casey's teaching featuring syllabi

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Thinking critically about 'masks': AML's new classroom unit 

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Thinking critically about 'masks': AML's new classroom unit 

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Ahead of his time?

by Irene Faiz

This media literacy unit on COVID-19 masks was designed for a Grade 10 Secondary English class. I plan to use many of these activities when I teach Visual Arts in upcoming quadmesters this school year.

Tech notes:

These documents were built using Google tools. As such, they will ask you to open them as copies of Google Docs and Slides, which you can then use as-is or revise as needed. It is recommended that you 'open in a new tab' so that you can stay on the Masking and Unmasking page. Teachers needing other formats can convert them to their preferred formats. e.g., pdf, Word, etc.

Irene Faiz also guested on Mediacy, The Association for Media Literacy podcast, providing her observations on the art and politics of pandemic face masks. The podcast can be an additional educational experience for students and can be found .

This ambitious and rich unit integrates r eading, writing, art, presentation and media literacy. It describes nine sequential student activities, some with slides and some with scaffolding worksheets.

1. A pre-viewing activity helps students think about their attitudes towards face masks.

2. An infographic reading activity helps them think about visual codes and conventions.

3. A news reading activity helps students understand the inverted-pyramid news story structure.

4. A graphic reading activity helps students understand how to read graphics using media literacy concepts.

5. A compare-and-contrast activity further helps students understand visual codes and conventions.

6. A pre-production paragraph-writing activity prepares students to imagine their own mask designs.

7. A viewing activity helps students understand and apply media literacy key concepts.

8. A culminating art activity in which students apply their graphic language and media literacy learning to the creation of their own mask designs.

9. A culminating writing activity in which students reflect upon and explain their design choices.

Like most teachers during this worldwide pandemic, I started the course by reviewing the rules we need to follow for us all to be safe.

We hadn't been together as a school community for about 6 months. All of us had been navigating life through a pandemic in different circumstances.

So, it was important to start with a "previewing" activity. This activity provides the students with a choice of three sentence-starters. They are being prompted to write three sentences on why they are wearing masks during this season of COVID-19. It was fascinating to see the responses the students wrote to these prompts. They were very honest and descriptive.

You can find the Pre-viewing Activity as a Google Doc .

You can find the Pre-viewing Activity as a pdf .

Then we began to practice our media literacy critical thinking skills. The posters and videos we had read and viewed on our first day of class became our material to critique. I provided the students with an online poster produced by the World Health Organization titled, How To Wear a Medical Mask Safely. The students were asked to read this poster with a different lens. They were asked questions about Text, Audience and Production. This activity gave me an opportunity to introduce the media literacy triangle to the class.

You can find the Media Literacy Triangle, with questions, here.

The Ontario grade 10 English course needs to prepare the students for the Grade 10 Test of Reading and Writing, so it was great to include some news articles in this curriculum unit. One article we read titled, The face mask is a political symbol in America provided an opportunity for the students to learn how news reports are written in the inverted pyramid format. The students were prompted to analyze this news article and make notes on how it is structured.

You can find the article The face mask is a political symbol in America here.

You can find the news article as a pdf here.

This article mentioned the Spanish Flu from 1918. And there was a great critique about a poster designed for men to wear masks during that pandemic one hundred years ago. I provided this graphic. And I gave students media literacy questions once again on text, audience and production. Here is the graphic:

A good way to develop our visual literacy skills is by practicing compare and contrast exercises. The PING PONG comparison activity on looking at COVID-19 masks provided the students with pairs of images and then pairs of COVID-19 masks to compare and contrast.

For each comparison the students are being prompted to make observations on similarities and differences in terms of physical characteristics and purpose/message. They are being prompted to use the vocabulary of the elements and principles of design. It is best to prompt this thinking and then provide the theory afterwards. When students start using words such as colour, shape, contrast and balance, the teacher can praise them and tell them that they are using the vocabulary of the elements and principles of design. The first few comparisons show obvious differences. Later in the slide show we see more subtle differences. These require more careful observation. Students can also be prompted to write compare-and-contrast paragraphs based on these notes. I assigned my English class to complete 12 sets of notes on the first 12 slides. This lesson was delivered in our live classes as well as our virtual classes.

We began each live class with a "literary quote" on the blackboard. During this unit I researched quotes about masks. One quote inspired the activity titled, Mask Memories. Oscar Wilde once said,
"Man is least himself in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth."
This quote gave us a chance to think about the masks and costumes we have worn during various occasions in our life. This activity asks the students to describe these costumes and write a paragraph on how this costume helped them "be themselves." The task also connects to the media literacy key concept, "Media construct versions of reality."

You can find the Mask Memories worksheet as a Google Doc here.

After viewing many different types of COVID-19 masks during the PING PONG comparison, I found myself thinking that it would be useful to create another slide show that intentionally tasked the students to notice each of the eight Media Literacy Key Concepts.

COVID-19 Masks : Media Literacy Key Concepts provides this thinking challenge. The first three examples of COVID-19 masks in this slide show are videos of the use of the mask or the misuse of the mask and advertisements of masks. The consequent images also illustrate each key concept.

By this point in time, the students were ready to work on their creative production activity. This activity asks students to analyze and then design a COVID-19 mask for a particular institution (Option One) or social movement (Option Two). According to which of these options they choose, they are given questions on analysis and design.

This production activity also provides an opportunity for the students to prepare an oral presentation. The students were provided with a rubric on how their final creative COVID-19 mask will be evaluated. They were also given the rubric by which the oral presentation would be assessed.

When we ask our students to create, they are having an authentic learning experience. So, they will have something to say about this learning experience and they will have something to write. I prepared a worksheet that prompts the students to write three related paragraphs based on their creative production.

The first paragraph asks them to describe their creative COVID-19 mask. They are being prompted to describe its purpose and message by referring to the imagery and text and the elements and principles of design they have used. The second paragraph prompts the students to identify which media literacy key concept their creative production illustrates. This exercise will help them gain confidence in talking about the media literacy key concepts. They were instructed to use notes on writing these two paragraphs to prepare for the oral presentation of their creative COVID-19 mask.

The third paragraph prompts them to find an existing COVID-19 mask and compare it with the one that they have created. They have had lots of practice in making compare and contrast observations by completing the PING PONG Comparison earlier. This paragraph was not required for the oral presentation in my class. Use it as you'd like according to your schedule and curriculum expectations.

All of these lessons were delivered during our in-person and virtual classes. The students were engaged and participated with enthusiasm. The presentations also allowed the students to learn about each other's passions and interests. This is another way of creating community in our classroom. By giving our students choices, they are being permitted to reflect on their culture and interests and they are being challenged to understand each other respectfully.

