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With the vast expansion of digital tools, artificial intelligence and the information overload in modern-day societies, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish authentic information from fake news. To do this properly, students must develop skills to appreciate the varying quality of information surrounding them. This is true for social media posts as it is for academic papers, newspapers, books, cultural media, or any other kind of source.
We need to train ourselves to identify who says what, where, and when but we should also think about how information is presented, through which channels and for which purposes. Critically evaluating authors, sources, narratives, and agendas is crucial to assess the value of information. Information literacy can only be acquired with due attention for the process of knowledge production and the intentions of all actors involved, from sender to medium to recipient.
In this respect, an additional layer of complexity resides in the evaluation of forms of information that go beyond the written word as main mediator of knowledge. Broadening students’ awareness of what types of information are (un)acknowledged in each setting is a low-key and safe way to encourage an understanding of ‘Information Literacy’ that includes analysis of (unwritten) forms of sensing the world through historically specific, mediated, and materially embedded practices.
Tips & tricks
With these tips & tricks, you can introduce students to the skill in an accessible way.
Information literacy can be trained by letting students analyse what the background is of the readings assigned to them: this can be fairly basic (who wrote this piece, when was it written, who is the publisher etc.) or it can be more elaborate (identifying ideological or financial sponsors of author/editor/publisher; analysing the timing of the release and the sociopolitical climate of its production). Increasingly, online tools facilitate background checks to detect potential bias (see resources below).
All these elements should then be considered within their broader context: what are the implications of the specific production circumstances (e.g. Cold War; pre-Industrial; post-Covid)? Critical source analysis can be conducted collectively in class, or individually as course preparation but the goal is always to understand how different factors influenced writing and, thus, to enable students to contextualize information.
Instead of strictly prescribing the readings for each session, students can be encouraged to mobilise resources of their own on any given topic. These resources can be news items, blogposts, academic publications, pictures, videos, or any other type of information. What is important is to let students verify the reliability of their chosen resources. By retrieving their own sources, students inevitably reflect on processes of information gathering and how these influence the quality of the source. This should help in making them more aware and critical of the media landscape and their search habits.
There are times when more effective informed engagement with course material can be reached when explicitly sharing the pedagogical approach with students before you start the session. This entails not only informing them about what you want them to learn, but also clearly stating how you wish to get there, what type of questions you would like people to ask, and what you want students to do with this knowledge.
Such approach works explicitly well when the aim of your session goes beyond knowledge acquisition and includes an invitation to critically assess course material in terms of its origins (or positionality), research quality, position in academic debate, relationship to other course materials, or students’ own perspectives. In practice, taking such approach invites learners to engage with course material more critically than they would do in a regular session. In addition, by explicitly stating how you want students to engage with the course material, you reduce barriers for active participation and speaking up.
In order to teach students to think critically about what they are learning; they can be asked to submit a critical question about their readings before class. This asks of them to analyse what they read and to understand the readings more profoundly before attending their classes. Furthermore, asking and reviewing others’ questions beforehand can encourage a more in-depth discussion and facilitate insight into how students read the material differently and assess it beyond face value. In addition, it might also lead to an increased engagement of the students in class, as they will all have a chance to voice their opinion and their questions.
Teaching activities
With these teaching activities, you can enable students to apply the skill concretely within your educational practice.
Raising awareness about media bias can be done in various ways, some more activating than others. For example, students can be encouraged to experiment with multiple ways to visually present the same data or information. This exercise will show how facts are prone to interpretation and framing; data must be adapted to fit an audience or convey a message. In visualizing their data, students will have to choose what to include or exclude in their visualization, and what viewpoint they wish to present. Students will realize that such communication strategies are applicable to every piece of daily news. By experiencing the conditions that shape information themselves, students will gain a better understanding of the production mechanisms behind it.
Encourage students to collect news items (at least one per participant) about one and the same event or controversy. The aim is to collectively compare contrasting ways of reporting facts. Retrieving news items is part of the exercise as this will familiarise students with available library tools and online resources. Students will better understand the production of (fake) news and learn to detect frames in reporting by examining the background of journalists and news outlets (e.g. via mediabiasfactcheck.com).
Participants are encouraged to summarize why they chose the piece and how they evaluate its quality. Advanced students may be asked to specifically assess (a) the reliability of an item by identifying facts, claims, judgements and/or prejudices in their item and to illustrate these by locating a relevant passage. Students can also evaluate (b) the credibility of an item, by scrutinising its sources, the expertise, vested interests (i.e. agenda or partiality) of the journalist, the publisher and by analysing other potential stakeholders involved in the publication of a piece (e.g. sponsors, parties, companies, activists). Such exercises will strengthen critical thinking and independent reasoning skills.
Assessment
With these assignments, you can encourage students to further train and develop the skill.
A straightforward way to test and train media literacy is by assigning a film analysis. Students will write a paper (or another format) in which it becomes clear that they understand the topic of the film, its context and the position it takes within the media landscape. Furthermore, this digest will show students how facts can be distorted to promote a certain ideology or opinion. A film analysis will make students aware to what extent the portrayal of certain events influences how the public thinks about these events. It will also make students aware of the impact of (creative) media and how they can shape experiences. This assignment will stimulate students to look critically at the information they are confronted with in their daily life, and how to look beyond a specific lens with its possible bias.
Asking students to describe and analyse a case study trains and assesses their ability to critically engage with different types of material related to a topic of their choice and/or a topic provided by their teacher. Case studies based on real-world scenarios demand critical analysis, encourage learners to navigate different types of (non-)academic sources, evaluate information credibility, and synthesize findings to build to a conclusion or even propose informed solutions. Through this process, students learn to situate and evaluate sources in relation to frameworks and paradigms discussed in class, identify potential biases, and effectively apply research skills. Assessment can be based on students' ability to effectively identify key issues and debates, analyze and situate different types of relevant sources, and draw evidence-based conclusions. Additionally, findings can be communicated through written reports, presentations, or other creative formats.
Best practice
These examples provide insight into how students and lecturers have successfully applied or can apply the skill in practice.
Academic Blogpost
Understanding Politics (EUC-SBS208)
The goal of the academic blogpost is to examine how a specific topic is portrayed in the media, and how media portrayal influences the understanding of the problem. To analyse this it is imperative that both scientific and non-scientific sources are used. The final product will be a blogpost of 750-1000 words, in which an argument about the influence of media framing is backed up by scientific evidence.
- Jones-Jang, S. M., Mortensen, T., & Liu, J. (2021). Does media literacy help identification of fake news? Information literacy helps, but other literacies don’t. American behavioral scientist, 65(2), 371-388.
- Sample, A. (2020). Historical development of definitions of information literacy: A literature review of selected resources. The journal of academic librarianship, 46(2), 102116.
- Costica, Dumbrava (2021). Key social media risks to democracy: Risks from surveillance, personalisation, disinformation, moderation and microtargeting. European Parliamentary Research Service
- Šuminas, A., & Jastramskis, D. (2020). The importance of media literacy education: How Lithuanian students evaluate online news content credibility. Central European Journal of Communication, 13(2), 230-248.
- Haider, J., & Sundin, O. (2020). Information literacy challenges in digital culture: conflicting engagements of trust and doubt. Information, Communication & Society, 25(8), 1176–1191. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1851389
- Cuevas-Cerveró, A., Colmenero-Ruiz, M. J., & Martínez-Ávila, D. (2023). Critical information literacy as a form of information activism. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(6), 102786. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102786
- https://datasociety.net/
- https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
- https://authentisci.com/
- https://www.allsides.com/media-bias