Introduction
Media literacy is the ability to think critically about the information you read, hear or create.
Media literacy is not only the ability to distinguish fake news from real news, but also the ability to distinguish a fact from an opinion and to understand how media can sometimes be used to influence people.
It is important because being an informed and critical thinker will avoid you get influenced by false and biased information.
Biased information means information that is incomplete or subjective. Biased information may be used to convince you to belief something.
Task
Read this article and watch this video at home:
https://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/rhetological-fallacies/
Watch the following video: https://www.ted.com/talks/alex_gendler_can_you_outsmart_this_logical_fallacy
In groups of three and following the instructions given on how to make critical questions to analyze information decide if the following statements, news and videos are giving false information, are trying to convince you about something, are based on opinion or based on facts, or if they include logical fallacies.
Give reasons for your choice (Explain why did you decide that there are of one type or another).
The part you don't finish in the classroom must be individually finished at home.
Process
To evaluate information we need to ask several questions:
1) The person that is giving the information is being specific? Is he/she answering the questions who, what, where, when, how many, how often?
People who know what they are talking about are specific; they are responsable for what they are saying. When people are not specific, it is for two reasons: they don't know what they are talking about or they don't want you to know what they are talking about.
2) Ask specific questions: Is the speaker including all elements of the topic? Is the speaker including all the available evidence? is the speaker providing evidence? If it is a scientific topic; is the speaker basing what he is saying in scientific data? Can be the study repeated with the methods used?
3)Identify logical fallacies (mistakes people make in their thinking process). Check the following page to learn about logical falacies (This is the page you have already read at home, but come back to it if needed)
https://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/rhetological-fallacies/
Analyze the following statements, news and videos and decide of they are based on opinion, based on facts or if they include fallacies. Identify the type of fallacy or fallacies. (In a same video they may be several falacies)
-There is no proof that aliens exist, so they do not exist.
-Today I dreamt that I was 23 years old. The number of the lottery started with 23 as my dream told me.
-Conversation: I speak fluent English. -Okay, tell me a poem. -I don't know any poem. -So then you don't speak English well.
-What you say is not true because the other day you said something and you were wrong.
-When British people come to Spain they drink a lot, so British people drink a lot.
- Andrew Wakefield and colleagues published a study in the journal Lancet. Wakefield's hypothesis was that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine (a type of vaccine, not important) caused a series of events that include intestinal inflammation, entrance into the bloodstream (blood circulating in the body) of proteins harmful to the brain, and consequent development of autism. In support of his hypothesis, Dr. Wakefield described 12 children with developmental delay — eight had autism. All of these children had intestinal complaints and developed autism within one month of receiving MMR (The vaccine)
As it may be difficult for you here is the transcription of the main aspects, so you can read them while you watch it.
We are either a country or we are not, we either have borders or we don't. You have a border, you have a country and if you don't have a border, what are we? A nothing. (...). When you let the 11 million, which will grow to 30 million people come in (...) everyone of those votes will go to the democrats (...) you will not get any of those votes, no matter what you do (...) So with inmigration you better be smart and you better be tough, they are taking your jobs, so you better be careful
- https://www.ted.com/talks/tony_porter_a_call_to_men (Remember than in ted talks you can put subtitles to help you understand it).
-https://www.ted.com/talks/will_potter_the_shocking_move_to_criminalize_nonviolent_protest (put subtitles if you need to)
Evaluation
|
|
Weak (0) |
Fair (0.20) |
Good (0.40) |
Excellent (0.50) |
|
Group work |
-He/she did not listen to ideas of peers and thought their ideas were the only good ones. -He/she did not give any ideas or participate in the discussion |
-He/she discussed (listening and talking) to peers about matters related to the WebQuest.
|
-He/she discussed (listening and talking) to peers about matters related to the WebQuest. -He explained his/her reasons for his/her ideas and listen to the others
|
-He/she discussed (listening and talking) to peers about matters related to the WebQuest. -He/she explained his/her reasons for his/her ideas and listen to the others. -He/she helped other pupils. |
|
Attitude |
-They argued with peers. -They did not do the homework. -They talked about matters not related to the WebQuest more than two times for a minute or more. |
-He/she did the homework but did not take the time to understand it well. -They talked about matters not related to the WebQuest one or two times for more than a few seconds. |
-They took the time to understand well the home work. -They used the lesson to work on the WebQuest. -They discussed in a nice manner, taking turns and listening to everybody. -They talked about matters not related to the WebQuest one time, just for a few seconds |
-They took the time to understand well the home work. -They discussed in a nice manner, taking turns and listening to everybody.
|
|
Completion |
-They did not read the fallacies and haven't watched the video before the lesson. They finished little of the WebQuest in the lesson and finished it at home individually |
-They read the fallacies and have watched the video before the lesson, although they could not recall many of the information. They finished some of the WebQuest in the lesson and finished it at home individually |
-They read and knew the fallacies and have watched the video and understood it before the lesson, done some of the WebQuest in the lesson and finished it at home individually |
-They read and knew the fallacies and have watched the video and understood it before the lesson, done most of the WebQuest in the lesson and finished it at home individually |
|
Accuracy |
-They identified just few fallacies. |
- They identified some fallacies, fake news and opinion-based statements. |
They identified several fallacies, fake news and opinion-based statements. |
They identified most fallacies, fake news and opinion-based statements. |
Conclusion
We need to think critically about all the information we recieve. It is very common for people, news or personalities to give flawed information and it is our duty to be able to analyze that information.
Remember: you don't need to know all the answers, just all the questions!!