Thank you to Neil Andersen for the thorough research that he shared on COVID-19 masks around the world. Thank you for the articles and images. Thank you to Carol Arcus and Neil Andersen for their thoughtful critique of these fascinating constructions of our current reality.

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Ahead of his time? by Irene Faiz This media literacy unit on COVID-19 masks was designed for a Grade 10 Secondary English class. I plan to use many of these activities when I teach Visual Arts in upcoming quadmesters this school year. Tech notes: These documents were built using Google tools.

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AML's End-User Licence Agreements in simple language

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AML's End-User Licence Agreements in simple language

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All apps and services have End User License Agreements (EULAs). A few are written in concise, friendly language separated into easily-navigated categories. Many run several pages in length and use arcane legal language. Add to that they are frequently updated, and it is no wonder that even those of us who endeavour to read the EULAs give up and mindlessly click the "Agree" button.

The AML has worked with two sets of students to produce an ongoing series of EULAs in Plain Language. First, we identified the most-used media apps or services. Then, we asked volunteer law students (Pro-Bono Students of Canada) to identify and translate EULA passages that put users at risk into plain language. The passages were re-written in Q&A formats. Finally, the Q&As were designed as infographics by Graphic Arts students at Toronto's Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts. Seventeen infographics (see below) are now ready for distribution, with more to come.

The AML hopes that the infographics will travel far and wide, sparking conversations and behaviours that will raise users' awareness and agency in their informed uses of electric communications. You are welcome to print and/or publish the infographics on blogs or websites, link to them from your blogs or websites and share them with family, friends and colleagues as long as attribution is given to the AML.

End User License Agreement Posters

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End User License Agreements - Association for Media Literacy

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All apps and services have End User License Agreements (EULAs). A few are written in concise, friendly language separated into easily-navigated categories. Many run several pages in length and use arcane legal language. Add to that they are frequently updated, and it is no wonder that even those of us who endeavour to read the EULAs give up and mindlessly click the "Agree" button.

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Set Your Motivation
Take an online quiz to reflect on your motivations for teaching and learning with digital media literacy

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Northeast Media Literacy Conference, Nov 5-6 ONLINE

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Mind Over Media: Analyzing Contemporary Propaganda

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Let's Talk Media Literacy Webinar Oct. 28 4 pm MT

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Let's Talk Media Literacy Webinar Oct. 28 4 pm MT

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This webinar features Frank Baker, Media Literacy Clearinghouse founder & Author of Close Reading the Media), Shaelynn Farnsworth, National Director of Educator Outreach and Success for News Literacy Project & Checkology, Becky Russell, Colorado State Library School Library Consultant,  & Nancy White, Colorado Media Literacy Advisory Council Facilitator. Register at https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/learning/digital-literacy/lets-talk-media-literacy-webinar/

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KnowMyNews.com
NewsGuard teamed up with Microsoft to create a nonpartisan interactive quiz to help voters sift through the deluge of information circulating online about the issues and the voting process ahead of the 2020 election. Take the quiz to put your media literacy skills to the test.

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Digital Literacy Lab For Educators (CPD)

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Digital Literacy Lab For Educators (CPD)

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An essential course of personal and professional development for instructors, mentors, learners, and anyone interested in new approaches to education. The course is centred on supporting individuals to become more responsible ‘netizens’ or engage in good ‘netizenship’. For student and educator alike, it is essential to have good digital literacy skills to participate meaningfully and responsibly in the online world. The uncertain future facing the education sector and indeed, society at large as triggered by the Covid-19 crisis, makes the need for widespread digital literacy even greater. DLLE sets itself apart from other resources in the digital literacy space by connecting the dots between critical thinking and literacy, and the digital world. This means that the focus is on cognitive skills rather than technical knowledge development. Participants will be pushed to rethink how their activity online and offline contributes to their personal and professional development.

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The Digital Literacy Lab for Educators (DLLE) offers an essential course of personal and professional development for instructors, mentors, learners, and anyone interested in new approaches to education. The course is centred on supporting individuals to become more responsible 'netizens' or engage in good 'netizenship'. For student and educator alike, it is essential to have good digital literacy skills to participate meaningfully and responsibly in the online world. The uncertain future facing the education sector and indeed, society at large as triggered by the Covid-19 crisis, makes the need for widespread digital literacy even greater. DLLE sets itself apart from other resources in the digital literacy space by connecting the dots between critical thinking and literacy, and the digital world. This means that the focus is on cognitive skills rather than technical knowledge development. Participants will be pushed to rethink how their activity online and offline contributes to their personal and professional development.
Internet Connectivity Accommodations (offline, non-aural or asynchronous participation)
The course designers recognize that participants will not always have reliable or accessible Internet connectivity. Varying accommodations will be provided to enable offline or asynchronous access to content including:

1. For all videos, there is a "Doc" icon to the right of a given video link: . Clicking on this link will download a text-based transcript. You will also see a volume icon to the right: . By clicking on this icon, you will have access to the audio content only of the video. Finally, in a given video, you may reduce or increase the resolution of the video from 240p (low resolution) to 1080p (high resolution). Simply click on the number to change the resolution - see this at the bottom left of a video screen, next to the horizontal time line bar: . These features will enable those with Internet connectivity issues to access content in formats that consume less bandwidth.

2. Synchronous sessions (webinars) will be available as video or audio files for viewing or listening asynchronously online (after the session ends)

Finally, all materials are being released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License, or CC BY-SA. See more information on Creative Commons here.

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The Digital Literacy Lab for Educators (DLLE) offers an essential course of personal and professional development for instructors, mentors, learners, and anyone interested in new approaches to education. The course is centred on supporting individuals to become more responsible 'netizens' or engage in good 'netizenship'.

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LAMBOOZLED! The Media Literacy Card Game

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LAMBOOZLED! The Media Literacy Card Game

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LAMBOOZLED!™ is set in the fictional sheep town of Green Meadows, where some news stories attempt to pull the wool over your eyes. Responding to current issues surrounding news credibility, this award-winning card game will help young people sharpen their critical media literacy skills while avoiding partisan politics.

For 2–6 players ages 11 and up.

The game was designed, developed, and evaluated by Ioana Literat, Yoo Kyung Chang, and the students of the Media & Social Change Lab (MASCLab) in collaboration with subject-matter experts, educators, librarians, and youth themselves.

Ioana Literat, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design program at Teachers College, Columbia University, a board member of the National Association of Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), and the 2020 recipient of AERA’s Early Career Award from the Media, Culture and Learning SIG.

