Lesson 7: Information Literacy & Reliable Sources
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What is “Information Literacy”
“Literacy” means “able to understand well and use correctly”. If you have information literacy, you are able to understand and use information with skill.
People with information literacy skills are able to find information, determine if it’s reliable, and consider how (and whether) to share that information.
Although there is a lot of information available online, it’s not all very reliable...
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Digression: Technology Pros & Cons
We can access more information than ever thanks to technology, which is great.
But people can manipulate information - whether it’s text, audio, or video - much easier with technology.
We’ve gotten to the point that just because you can see it doesn’t mean it’s what really happened...
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Why Reliable Sources Matter
When you can’t trust your own eyes, how do you know what to believe online?
Even if you could trust what you see, there’s too much going on in the world for you to keep track of all of it on your own. That means you are probably getting most of your information from someone else.
Is that “someone” reliable?
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What does “biased” mean?
Inside “information literacy” is the subcategory “news literacy”. Many news sources are “biased.” This word has a few definitions, and lots of people use it as a synonym for “racist”, but that misses the true meaning of the word.
“Biased” means “favoring one side over another.” When it comes to choosing where to eat for dinner, you might be biased towards pizza over all other types of food. When it comes to relaxation, you might be biased toward playing video games over all other activities. When it comes to news, though...
Dr T’s Notes: A&D Resources, slide 5
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Bias & News Sources
Ideally, we want our news from an unbiased set of sources.
This means we need to know some sources of news.
It also means we need to ask ourselves if our sources are biased; and if so, what their bias is, and how biased they are.
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AllSides.com Media Bias IDentification & Review
AllSides.com is an online information center that provides different perspectives on the same news story (like climate activists on the field during a football game). They also rate how biased news sources are, and invite users to review their ratings.
AllSides not only identifies bias, it is also a great place to find a variety of news sources!
AllSides also provides some great guides for spotting media bias.
Dr T’s Notes: A&D Resources, slide 7
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2 Info Lit Keys: Perspective & Context
A biased news source may not provide you with multiple perspectives on the same situation; or they might not provide enough context to understand the situation completely.
Perspective = point of view; how the person sharing the information sees it
Context = “What is the bigger picture?”
Think about the perspective of your information source, and think about the context in which the information was created.
Dr T’s Notes: A&D Resources, slide 8
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Check out this slideshow about perspective:
Dr T’s Notes: A&D Resources, slide 9
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Digression: Bookmarks
We’re covering several really reliable sources today.
Get in the habit of bookmarking those kinds of sources.
You can view and re-arrange your bookmarks in Chrome by pressing Ctrl-Shift-O to see the Bookmark Manager - you can add new folders and drag-and-drop your existing bookmarks there. (Use the “snowman” in the upper right to view some options.)
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Info Literacy Basics (A)
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Info Literacy Basics (B)
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Use your head!
We’re going to spend a while discussing how to SIFT your sources.
Until we get there, USE COMMON SENSE!
Dr T’s Notes: A&D Resources, slide 13
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Task: Play with Misinformation
We’re visiting Factitious, a game that challenges visitors to identify which items are real news stories, and which are made up.
Then play “Bad News” to see how disinformation spreads - be a “bad guy” to see how they do it!
Play “Go Viral” to see how people are spreading misinformation about Covid-19.
See how information can turn people against each other by playing the Chief Disinformation Officer for a small town in “Harmony Square”.
Finally, the News Literacy Project offers this “Should You Share It?” Quiz to see if you can tell the difference between credible and misleading social media sources!
Dr T’s Notes: A&D Resources, slide 14
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