Media Literacy

Media Literacy in the 21st Century


In today's technologically advanced world, it is becoming increasingly important to ensure that students have the tools they need to accurately understand and interpret how they are being affected by technology and the media.  With our advances in technology, and especially the invention of the internet, students of today have more accessibility than ever to information from a variety of perspectives and forms (articles, videos, blogs etc.).  At the same time, this presents some never before seen challenges for students and their teachers, as this has also increased the accessibility and ease of unintentionally and intentionally consuming and creating "fake news" media.  It is now the role of the teacher to guide students through the world of the media and set them up with the tools needed to evaluate the credibility of information they come across, recognize strategies used by the media to sell items, and how the media attempts to persuade their opinions and feelings towards people, events, or concepts. 

This is exacerbated by the significant increase in the percentages of students with access to personal devices, especially at a younger age.
Evans, Julie. (May 2015). K-12 Students' Personal Access to Mobile Devices [Online Graphic]. Retrieved from https://lms.brocku.ca/access/lessonbuilder/item/46943722/group/37bbfc0d-714b-4c0f-bc3f-2c62f9232514/8P24:%20Academic%20Readings%202015-16/Mobile%20Learning%20-%20Media%20Strand.pdf

At the same time, this new era of information gives teachers access to a near limitless supply of resources they can use to provide novel, relevant ways of providing this guidance.  With relevancy and real-world application comes engagement, and changing with the world will help you keep students interested, engaged, and become effective learners for the 21st century. 

Although many may think that it's easy to tell when information is false, a recent study at Stanford University found that students performed very poorly at distinguishing news stories from advertisements, only scoring well when presented with "traditional" ads.  With this much confusion over the identification of fact and fiction, one great resource I found to cover this topic was through coolcatteacher.  This was a podcast which outlines a couple lesson plans that are great for introducing students to the concept of "fake news" and how they can distinguish between credible and questionable news sources. 

Specifically, I think activities and issues like this fit very nicely into the language arts curriculum already in place for many intermediate grades.  This includes identifying the techniques used by various media forms to appeal to their respective audiences and purpose.  This can be extended with students being able to inquire as to how/why different audiences would react differently to the same product, and what point of view a text is coming from and if that results in any sort of bias. 

Embedded below is a short video from TedEd that I think sums up the issue well.  
            

 Ted-Ed. (27 Aug, 2015). How False News Can Spread-Noah Travlin [Online Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSKGa_7XJkg 
As stated in the video, today's world has accelerated the spread of news, both fake and real.  In particular, reference to circular reporting illustrates how and why it is harder than one might expect to teach students to detect these differences before they are exposed to them.  It brings up a point of developing students into critical thinkers so that when confronted with these situations, they are able to make a more informed decision on the credibility of their research.   

This brings back many memories for me in elementary school.  I remember far too often the troubles of having group projects or watching presentations where my classmates would use sources that I knew weren't entirely fact.  Most students didn't go much beyond "Don't cite Wikipedia" as their baseline for detecting credible information, not thinking about it beyond the context of what we pictured as "fake" based on traditional media we had grown up with.   

 With a teaching block of my own in a grade 7 class coming up, I feel like media literacy will become one of the main focal points of my literacy instruction.  In my opinion this is one of the strands that is so inescapable in everyday life that it is crucial for my students to understand these concepts.  

 Specifically, with my students reaching the age where they will begin to use a higher number of social media sites, putting a social media centered spin on these concepts and how they can detect fake news in social media posts will help them engage on a personal level.  For example, my previously mentioned lesson plan could be tweaked to have them exploring twitter pages to determine different ways of detecting credibility (certified blue checkmark etc.), as they will significantly differ from how to determine credibility in traditional media. 

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