Yoo Kyung Chang, PhD, is a learning experience designer and a lecturer in the Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
The Media and Social Change Lab (MASCLab) is a hub for multimodal and digital scholarship that explores the relationship between media and social change. MASCLab is housed within the Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
https://www.tcpress.com/lamboozled

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The Media Literacy Clearinghouse, www.frankwbaker.com, sponsors a screening of the new, powerful documentary TRUST ME, Sunday October 25 at The Nickelodeon Theatre, Columbia SC.  Virtual screening option also available. Talk back Q&A with the filmmakers. Details & tickets: www.nickelodeon.org

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These activities can be used in conjunction with specific media examples on CMP or more generally used to elicit class discussion and critical thinking. It may be useful to review the section that overviews key concepts tied to each identity and consider how we understand our identities and the ways our identities are shaped by media. Many of these exercises can be adapted for one-time use or extended for use over the course of a unit or series of units. Feel free to transform and manipulate them to fit your lesson plans.

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These activities can be used in conjunction with specific media examples on CMP or more generally used to elicit class discussion and critical thinking. It may be useful to review the section that overviews key concepts tied to each identity and consider how we understand our identities and the ways our identities are shaped by media. Many of these exercises can be adapted for one-time use or extended for use over the course of a unit or series of units. Feel free to transform and manipulate them to fit your lesson plans.

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These activities can be used in conjunction with specific media examples on CMP or more generally used to elicit class discussion and critical thinking. It may be useful to review the section that overviews key concepts tied to each identity ... Continue reading →

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CMP offers a range of curated playlists that can be used for individual lessons or extended over an entire unit. Each playlist suggests media that can be shown in the classroom or viewed at home in a sequence recommended by CMP. Playlists cover each of the main identity categories (e.g. gender, race & ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, age, disability) on the site as well as other focused topics that may be germane to school curriculum (e.g. immigration, bullying & self-esteem).

After exploring each playlist, produce your own media. Address issues or themes that come up in the playlist.  Make a commentary about a piece of media or social media. Tell a story about your neighborhood or community. Take a look at our DIY section for ideas!

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CMP offers a range of curated playlists that can be used for individual lessons or extended over an entire unit. Each playlist suggests media that can be shown in the classroom or viewed at home in a sequence recommended by CMP. Playlists cover each of the main identity categories (e.g. gender, race & ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, age, disability) on the site as well as other focused topics that may be germane to school curriculum (e.g. immigration, bullying & self-esteem).

After exploring each playlist, produce your own media. Address issues or themes that come up in the playlist. Make a commentary about a piece of media or social media. Tell a story about your neighborhood or community. Take a look at our DIY section for ideas!

Playlists will be added as we receive feedback & suggestions from educators.

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CMP offers a range of curated playlists that can be used for individual lessons or extended over an entire unit. Each playlist suggests media that can be shown in the classroom or viewed at home in a sequence recommended by ... Continue reading →

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Internet Expert is a media literacy and civic engagement game show giving young voters the tools they need to engage with democracy online. Hosted by student journalist and first-time presidential election voter Malick Mercier, each episode features two contestants who compete in a series of online challenges about election-related topics, from misinformation to voter suppression. The show is distributed on YouTube and IGTV.

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voting "voter registration" "election 2020" "game show" politics funny game wgbh "internet expert" "how to use the internet" "malick mercier" "2020 election"...

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Welcome to Internet Expert, a head-to-head game show that challenges you to sort fact from internet fiction on all things related to the 2020 election. Hoste...

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The new KQED Media Academy offers a set of four free, instructor-led online professional development courses that prepare educators to effectively and meaningfully analyze, evaluate and make media with students to support curriculum goals.

These professional learning courses are open to all educators across the country, including PreK-12 classroom teachers, librarians, TOSAs and anyone who wants to make media-rich, digitally-savvy learning available to students.

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Inspire and Engage Students through Digital Media

Now more than ever, educators need support around digital media literacy skills, in both remote and traditional classroom environments. The new KQED Media Academy offers a set of four free, instructor-led online professional development courses that prepare educators to effectively and meaningfully analyze, evaluate and make media with students to support curriculum goals.

These professional learning courses are open to all educators across the country, including PreK-12 classroom teachers, librarians, TOSAs and anyone who wants to make media-rich, digitally-savvy learning available to students. The Academy will give you the skills and experience you need to connect the dots between digital citizenship, media literacy, 21st Century skills and national curriculum standards.

[See Course Descriptions]

When you take a KQED Media Academy course, you will:

Gain the skills to create digital media and integrate it into lesson plans.

Learn by doing hands-on media projects with a cohort of peers.

Get individual feedback on your work from an expert instructor.

Receive a Certificate of Completion that can be used to document PD hours (20 or 40 hours, depending on the course).

Develop the competencies and artifacts needed to earn the micro-credentials that lead to PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification by KQED.

How it works:

Online instruction delivered through videos, lessons and activities on the KQED Teach platform.

Courses run between 3-6 weeks, and you can set your own schedule for when you work on the assignments.

Individual support and feedback is provided by expert instructors on the platform and via video conferencing.

You can sign up for a course on your own or with colleagues from your school or district. Sign up for as many Media Academy courses as you like. Either way, you'll be connected to a professional learning network of like-minded educators.

District and school leaders: get in touch to learn how Media Academy cohorts can help you meet professional development goals.

Video Production for the Classroom

Students get the majority of their news and entertainment through short form video content. Meet them where they are by mastering video production basics. You'll make your own instructional video and learn how to engage and assess students as creators and critical consumers of video.

Next cohort: June 7- July 25, 2021 Sign up here
Following cohort: January 10-February 20, 2022 Sign up here

Podcasting and Audio Production for the Classroom

Audio storytelling is an easy, accessible way for students to practice literacy and content creation-all they need is a phone. In this course, you'll make audio for your classroom as well as learn how to teach and assess student audio projects.

Next cohort: July 12-August 22, 2021 Sign up here
Following cohort: February 28-April 10, 2022 Sign up here

Analyzing and Evaluating Media for the Classroom

Misinformation is a constant in our lives, especially in the current global reality. This course will help you empower students to effectively assess the accuracy and quality of information across media formats and understand the techniques content creators use to shape their messages.

Next cohort: August 30-September 19, 2021 Sign up here
Following cohort: November 15-December 12, 2021 Sign up here

Graphic and Interactive Media Production for the Classroom

Learn how to use visual design to communicate data and reach more students through engaging infographics, interactive maps, and more. This course also covers teaching and assessing graphics and interactive media student projects.

Next cohort: September 27-November 7, 2021 Sign up here.
What is KQED Teach?
We offer a collection of free, hands-on professional learning opportunities focused on digital media. Educators can build skills in video and audio production, data visualization, and media analysis to support all curriculum areas. These skills allow educators to facilitate learning environments where their students can create digital content, develop their communication and technology skills, and engage in deeper learning that encourages critical thinking.

