Nineteenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society

Abstract

The 21st century proliferation of information sources and delivery media strains our students’ ability to sort unreliable from reliable sources and fake news from true. As a method of addressing this challenge, we offer a source evaluation practice that combines traditional methods of reading for tone–such as analysis of diction and writing style–with a multimodal approach that is calibrated to contemporary media. We draw upon Arola et al.’s guidelines for creating multimodal projects, and adapt them for use in students’ analyses of existing multimodal sites, such as webpages for a variety of news sources. Students examine how non-textual elements, such as layout, still photos, video, sound, and color reflect the rhetorical situation of the webpage and contribute to its overall tone. After examining these elements, the students are encouraged to draw connections between the multimodal tone and the textual elements of the sites. This activity encourages students to be more savvy consumers of information and more attentive evaluators of sources of information. While the activity works well with all students, it is particularly useful for L2 students whose access to the subtle nuances of word choice may be more limited than that of L1 students. In our paper, we offer examples of how this activity unfolds in the classroom, as well as suggestions for writing assignments that might follow from it.