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Media literacy is extremely important in todays' world, where false information is more readily available than ever. When navigating the internet, students need to be aware of when they are being told false information, as well as have the tools to seek out and find true and evidence-based information.

Students need to be able to think critically about information they find online. They need to know what to look for when seeking out credible sites and information. First, they need to look for the most recent date that the information was updated. Information 10 years or older is considered outdated and should not be used in an academic setting. Students should be able to tell when they are being advertised to. If a website is trying to sell them something, it is most likely not credible. Credible sources are peer reviewed. This means that the article has been reviewed for accuracy and authenticity and is most likely free of false information. Students should also find multiple sources and choose the best one based on the relevant information they are able to extract from the source, and if the cite is credible according to the criteria listed above.

In music specifically, students need to be able to discern when a musical performance is authentic or not. Who is performing? Who has posted this performance? Has this performance been through post production editing? A good way to tell is if the recording is live. Live recordings tend to have authentic, unedited vocals. Though, students need to be aware that even in live performances, sometimes the performer uses a prerecorded vocal track. A lot of popular performers, especially vocalists use post production editing to make their performances cleaner and more impressive. Students need to recognize when vocals have been edited, and when they have not so that they are not striving to achieve the impossible, and setting realistic goals to achieve and listening to examples of good technique.

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It has become popular to post edited vocals on social media and pose them as if they were raw. Listen to this example of vocals that utilize autotune and reverb after recording to enhance the performance.

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ARABIAN NIGHTS || COVER BY VORONINA VALERIA

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Here we have an example of the same song, but this time the vocals are unedited. These performers are singing in real time, and the vocals are not edited.

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The Cast of 'Aladdin' Performs 'Arabian Nights' Live

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Autotune is using technology to correct the slight pitch fluctuations and inaccuracies that occur in natural singing.

While singing, the pitch of the voice naturally osculates by a few cents (semitones within a given pitch) indicating that the vocal line is natural and unedited. This osculation is a normal part of singing.

Autotune seeks to make the pitch on all accounts perfect. When using autotune, the pitch does not fluctuate within a given note, but is perfectly in tune, right down to a 100th of a cent.

Reverb is when a sound is digitally edited to sound as if it were in a different physical space. It is the difference between a small closet and a great cathedral. You can usually hear this if there is an echo in the vocals.

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A few ways that you can pick up on edited audios on social media is listening for note changes, pitch qualities, and echo. Always check to see who posted the video, and on what media platform.

When autotune is used, it can made transitions between notes jarring and unnatural. This is because when changing notes, the natural voice usually sings a few semitones or cents between the starting note and the target note, making the note change more fluid. However, if the notes are perfectly tuned, you don't hear those in-between notes resulting in a broken and unnatural transition between notes. You can also tell when autotune is used by how perfect the pitch sounds. You don't need to have perfect pitch to tell when a note does not move at all during its duration. If the note sounds almost unnaturally perfect, it is usually because it is.

To tell when an audio has added reverb, listen for an echo in the audio. Does the space they are recording in match the amount of echo you hear in the recording? If not, the audio is probably edited.

Another way to tell if a video is trying to get you to believe an edited audio is authentic, is checking to see who posted the video. If the video is posted from a news station or professional recording studio of a live performance (not a music video) the audio has a better chance of being raw. Using media literacy techniques such as stopping to ask, "who posted this?" "what do they want from me?" and "has this musician or performance been reviewed by other musicians?" can help us ensure the validity of a performance. If the performance is from a musician you have never heard of before, and they are posting the video for likes and comments, it may not be an authentic performance. But of the performance is on Broadway, an established musical theatre company, and was recorded by a legitimate news station such as ABC news, the performance is more likely to be an authentic one.

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Can you hear signs of edited audio? This example also uses autotune and reverb to enhance the vocals.

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hopelessly devoted (grease) - Kiran + Nivi

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Here is an example of the same song, but this time it features unedited vocals. Can you tell the difference?

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Olivia Newton-John Oscar performance Hopelessly devoted to you from Grease

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With social media bringing people together faster than ever, the musical world has never been more saturated with amazing musical skill! This can be a great thing, more musicians are getting noticed around the world, and building their music careers using social media as a jumping point.

However, the competition has never been steeper. To get ahead of the competition and stand out as a flawless singer, people will record themselves singing, then edit the audio with autotune and reverb. They will then post a video of themselves singing using the new edited vocals, and stage it as though they were singing that way live or raw either a Cappella or to a backing track.

A lot of people have believed that these videos are live, and believe that these singers are on a different level of talent, one that can never possibly be achieved.

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Watch this video about the potential harms of using edited vocals and presenting them as raw.