Have a question? email us at teach@kqed.org or check out our FAQ.
About KQED Education
The nonprofit, public media organization KQED serves educators and students nationwide by providing free, high-quality resources that strengthen media literacy skills, empower youth voice and encourage civic discourse. As a leader in media innovation, KQED provides standards-aligned classroom content and professional development courses that educators can trust. The KQED Education team is comprised of educators and experienced media professionals with a passion for equity and access in education. KQED is an NPR and PBS affiliate based in San Francisco.

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Now more than ever, educators need support around digital media literacy skills, in both remote and traditional classroom environments. The new KQED Media Academy offers a set of four free, instructor-led online professional development courses that prepare educators to effectively and meaningfully analyze, evaluate and make media with students to support curriculum goals.

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Media and information literacy for Teachers

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Media and information literacy for Teachers

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This training course sheds light on some of the basic issues related to our all lives, such as how to choose information and verify its source, the challenges and risks of the Internet, the dialogue between cultures, and other important topics. The course is divided into several training sessions, and here how it works: Every week over the next eight weeks, a new session will be released and posted on the Edmodo community page Complete the course sessions at the Edmodo Training website hosted on Teachable. At the end of the course, receive a certificate of achievement for completing it.

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تنمية مهنية فى مجال الثقافة الأعلامية والمعلوماتية

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تنمية مهنية فى مجال الثقافة الأعلامية والمعلوماتية

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Such is needed to navigate a confusing world, one dominated by mass media that tells us so much in so little time, without allowing us much time to properly process whatever we see and hear.

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How we interpret the media is up to us. Proceed wisely.

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Fighting Misinformation with A Digital Spy Adventure: Agents of Influence

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Fighting Misinformation with A Digital Spy Adventure: Agents of Influence

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Agents of Influence is a multi platform web based digital spy adventure in which participants join Spy Agencies to stop the evil Dr. Disinfo. They are also exposed to information-distortion tools, such as fact-checkers and photoshop detectors. They are also taught skills to identify misdirection through logical fallacies and data manipulation. By integrating these elements into a fun, online experience, the project creates a powerful educational experience without feeling like one.

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Fighting Misinformation With A Digital Spy Adventure

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Fighting Misinformation With A Digital Spy Adventure

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This course host via Edmodo to improve Media and information literacy for Arabian teachers

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NewsGuard Guide & Exercises for Educators

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NewsGuard Guide & Exercises for Educators

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Misinformation & Media Literacy: Navigating the COVID-19 “Infodemic”

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Misinformation & Media Literacy: Navigating the COVID-19 “Infodemic”

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NewsGuard

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As misinformation about COVID-19 proliferates online, and as remote learning and social distancing cause students to spend even more of their time on social media and other platforms, media literacy skills have taken on greater importance.

To address this need, NewsGuard has created a suite of plug-and-play resources for educators to teach a media literacy lesson through the lens of COVID-19 misinformation.

Overview:

PowerPoint slides (PPT and PDF): Broken into four parts, educators may pick which section to present to students, or teach the entire lesson over the course of a few days.
Part 1: Coronavirus Conspiracies & Other Health Hoaxes (20-30 minutes)

Part 2: Evaluating Sources (20-30 minutes)

Part 3: Evaluating Claims (10-15 minutes)

Part 4: Exercises (20-30 minutes in class or assign as homework)

Presentation guide: This document walks through each slide of the presentation, providing talking points, discussion questions, and other tips for educators.

Exercises: This worksheet contains a source evaluation exercise and a claim evaluation exercise designed for students to complete after learning the material from the presentation slides.

Vocabulary supplement: Students should be provided this document ahead of the lesson so that they may reference it when they encounter any challenging terms.

Tip sheet: Follow these tips to help you and your family spot false claims, verify the accuracy of online information, and stop the spread of misinformation.

Request a virtual class visit from NewsGuard: Fill out this form to request a virtual media literacy presentation for your class from one of NewsGuard's experts.

Suggested grade levels:

This guide is designed for a high school audience (9th - 12th grade) but may also be used for middle school (6th - 8th grade) and university-level classes.

Outcomes:

These resources are aligned with the Common Core anchor standards and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards for technology use, including:

Research
"Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words." - Common Core CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.7

"Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources." - ISTE 3b

Writing
"Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism." - Common Core CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.8

Technology
"Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others." - Common Core CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.6

"Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication." - ISTE 6a

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As misinformation about COVID-19 proliferates online, and as remote learning and social distancing cause students to spend even more of their time on social media and other platforms, media literacy skills have taken on greater importance. To address this need, NewsGuard has created a suite of plug-and-play resources for educators to teach a media literacy lesson through the lens of COVID-19 misinformation.

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Introduction to Media Literacy: Crash Course Media Literacy #1

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Poynter

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In order to download the kit, please tell us a little bit about your classroom so that we can understand whom we are reaching. We will not share your email with anyone and we will only contact you once after International Fact-Checking Day to ask you to evaluate the lesson plan.

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Indiana University

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Play the role of a journalist covering a breaking news story in the BBC iReporter game.

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by DROG

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Play the fake news game! How bad are you? Become a fake news tycoon and get as many followers as you can.

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Easy: Middle School
Medium: High School
Hard: College

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iCivics

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News Literacy

The universe of information we live in is a complicated web of messages with a mind-blowing array of sources, biases, and agendas. Help your students develop the mad news literacy skills they need with the resources in our hot-off-the-press News Literacy unit. Designed for the high school classroom, this unit teaches students to recognize high-standards journalism so they can make informed judgments about the information coming at them. Students get practical skills to help them identify and deal with misinformation, bias, opinion, and more.

Each lesson includes a paper activity as well as a web activity (similar to our WebQuests) and an independent internet investigation so your students can get real-world, hands-on practice evaluating news, opinion, and misinformation. The mini-lessons in the unit zero in on narrower topics of special concern.

Got a 1:1 classroom? Find fillable PDF versions of the lesson materials available for download with each lesson in this unit.

These resources were created with support from the Raab Family Foundation and the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Play Time: 30+ mins

Fight hidden ads, viral deception, and false reporting as a NewsFeed Defender!

NewsFeed Defenders Extension Pack

Make your students' game play more meaningful with activities designed specifically for NewsFeed Defenders. This easy-to-use resource set means deeper learning for students and best practices around game-centered learning for you!

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The universe of information we live in is a complicated web of messages with a mind-blowing array of sources, biases, and agendas. Help your students develop the mad news literacy skills they need with the resources in our hot-off-the-press News Literacy unit.

