I lately shared my suspicions concerning the penalties of an absence of media literacy. The vital expertise that enable folks to use context, curiosity, and proof of validity when consuming data have by no means been extra vital. A quote from Sam Wineburg, PhD bears repeating:
I’ve come to imagine that dependable data is to civic well being what clear water and correct sanitation are to public well being. By no means has a lot data been at our fingertips as it’s immediately. Whether or not this bounty will make us smarter and higher knowledgeable or extra ignorant and narrow-minded will rely upon one factor: our academic response to this problem.
What higher place to start out than the library? Whether or not it’s by way of the varsity or the general public library system, there’s a wealth of data obtainable to assist learners of all ages, and it falls to librarians to make these assets straightforward to seek out and navigate.
This may seem like writing classes into the scope and sequence of curriculum for a college librarian or providing media literacy workshops at your department of the general public library. Any web site related to a library can have a web page devoted to fact-checking assets the place patrons might get a dependable reply rapidly. Modeling the usage of these assets is the primary key to creating checking your sources a knee-jerk response. Media literacy is value nothing if it’s not sparked by curiosity, and the need to reply the query “how do you know?”
Beneath, I’ve gathered assets that can be utilized throughout many venues and age ranges. In the precise fingers and with the precise emphasis, these are priceless instruments to assist folks within the pursuit of validity. Whether or not you’re instructing adults to learn laterally, highschool college students to quote their sources, or youthful kids to withstand believing every thing they see, there are web sites and organizations under that may help librarians and academics of their righteous quest to boost media literacy expertise.
Media Literacy Assets
Fast Use
These are websites that folks might have able to test issues as they go about their day or to lookup data on a single concern.
Google Reality Examine Instruments: Aggregates current truth checks from across the web.
FactCheck.org: Meticulously fact-checks all issues US politics
Snopes: A traditional for a motive, Snopes particularly checks on widespread memes, city legends, and web rumors.
Lead Tales: Just like Snopes, Lead Tales tackles present rumors. The tagline “Just because it’s trending doesn’t mean it’s true,” actually sums it up.
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Hopefully, you’ve discovered no less than one web site or lesson that excites you. Personally, in researching these assets, I joined no less than one group and earmarked a number of classes that I wished to adapt for my elementary college students immediately. There isn’t an absence of free and complete assets, so now it falls to us, the librarians, to take this bounty and get it to our patrons as rapidly as attainable.
Let’s tip our hat to Levar Burton and convey again “but you don’t have to take my word for it.” Encourage everybody to test their sources and watch media literacy charges rise!
