As a middle school English/Language Arts teacher, I'm very familiar with teaching students about credible/non-credible sources. However, despite this, I've always struggled to not only find a clear and concise way to teach it to my students, but also in evaluating media and information for my own consumption. I think it's tempting for us to believe that if we're of a certain educational level, we can't possibly be duped by media sensationalism or half-truths, but the sources I read and listened to this week very much proved me wrong.
The Liturgists podcast provided an incredibly clear breakdown of the most basic forms of credibility a source should have. Since listening to the episode earlier this week, I've begun keeping their tips in mind as I watch YouTube videos, TikToks, listen to the radio, or read the news. I liked how the advice was nonpartisan and how "both sides" are guilty of information distortion; I think their tips provide a great starting point for people on all sides of the political spectrum when it comes to evaluating credibility. I think the tools discussed in the podcast align with what we see in the P21 Framework with information and media literacy. The Partnership for 21st Century Learning emphasizes that "citizens and workers of the 21st century must be able to exhibit a range of functional and critical thinking skills related to information, media, and technology" (2015). The tools in the podcast are an excellent application of these values, and I think the two sources align very well.
Not to wax too poetic about The Liturgists episode and how much I enjoyed it, but it also aligns very well with what we see in the "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education." This source specifically discusses the role that librarians can play in cultivating information literacy, and I think that the application of the six tenets relies on a librarian or media specialist having cultivated a solid information diet for themselves. For librarians, I think it's important to have an information diet that spans the political spectrum. I try to regularly consume sources that are slightly left and slightly right of center in order to get the best balance (while still critically evaluating them). I also think it's a good idea to occasionally "check in" on sources that are further left or further right; every now and then, I like to go to a more biased publication, find a story, and then do external research on that story to see what they got right and wrong and how it's been twisted. This doesn't need to be done all the time, but it's good to stay in practice, especially since we are the people who teach others what information and media literacy should look like.
If I had to derive an overall theme from this week's sources, I would say it's that information and media literacy should be seen as accessible to everyone. Yes, librarians are often the experts, but we should show our students and patrons that anyone can evaluate if a story is credible or not using just a few simple tools. While the P21 Framework and the "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education" are primarily written for librarians and media specialists, The Liturgists episode was meant for a much broader audience. That broader audience--of all ages, political affiliations, and creeds--is to whom we need to demonstrate the accessibility of media and information literacy.
References
American Library Association. (2015, February 9). Framework for information literacy for higher education. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework
Gungor, M. & Science Mike. (Hosts). (2017, March 7). Fake news and media literacy [Audio podcast episode]. In The Liturgists. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81NmVhMWU3OC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/aHR0cDovL3BvZGNhc3QudGhlbGl0dXJnaXN0cy5jb20vZS9tZWRpYS1saXRlcmFjeS0xNDg4ODkyNDg1Lw?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjg-dDOnN7yAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQEg&hl=en
Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (2015). P21 framework definitions. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED519462.pdf
The Liturgists podcast was really fantastic. In fact, I have a son who is in 10th grade and taking his first AP course, AP Seminar. They are learning how to find sources and evaluate them. I texted him the link to the podcast episode and told him to listen... it just breaks everything down so nicely.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the necessary information diet for librarians. I think it is the duty of the librarian to be sure that they are aware of what all sides are saying... especially in the day to day news cycles. I always tell my son that being able to debate a point means being able to hold both sides in your mind at once and compare them. A lot of people will pick a side and stick to it, no matter what, refusing to even look at another view point. Nothing really works that way. No one view point is always correct about everything. We have the distinct responsibility to lead people to information. That responsibility does not include choosing the information for them. It is the 'teach a man to fish' lesson. The librarian is there to teach people how to find and access information. It is the job of the person to sift and sort the information for themselves. We can help by teaching them how to do that, but in the end the information a person chooses to consume will be of their liking, not necessarily ours.