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iCivics

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Mini Media Literacy Library

For your convenience, we've assembled a library of our Media Moment Mini-Lessons. These mini-lessons combine civic content and news literacy skills. Designed for the high school classroom, each mini-lesson includes a content reading, a news literacy highlight, and a one-page news literacy activity. Use the readings together or separately to target multiple learning objectives throughout the year! Each lesson can also be found in the units below.

In our " Executive Branch" unit:

In our " Legislative Branch" unit:

In our " Judicial Branch" unit:

*For more news literacy lessons, see our full " News Literacy (HS)" unit.

Mini-lesson: The Incumbent Advantage (HS)

Learn about the electoral advantage that favors incumbents and the benefits and drawbacks of reelecting members of Congress. Then, put students' news literacy skills to work as they learn what distinguishes an opinion piece, op-ed, or commentary from traditional news.

Mini-lesson: Congressional Committees (HS)

Discover the different types of congressional committees and their responsibilities. What's more, teach students about bias and balanced reporting. In the closing activity, students put their news literacy skills to work by evaluating an article of choice for the inclusion of varied and balanced perspectives.

Mini-lesson: Judicial Activism & Restraint (HS)

Learn about the judicial philosophies of activism and restraint. In the second half of the lesson, students learn about opinion journalsim and explore criteria through which they can evaluate news-related opinion pieces.

Got a 1:1 classroom? Download fillable PDF versions of this lesson's materials below!

Mini-lesson: Gerrymandering (HS)

Students try their hand at a simplified districting exercise and learn about the common gerrymandering practices of packing and cracking districts. Students then explore the media's traditional roles as gatekeeper, agenda setter, and watchdog in a news literacy-related activity!

Mini-lesson: Filibusters (HS)

First, teach students about filibusters and how and why senators use them. Next, help students develop their news literacy skills by taking a look at how news coverage of a filibuster can be transformed through neutral, positive, or negative framing.

Mini-lesson: Succession (HS)

Review the official presidential line of succession and read about its origins. Students also learn how to detect satire in a news literacy-related activity.

Got a 1:1 classroom? Download fillable PDF versions of this lesson's materials below!

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For your convenience, we've assembled a library of our Media Moment Mini-Lessons. These mini-lessons combine civic content and news literacy skills. Designed for the high school classroom, each mini-lesson includes a content reading, a news literacy highlight, and a one-page news literacy activity. Use the readings together or separately to target multiple learning objectives throughout the year!

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Social Media's Role in Monitoring Misinformation

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Social Media's Role in Monitoring Misinformation

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PBS NewsHour Extra

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Daily Video
DOWNLOAD VIDEO
Directions: Read the news summary, watch the video and answer the discussion questions. The video has been edited for length. To watch the video in its entirety or read the transcript, click .

Summary: President Donald Trump's messages to his more than 80 million Twitter followers can carry a lot of weight-but don't always represent the truth. A new initiative by Twitter to fact check the tweets of influential figures such as President Trump has stirred debate over the role of social media platforms as content moderators.

For the first time this week, Twitter has applied a note to one of Trump's tweets offering a fact check of his claims. Trump has since vowed consequences for Twitter's new policy.

Meanwhile, the president continues to use social media to suggest without evidence that a media figure (who is often critical of the president) may have been connected to the murder of a former employee.

The former fiance of the woman who passed away has written a letter to Twitter saying that Trump's tweets are misinformation. The letter asks Twitter to delete the president's accusatory tweets. Twitter has decided not to delete them.

Discussion questions:

1. Essential question : Should social media platforms seek to correct, delete or otherwise discourage misinformation? If so, how? If not, why not?

2. Do you think Twitter should honor the request in the letter mentioned in this video and delete Trump's tweets that the letter-writer says contain falsehoods? Why do you think Twitter has decided to not honor the request?

3. Why might a politician such as Trump continue to make claims that are without evidence or known to be false? Do you think social media platforms like Twitter should do more or less to moderate claims by world leaders than other users? Explain.

4. Media literacy : BuzzFeed News Media Editor Craig Silverman describes Trump's strategy as one of "hacking the media" for attention by making evidence-free claims. How does "hacking the media" work? In your opinion, how should news sources cover false or evidence-free claims by influential figures?

If there is time: Have students read the about Trump's accusations that Twitter is "interfering in the 2020 election" and his threats to "strongly regulate" or "close down" Twitter. Discuss with your students the role of the First Amendment in limiting the president's ability to regulate a social media company such as Twitter. Then discuss the following questions:

1. Should the government have the power to regulate what content a platform like Twitter allows to be posted by its users? Explain.

2. The First Amendment only applies to government actions. But do you think platforms like Twitter should abide by the "spirit" of free speech as some argue and avoid deleting or moderating users' posts? Why or why not?

For monthly updates containing teacher resources on Election 2020, click . Sign up for short education highlights from the PBS NewsHour .

If you are making plans for distance learning, take a look at our list of PBS resources that covers a variety of subjects for middle and high school students.

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Social media's role in monitoring misinformation | PBS NewsHour Extra

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DOWNLOAD VIDEO Directions: Read the news summary, watch the video and answer the discussion questions. The video has been edited for length. To watch the video in its entirety or read the transcript, click . Summary: President Donald Trump's messages to his more than 80 million Twitter followers can carry a lot of weight-but don't always represent the truth.

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Mikva Challenge offers a portfolio of Action Civics curricula designed for educators and youth workers to use in developing youth voice and guiding youth to take informed action.

Our curricula

is designed by and for educators to pick and adapt lessons that best suit their context and the needs of their students. Educators use this curriculum in a variety of different contexts including integrating it into various subjects, in advisory, as an elective course, or in an after school club, and across a wide range of grade levels.

Given this range, we have designed the lessons to allow for maximum flexibility and adaptability. Mikva curricula is aligned with CCSS and C3 standards. In addition, the curricula directly addresses Social and Emotional Learning standards and equity in the classroom.

Mikva action civics curricula:

This cornerstone curriculum provides a six-step process for youth activism that asks students to examine their communities, identify issues of importance to them, conduct intensive primary research about these issues, analyze power, develop strategies, and take action to impact policy - while reflecting on the process throughout.

Project Soapbox teaches students how to develop and deliver a speech on an issue they feel passionately about. Students identify qualities of a good speech, learn how to structure a speech, employ rhetorical devices and qualities of effective speech delivery. Project Soapbox culminates with students presenting their speeches to their peers and community.

Student Voice Committee

This curriculum provides a framework and structure for implementing a youth governance body at your school. The activities are written for use in an after school program for youth to work in collaboration with their principal to institute changes within their school.

