Abstract
One dominant narrative of American partisanship today characterizes coastal metro areas as full of “liberal elites,” and rural and middle America as full of working class whites increasingly mistrustful of authorities such as government and media. At the Community College of Philadelphia, an open access institution serving the city with the highest poverty rate among the ten largest U.S. cities, we educate mostly low- and middle-income students of color, who are historically staunchly Democratic but also distrustful of authorities for very legitimate reasons. However, such distrust in institutions renders this population susceptible to various forms of misinformation and disinformation. This provides a unique set of circumstances for teaching media and information literacy, as most students don’t view the press as “the enemy of the people,” but also haven’t had the educational resources to develop strong critical thinking skills around media. In this discussion, we explore the differences between media literacy, news literacy, and information literacy in the current media environment. We also review some of the literature around teaching media literacy and the skills of navigating online misinformation, while analyzing the particular challenges of teaching media literacy to underserved urban populations, including obstacles caused by institutional changes in American higher education.
Presenters
David RaskinAssistant Professor, Communication and Media Studies, Community College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Sindhu Zagoren
Assistant Proffessor, Communication Studies & Mass Media, Community College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Media Literacy, News Literacy, Information Literacy, Conspiracy Theories, Pedagogy, Race
