Media Literacy

Week 1 topic: Introduction, overview of the course, mapping the expectations, and agreeing upon common rules.

Independent task about different types of information

Today’s information environment is hard to manage. We have all been down the algorithmic rabbit holes of our social media networks. Some of the information we see in our feed is fact-based, some of it opinion-based. Information disorder is essentially a more inclusive term when denoting the phenomena that used to be referred to as fake news. The term was widely popularised in 2016 during and after the United States presidential election and the UK Brexit referendum, as well as the French presidential elections in 2017, but has since been appropriated by politicians when referring to news organizations they find disagreeable (Wardle and Derakhshan, 2017); for this reason,  is preferred instead.

Recognizing information disorders – whether as a multiplier of misinformation or as a well-intentioned receiver of it – will be something that you shall hopefully be comfortable with by the end of this class. Spoiler: besides being able to identify stereotypes and biases (last week’s theme!) and being aware of the current media landscape as well as the role of social media in our lives, being able to distinguish fact from opinion is a skill that will come in extremely handy. 

Look at the table below (the greenish-bluish picture file attached) that helps distinguish information from persuasion. Your task? Give examples (6 examples all up) on each of the content types. Please use different examples and feel free to dig through foreign media too. You might find examples that fit in several brackets – cool! Just make sure you bring out arguments about why you think so and have 6 examples all up. 

Click here to find IREX’s “Learn to Discern” thorough teachers’ manual as additional material.

3/6 ECT “Introduction to Media and Information Literacies” example course design for higher education

PS! All 16 weeks of the example course with necessary materials can be found under the “Materials for higher education” subpage.

If you are working in higher education and are planning to design a 3 or 6 ECT course that focuses on the basics/introduction to media and information literacies, here are some structures you could follow. 1 ECT= 26 hours of work, so the 3 ECT version requires 78 hours of work from students and 6 ECT requires 156 hours of work. 

	Classes, active participation	Independent work
3 ECT course	16 lectures/seminars (32 hours of work)	56 hours (3-4 hours per week)
6 ECT course	16 lectures/seminars (32 hours of work)	124 hours (7-8 hours per week)

The introductory course lays the foundation for understanding media systems, disinformation, and influence activities – all forming the foundation of (digital) media and information literacies, crucial for contemporary democratic societies. It introduces the student to the theories and practices of information society, media, journalism, and social media. To act as responsible, safe, and engaged citizens in the networked public, individuals need to build digital resilience and consistently develop their media and digital literacy skills. This course is dedicated to developing students’ digital and media agency to be able to make use of the various affordances of the digital mediatized life as well as to mitigate potential risks technology-saturated societies uphold. The course has a special emphasis on the work and skills of contemporary journalism but is relevant for most professions that have to constantly update their digital/media and information literacy competencies – accessing information, analyzing it, creating one’s message, reflecting one’s consumption, and being socially responsible. 

After the completion of this course, the student: 

1. Seeks and successfully finds reliable academic information, using various information search strategies.     
2. Is familiar with the vocabulary on related topics, is able to discuss and critically analyse some of the contemporary issues of the information society and mediatization processes.
3. Understands the main media and communication theories, is able to connect theories to practices.    
4. Differentiates between disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation but also recognizes the limits of such categorization and the potential for re-categorization.  
5. Understands the potential effects of information disorder – on micro, meso, and macro levels.
6. Can independently work through reading materials and discuss with others in seminars later on. 
7. Can use various e-learning opportunities and is reflexive about the experience, has used e-learning platforms for cooperation and group work.

Typically a semester will have 15-20 weeks of active classes (often followed by an exam session), so here is an example of how the course could be built up on average. You can find the detailed course plan with the first columns describing a 3 ECT course base and the last column on the right adding tasks and materials for an additional 3 ECTs down below. All materials can be found under the “Materials for higher education” subpage.