Elections in Action is a curriculum that engages students in learning about campaigns and elections by having them explore their own ideologies, learn about the candidates and get involved in electoral politics through a variety of scaffolded actions.

Click here for opportunities and resources for engaging youth in the 2020 election - including FREE virtual, asynchronous lessons and professional development!

This news literacy curriculum engages students in developing the skills and knowledge to be critical news consumers then has them employ those skills to utilize media to bring change around an issue that they care about.

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is designed by and for educators to pick and adapt lessons that best suit their context and the needs of their students. Educators use this curriculum in a variety of different contexts including integrating it into various subjects, in advisory, as an elective course, or in an after school club, and across a wide range of grade levels.

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Top 10 Movies for Teaching Media Literacy - Part 2

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Top 10 Movies for Teaching Media Literacy - Part 2

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The LAMP

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A couple of weeks ago I shared the bottom five of my top ten movies for teaching media literacy. Now that you've had time to watch those, here are my top five to round out the list:

5. Network (1976)

The film industry has always loved to criticize the 'lowbrow' television industry, and Network is probably the most virulent and nutty critique of them all. Its exposè of TV's cold exploitation of audiences, sensationalist entertainment, and Faustian relationship with corporations is old news today, and the last 30 minutes is almost too loony. But there's no better cinematic document on how network television is programmed, packaged, and sold to consumer demographics, and how success is measured, not in artistic quality or cultural value, but in market shares and Nielsen ratings. There is a generational angst at play in the network dynamics of the film, where the young eat the old unless the old are willing to be used by the young in their empty pursuit of a "30 share and a 20 rating." One of those elder statesmen of journalistic integrity is turned into a messianic spokesman for the angry and disenfranchised American working class - cough, Trump, cough - and then executed when his ratings drop. The world is, after all, a business.

4. Hollywood Shuffle (1987)

Robert Townsend's hilarious look at a black actor struggling to make it in Hollywood is a piercing examination of black stereotypes and the lack of opportunities available for black actors in mainstream entertainment. Townsend's Bobby Taylor is always too black or not black enough to fit into any role. The only roles on offer to black actors in the film are gangsters and that character that dies really early in movies. The protagonist of Hollywood Shuffle is constantly told that he isn't an "Eddie Murphy-type." If he was more like Eddie Murphy, i.e. if he was Eddie Murphy, then there would be more parts for him. At one point in the movie, Bobby Taylor has a nightmare in which he shows up for a casting call where everyone looks and acts like Eddie Murphy. Later in the film, the protagonist, and the filmmakers, dream of the roles they want to play someday, including Shakespearean kings, Superman, and Rambo - all the roles black actors are never considered for, then and now. The film is a personal story for director and actor Robert Townsend and screenwriter Keenen Ivory Wayans, but it's a far too common story for people of color in mainstream media. Hollywood Shuffle proves that if you want the industry to change, you have to do it yourself.

3. A Face in the Crowd (1957)

Few American films feed on the anger and cynicism of their particular era like Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd. The movie was released shortly after the death of Senator McCarthy, a man of the people who bullied and lied his way into the national consciousness. However, the story of a man's rise from local media rabble-rouser to TV personality superstar to political demagogue sounds eerily familiar today. Andy Griffith plays a folksy, singing, proselytizing oaf, named Lonesome Rhodes, who, like Arthur Godfrey, ascends from radio to television to become a working class hero. On his way to the top, we see Rhodes step on his friends and sell out to every advertiser and politician that comes a-calling. The Vitajex sequence in the film is a masterful examination of the fine lines between commerce, entertainment, and politics. Rhodes uses his easy charm and powers of persuasion to weasel his way into American homes and political circles, and he becomes delusional with fame and power. Eventually, Lonesome is exposed as the sinister, hateful charlatan he is, but perhaps too late for the media culture he comes to epitomize. A Face in the Crowd shows us the ugly side of celebrity idolatry and the unchecked role of media, and the final shot of a Coca-Cola sign flashing on and off is one of the most troubling in American cinema.

2. Quiz Show (1994)

On the surface, Robert Redford's film is nostalgic in its depiction of the glamor and vibrancy of the world of television in the late 1950s. This was a time when television was still very new and exciting; before it had permanently displaced radio and movies as the dominant mass medium in American culture - the central nucleus of the modern family. It was also a time when television was still considered a public trust. Ultimately, Quiz Show pulls back that shiny veneer and exposes the inner workings of the television industry, and how the public's trust is so calculatedly exploited and manipulated in the endless pursuit of ratings and profit. Redford shows us the masters of the universe, the media owners and advertisers, pulling the strings from their corporate offices, and the well-intentioned but flawed individuals so easily corrupted by the fame and wealth television offers. Equally the film indicts us, the audience, as culpable in the failed promise of television, in our obsession with celebrity and glamor, and in our willingness to accept the 'reality' media feed us.

1. Putney Swope (1969)

One of the most polarizing and unusual films you'll likely see, Putney Swope is a brilliant, subversive satire of the advertising industry, white privilege, and corporate greed. Easy targets, I know, but there are few media texts that do it so sharply, or humorously, or oddly. The plot revolves around a Madison Avenue advertising agency that is turned on its head when its token black employee, Putney Swope, is accidentally voted in as the new CEO. With the motto, "Rockin' the boat's a drag. You gotta sink the boat!", Swope immediately fires all the white men, except for one token white guy who Swope pays less for doing the same job as his black colleagues. Surrounded by young, gifted, and militant, black men and women, Swope vows to tell the truth in advertising, and he refuses to take accounts from cigarette and alcohol companies, or any other product that destroys or devalues black America. Unfortunately, they still have to make some actual ads, but the commercials Swope and his colleagues produce feature all those things advertising traditionally avoids, like homelessness, interracial relationships and facts, and they also parody the misogyny and chauvinism of the traditional advertising messaging. Remember, you can't eat an air conditioner.

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Top 10 Movies for Teaching Media Literacy: Part 2 - The LAMP

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A couple of weeks ago I shared the bottom five of my top ten movies for teaching media literacy. Now that you've had time to watch those, here are my top five to round out the list: The film industry has always loved to criticize the 'lowbrow' television industry, and Network is probably the most virulent and nutty critique of them all.

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Top 10 Movies for Teaching Media Literacy - Part 1

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Top 10 Movies for Teaching Media Literacy - Part 1

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The LAMP

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As a media literacy educator, and someone who learned most of what I know from cinema, I love movies that pull back the curtain and show us the hidden side of media. Looking to movies to critique the media industry is a paradox, for sure, but it's fun to revisit movies I love and examine just how much I learned about media from watching movies. The ten movies I selected challenge the way we see our news, television and advertising media, question the way men and women and race are represented, or underrepresented, in media, and the way we, the audience, are influenced and often exploited by media. The ten movies I selected are also entertaining. And I threw in a couple movies that critique the film industry, for good measure.

