Education Commons^™

Using Virtual Exchange To Advance Media Literacy Competencies Through Analysis Of Contemporary Propaganda, Renee Hobbs, Christian Seyferth-Zapf, Silke Grafe

Journal of Media Literacy Education

With the rise of so-called fake news as a global phenomenon, interest in propaganda analysis has advanced along with the recognition of the fundamentally social process of interpretation. In this essay, we explore the use of cross-national dialogue among German and American undergraduate students who are seeking to better understand how media messages are interpreted and how they inform and guide the civic actions of citizens. We describe and analyze five lessons that used a virtual exchange using a variety of digital media platforms, texts and technologies to support the cross-national study of contemporary propaganda. We observed that cross-national dialogue …

Winning The War On State-Sponsored Propaganda: Results From An Impact Study Of A Ukrainian News Media And Information Literacy Program, Erin Murrock, Joy Amulya, Mehri Druckman, Tetiana Liubyva

Journal of Media Literacy Education

From 2015-2016, IREX implemented a media literacy training program called Learn to Discern (L2D) that trained Ukrainian citizens to critically analyze news media messages and identify misinformation. In 2017, IREX conducted a quasi-experimental impact evaluation of news literacy skills, knowledge, and behavior using a stratified random sample of L2D participants and non-participants (n=412). The groups were matched for gender, age, region and education levels. A news literacy assessment was administered to both groups via an online survey. The assessment required participants to analyze an objective news article and a disinformation-based news article; demonstrate knowledge of the news media environment; and …

Food For Thought: A Novel Media Literacy Intervention On Food Advertising Targeting Young Children And Their Parents, Rachel M. Powell, Tyra Gross

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The prevalence of obese children has tripled during the past three decades. While lack of physical activity and unhealthy eating have been the primary focus of public health efforts, media has a significant influence on food choices and food consumption.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine if a media literacy intervention would increase knowledge and decrease the persuasive nature of unhealthy food advertisements. Parents (n=12) and their children (n=15) were recruited from two Boys and Girls clubs. They participated in a 2-hour educational, intervention workshop. The parents completed a pretest and a posttest assessing changes in knowledge …

Teaching Girls Online Skills: Results Of The Wikid Grrls Intervention, Stine Eckert, Jade Metzger-Riftkin, Joanna Nurmis

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In 2013-2016 we designed and implemented Wikid Grrls, a 10-week after-school workshop series to teach online skills to middle school girls in U.S. schools. We interviewed and surveyed 80 participants before and after the workshops. Girls’ online skills and confidence in them increased measurably for the duration of the workshop series. Participants expressed great interest in learning more, but media literacy programs at their schools regarding online skills were lacking. Using feminist theories and the reader-to-leader framework, we argue that such media literacy interventions bring immediate learning rewards for participants. Yet, we conclude that to narrow gender gaps in digital …

The Promises, Challenges, And Futures Of Media Literacy, Monica Bulger, Patrick Davison

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Media literacy has become a center of gravity for countering fake news, and a diverse array of stakeholders – from educators to legislators, philanthropists to technologists – have pushed significant resources toward media literacy programs. Media literacy, however, cannot be treated as a panacea. This paper provides a foundation for evaluating media literacy efforts and contextualizing them relative to the current media landscape. Media literacy is traditionally conceived as a process or set of skills based on critical thinking. It has a long history of development aligned along the dialectic between protection and participation. Contemporary media literacy tends to organize …