week	Topic	Activities in class and independently	Reading materials	additional work for 6 ECT course
1	Introduction, overview of the course, mapping the expectations and agreeing upon common rules.	2h: Independent work task after the class, finding 6 types of information.	1h: Look at the glossary of MIL. Which terms are completely new to you? Write them up in the study diary.	5h: Find one recent (max 5 years) academic article about (digital) media and information literacies. First, without help from LLM (AI): What do the authors conclude? How would you use LLM (AI) to understand the conclusion? Do it.  Does it line up with what you understood originally?
2	How our brain works, cognitive biases	2h: Independent work after lecture/ seminar (5+ cognitive biases)		21h: Read – Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking fast and slow. Macmillan.
3	Seminar	In class group work: match propaganda techniques and cognitive biases.
4	Mediatization, (social) media logics, platforms	1h: Independent work before class: watch a recorded lecture about four big media theories (around 30 minutes) and take notes. Lecture is recorded in 2023 by Maria Murumaa-Mengel, for Uni Tartu course: https://youtu.be/mHnyj09-pVU	4h: Read after: Van Dijck, J., & Poell, T. (2013). Understanding social media logic. Media and communication, 1(1), 2-14. Nölleke, D., Scheu, A. M., & Birkner, T. (2021). The other side of mediatization: Expanding the concept to defensive strategies. Communication Theory, 31(4), 737-757	7h: Oliver, M. B., Raney, A. A., & Bryant, J. (Eds.). (2020). Media effects: Advances in Theory and Research, 4th Edition. Routledge. Summarize three chapters.
5	Media representations	1h: Independent work before: media effects in everyday life.		10h: Media biases – small research project.
6	Mediascapes, platforms, systems	Group work in class: task about your country’s media houses, most used social media platforms, outlets, websites etc. Who owns them? How do they make money? What laws do they have to follow?		5h: Check out the course Very Verified (by IREX), available in different languages. https://veryverified.eu/ Time yourself with Toggle (or some other productivity/timer app) – spend 5 hours learning on that course. Write down notes and a reflection – what did you learn, what was the most valuable, what was too basic, what was entertaining etc. What do you know more about now?
7	Journalism and journalistic work practices	3h: Independent work before class: how to become a journalist?
8	Content creators and influencers.	In class analysis materials:		3h: Independent work: Find a recent academic text about influencers and how the phenomenon of influencers “works”. Strategies they use, platform politics, influence they have, cultural changes they bring with them. One-slide overview of the text
9	Audiovisual content	2h: after class independent work. Deradicalizing a friend who is a conspiracy theorist.		10-15h: Group assignment. In self-selected groups of 2-4 people prepare a well-executed video presentation.
10	Seminar
11	Problems in information disorder	2h: Before class independent work: 1-slide recap: map your ideas – which problems have arised because of information disorder? Think in three levelt – micro, meso and macro. Search additional informanton if necessary. Bring examples as links to news stories, social media posts, websites etc.
12	Mis/dis/malinformation	2h: after class independent work. Deradicalizing a friend who is a conspiracy theorist.	6h: Wardle, C., & Derakhshan, H. (2017). Information disorder: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policymaking. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Wardle, C. (2023). Misunderstanding Misinformation. Issues in Science and Technology, 39(3).
13	Propaganda	2h: Before class: read one chapter (will be assigned) from Jowett & O’Donnell’s book.	Jowett, G. S., & O’Donnell, V. (2018). Propaganda & persuasion. Sage publications.	8h: Summarize three chapters from Jowett & O’Donnel (2018) in a 1-slide format.
14	Resilience and different literacies		2h: Sue, D. W., Calle, C. Z., Mendez, N., Alsaidi, S., & Glaeser, E. (2020). Microintervention strategies: What you can do to disarm and dismantle individual and systemic racism and bias. John Wiley & Sons.	4h: Before class: read the text (Sue et al, 2020), from the field of race studies, but theoretical concepts can be contextualized. We ask you to to exactly that! Take the concepts of microaffirmations, microprotectionsand microchallenges and describe how would these strategies look like, what actions would they entail in information activism that is specifically aimed at fighting disinformation about the Russian war against Ukraine, anti-vaxx movement, QAnon or other harmful networks of disinfo. Present in 500+ words and an illustrative table/graph/figure.
15	Seminar	5h: Before seminar: Find one academic article that is focused on countering info disorder (mis/dis/malinfo etc).
16	Presentations, wrap-up	14h: Final group task presentations.

1. CONVERSATION
   Sit down and talk to your senior – what he/she would like to do in the digital environment. What he/she is worried about, afraid from.
   
2. SELECTION OF THE DEVICE
   Smart phone, tablet PC, computer. Access to internet – mobile data or internet connection? Wifi or cable? What would be the costs of the connection?
   
3. CREATION OF E-MAIL
   Selection of the platform, understandable e-mail, written down login information. In what cases e-mail will be necessary.
   
4. NEEDS
   What applications, homepages the senior would like to use? What he/she would like to do online?
   
5. TRAINING
   How to practically use the selected applications and homepages, platforms. Help the senior to prepare a step-by-step instruction for each platform.
   
6. GLOSSARY
   Pronounce all possible concepts, terms, unclear designations that a senior may encounter.
   
7. MEDIA LITERACY
   Privacy, sharing, false information, fraudsters – explain the risks and how to avoid them
   
8. ASSISTED USE
   A senior’s path in the digital environment can be uncertain, full of fear. Stay close to your grandparent, when it is necessary.