10. Broadcast News (1987)

One of my all-time favorite movies, Broadcast News is both a charming, thoughtful comedy of workplace relationships, and a biting, incisive indictment of the news industry. The film exposes a moment in time when broadcast journalism began its descent into the world of 24-hour infotainment (CNN launched just seven years before the film's release). Director and screenwriter James L. Brooks shows us a world where looks and on-screen presence trump professionalism and actually knowing things; where sensationalism and sentimentality trump facts and objectivity (and, yes, I'm using the word trump intentionally). The greatest accomplishment of the film, however, is in Holly Hunter's performance and character, a strong, career-oriented woman, struggling with all the assumptions and barriers that come with that. Broadcast News shows just how underrepresented women are behind and in front of the camera, and just how difficult it is for a woman to succeed and maintain her ethics, in a male- and ratings-dominated industry.

9. The Truman Show (1998)

The Truman Show warned us all about our obsession with reality TV, but we didn't listen. And after 32 (!) seasons of Survivor and 4 (?) of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, the television industry can't stop turning reality into Reality TV, and we can't stop watching! What the actual television industry learned that Ed Harris' TV producer in the movie didn't know is that you don't have to dupe an unsuspecting human into being the object of our obsession - everyday people and minor celebrities are happy and willing to turn their lives into spectacles for our viewing pleasure. Beyond the sad prescience of Peter Weir's film, The Truman Show also challenges the audience, like its titular character, to stand up to the media absurdity and falsehood that surrounds us at every turn. Just like the media we constantly consume, the contrived world of Truman Burbank is a seamless, rewarding, and seemingly benevolent invention. But, as Truman comes to realize, this invented world can also be a prison that lulls us into complacency, paralyzes us with fear, and exploits our weaknesses. The movie also memorably, and hilariously, takes product placement and native advertising to an extreme - or at least it seemed extreme back in 1998.

8. How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)

Bruce Robinson's underrated, absurdist classic attacks the ethical failings of the advertising industry, and the rampant consumerism it feeds, through the two-headed monster of Richard E. Grant's cynical and conflicted advertising executive, Denis Bagley. When Bagley has trouble designing a campaign for a boil cream, and begins questioning the ethics of advertising, he grows a boil of his own that turns into a head, with eyes, ears, and a sinister moustache. Bagley's boil also has a cold, capitalist mentality and bullies Bagley mercilessly until Bagley goes mad. Bagley tries to have the boil removed but the boil takes over Bagley, killing any trace of ethical conflict, and a new, remorseless, ruthless advertising executive is born. How to Get Ahead in Advertising is a critique of Thatcher-era Britain, and its worst materialistic and commercial impulses, and Richard E. Grant's opening-credit monologue is a perfect, crash course in critical advertising literacy.

7. Rear Window (1954)

The movie that presaged our screen culture, Alfred Hitchcock's claustrophobic, creeping nightmare of our voyeuristic impulses is as relevant now as ever. Jimmy Stewart plays a wheelchair-bound photographer, Jeff Jeffries, who watches his neighbors from the distance and safety of his Greenwich Village apartment window, much as he views the world as a photographer - through the lens of his own perspective. Unable to leave his apartment, Jeffries lives vicariously through the arguments, celebrations, and heartaches of his neighbors as we, the audience, also do. Hitchcock's camera never leaves the confines of Jeffries' domestic theater and Jeffries passively watches these mini-tragedies unfold before him, an escape from the monotony of his wheelchair-bound existence. Hitchcock is pointing a finger at his own audience while also taking us for a ride. As Stewart's character begins to piece together a possible murder, he and we are no closer to the truth than what little plays out before our eyes. Rear Window is a reaction to the act of watching that had become such a central value in American life with the huge popularity of cinema and the rising tide of television. Viewing the world through screens keeps us safe from the messiness of reality, but allows us, the voyeurs, to feel as if we're tuned in to some greater reality. For the moviegoer, life seems more real when it's lived through the shadows on the screen, or from the window in Jeffries' case, and Rear Window jolts us out of our passive gaze. Today, screens are central to every part of our daily lives, not just our pastime and our fantasies. Rear Window shows us what all those screens have turned us into - peeping toms.

6. The Player (1992)

Robert Altman's scathing Hollywood satire exposes the phony commercialism of the so-called 'dream factory'. The movie revels in the glorious history of American cinema, from the referential opening shot to the film-noirish plot, while lamenting modern Hollywood's empty quest for prestige and maximum profits. Altman's Hollywood is a never-ending parade of business meetings and celebrity parties, where the executives run the show and the sniveling artists are disposable. Producers are always wishing they could make the great pictures of the past while reducing every new idea to ' Pretty Woman meets Out of Africa' box office appeal. One ambitious executive wants to eliminate the writers out of the process completely, suggesting newspaper headlines could provide the next big picture: "'Further Bond Losses Push Dow Down 7.15.' I see Connery as Bond." Characters constantly push for purity while simultaneously suggesting the studio should do a remake of The Bicycle Thief. No film captures the conveyor belt of mediocrity that propels Hollywood better than The Player. Altman even gives us the cliched, star-studded, happy ending we all secretly crave. Plus a little sex and violence.

Ready for part 2 with my top five? Check it out here.

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Top 10 Movies for Teaching Media Literacy: Part 1 - The LAMP

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As a media literacy educator, and someone who learned most of what I know from cinema, I love movies that pull back the curtain and show us the hidden side of media. Looking to movies to critique the media industry is a paradox, for sure, but it's fun to revisit movies I love and examine just how much I learned about media from watching movies.

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IFLA

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Scholastic EDU: The Media: Separating Fact from Fiction

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Scholastic EDU: The Media: Separating Fact from Fiction

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This Junior Scholastic article about spotting fake news encourages students to examine the sources used in articles to determine potential biases.

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An informed citizenry is vital to democracy. Yet the challenge of wading through information-and misinformation-has never been greater. How can educators help young people make sense of the news they get from an ever-evolving media landscape?

I talked to Jim Warren, chief media writer for poynter.org and national political correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, to get a veteran journalist's perspective. He notes that the critical-thinking skills kids develop in school can help them become thoughtful, curious, and media-literate individuals.

Warren says that the first step for students is to verify things they hear or read. One of journalism's most popular maxims, Warren adds, still holds up: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out."

Warren advises students "to look for evidence when someone makes a claim, especially in a social media age." Even his own young children, he reports, are coming home with inaccurate information about current events that they get from their friends.

"The reason we have journalism," Warren says, "is because it's very difficult many times, and always has been, to figure out: What are rumors? What are facts? What are deceptions? And what are things that are just plain mistakes?"

"Fake News"

The 2016 presidential campaign popularized a term that has been relevant for as long as people have told stories: "fake news."

In 2016, sites in search of clicks and advertising revenue, as well as individuals seeking to sway political views, published articles with such claims as: "WikiLeaks CONFIRMS Hillary Sold Weapons to ISIS," and "Trump Offering Free One-Way Tickets to Africa & Mexico for Those Who Wanna Leave America."

A study released in January by NYU economics professor Hunt Allcott and Stanford economics professor Matthew Gentzkow found that such stories did not influence the outcome of the election. Nonetheless, one legacy of "fake news" is that honest mistakes are now sometimes branded as intentionally inaccurate, which can be confusing, especially for younger students.

Here are tips to help foster media literacy:

1. Talk about current events

Ask students which stories they have read or heard about, then have them verify the information with at least two reputable sources. This Junior Scholastic article about spotting fake news encourages students to examine the sources used in articles to determine potential biases.

2. Think critically

"Retain a sense of skepticism, not cynicism," Warren says. "Even if a story is in The New York Times or The Washington Post, or on the CBS Evening News or any news outlet that you respect, don't necessarily accept what you read and what you hear as gospel."

3. Define your terms

Keep in mind that "the media" is a broad term that encompasses hundreds of different news sources with an array of viewpoints.

4. Consider the source

Don't use Wikipedia as "the final neutral judge on different subject areas," Warren advises. "As great a source of information as it can be, it's a big mistake for kids to go to Wikipedia and think that everything on a particular topic-whether it's immigration or Franklin Roosevelt-is the sum and substance of your research."

Some blogs offer compelling insights and often are accessible to young people. Warren cites Monkey Cage, which was started by a political scientist and is now hosted by The Washington Post, as a go-to source.

5. Fact check

PolitiFact.com and Factcheck.org are great for verifying claims made by politicians.

6. Use primary sources

Read official documents, letters, and transcripts, when available. Warren says that universities, libraries, and research institutes are great places for students to track down primary sources.

Encourage students to read the Constitution. The National Archives offers comprehensive lesson plans that will help them better understand the document.

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An informed citizenry is vital to democracy. Yet the challenge of wading through information-and misinformation-has never been greater. How can educators help young people make sense of the news they get from an ever-evolving media landscape? I talked to Jim Warren, chief media writer for poynter.org and national political correspondent for U.S.

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SEL lessons for kids growing up in a digital world. PK-2

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Chance to Win Free Books!

Let us know what you thought of Power of Kindness for a chance to be one of 25 teachers to win five free books for your classroom.

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For additional terms and conditions, please visit scholastic.com/snpsurveyrules. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Fully completed surveys must be completed by 4/1/19 in order to be eligible to receive five (5) free books (Average Suggested Retail Price: $5 to $15 each). Twenty-five (25) winners will be selected at random from among all eligible surveys received. Promotion is open only to survey recipients age 18 or older who teach grades PreK-2 and who are legal residents of the United States (one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia).

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Let us know what you thought of Power of Kindness for a chance to be one of 25 teachers to win five free books for your classroom. TAKE SURVEY For additional terms and conditions, please visit scholastic.com/snpsurveyrules. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited.

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Journalism, Media Ethics, Current Events; Grade 1-5

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Elementary Critical Thinking Skill Building

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Elementary Critical Thinking Skill Building

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Lessons for elementary students

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In this section, you can find...

In this section, you can use our search tool to help you find lesson plans, tip sheets and other resources on various media topics. For instructions on how to use our search tool, click here.

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In this section, you can use our search tool to help you find lesson plans, tip sheets and other resources on various media topics. For instructions on how to use our search tool, click here. Interested in supporting MediaSmarts? Find out how you can get involved. Charitable Registration No.

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PBS Media Literacy Educator Educator Certification

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PBS Media Literacy Educator Educator Certification

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By becoming a PBS Certified Media Literacy Educator you demonstrate your expertise in teaching students to produce media that matters and to think critically about their role as media consumers and creators.

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Early Childhood - Upper Elementary

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These classroom resources and professional development courses are provided for free by nonprofit public media station KQED.

Lower Elementary (K-2)
+ Social Studies/Family Life: Molly of Denali
+ Math: Peg + Cat
+ Science: Bringing the Universe to America's Classrooms, K-2
Early Childhood (PK/TK)
+ SEL: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
+ Science and Engineering: The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!

Professional Learning

Free professional development to help you hone your media making skills and incorporate media literacy into your teaching. For educators in grades K-12, all subject areas and roles.

See our full schedule of free professional learning for K-12 educators in all subject areas - offered online and in person.

Bring media making and media literacy to your teaching with free, self-paced, online PD courses that build confidence and skills through step-by-step videos and hands-on activities. For K-12 teachers across all subject areas. Start with a course like

Gain the confidence to create digital media for your classroom and to teach media literacy skills to your students with these free, online courses. Start with a course like
"Super PD resource for making media in the classroom"
-Common Sense Education
A great way to demonstrate your skills in teaching media literacy. Certification is earned by completing 8 micro-credentials.

Deep Look: Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small with Deep Look, a new ultra-HD (4K) short video series.

Mind/Shift: Explore the future of learning in all its dimensions - including cultural and technology trends, groundbreaking research, education policy and more on this blog and podcast.

Lesson plans and resources aligned to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and ISTE standards, and geared toward early childhood through upper elementary.

Activities, lesson plans and resources from PBS, KQED and other public media stations. Get started with one of these collections:

Upper Elementary (3-5)
+ Math: I <3 Math
+ ELA: No Nonsense Grammar
+ Science: Wild Kratts

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Learn with Media: Lesson Plans and PD for Elementary | KQED

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These classroom resources and professional development courses are provided for free by nonprofit public media station KQED. Classroom Resources Lesson plans and resources aligned to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and ISTE standards, and geared toward early childhood through upper elementary.

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Common Sense Digital Citizenship Curriculum

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Common Sense Digital Citizenship Curriculum

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Grades K-12

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Interactive lessons and activities for all students!

Use digital citizenship lesson plans to address timely topics and prepare students to take ownership of their digital lives. Browse lessons by grade and topic below, or learn more about our approach to the curriculum.

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Digital Citizenship Curriculum | Common Sense Education

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Use digital citizenship lesson plans to address timely topics and prepare students to take ownership of their digital lives. Browse lessons by grade and topic below, or learn more about our approach to the curriculum.