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Media Literacy Librarians' Professional Development January 29, 2021

Media Literacy vs. Information Literacy

Media literacy focuses on analyzing media content and the effect of media on society​.

Information literacy is the ability to identify, find, evaluate, and use information effectively. ​

There is a strong connection between them, and we have to be able to teach both!!

Definitions from Amigos Library Services, Media Literacy in Libraries Course.

Four Moves & A Habit - Mike Caulfield

"Checkmate" by Stevepb. CC0 Public Domain. Pixabay.com

Mike Caulfield is well known in the fields of open education, networked learning, and digital literacy. His book: "Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers...and other people who care about facts" has been favorably reviewed by librarians, educators, and journalists.

His method and approach to teaching at the intersection of media and information literacy is called "Four Moves & A Habit". We start by using the basic instincts of a fact checker.

**LibraryLEARN has a video on the Four Moves"

Think Like a Fact Checker

Move 1: Check for Previous Work

Most likely someone has already done the digging for this claim. Take a look around to see what has already been reported.

Use fact checking sites like snopes.com, NPR Fact Check, Politifact, Scicheck, Quote Investigator, Guardian Reality Check, etc.

Use tactics like the " site: " search function in Google or other search engines.

Move 2: Go Upstream

Find the original story, not the "reporting on reporting". Keep going until you can find the original source.

Think about viral content, where did it originally come from? Use tactics like filtering by date and time, and searching snippets of content from within an article or webpage.

Look out for sponsored content. These types of articles usually contain ads and biased information.

Move 3: Read Laterally

What are other sources saying about this source? Look at the network that it exists within.

Don't just rely on what a source says about itself in the "About" section. Check for other authoritative reviews.

**LibraryLEARN has a tutorial on Lateral Reading**

Move 4: Circle Back

If you feel lost, circle back and start over.

The evaluative process of exploring media and information is iterative. Go back through each move with new search terms and tactics.

Habit: Check Your Emotions

Emotions play a powerful role in our willingness to explore outside of our tightly held beliefs.

Content that causes strong emotions, spreads the fastest. We have to be able to pause, think, and fact check.

Four moves and a habit is just one approach to teaching and talking about media literacy. The tactics described by Caulfield give practical strategies for exploring media sources and their effect on the dissemination of information.

This page is adapted from: Caulfield, Mike. Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers...and other people who care about facts. Pressbooks. 2018. CC BY 4.0. and is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license by Jamie Witman, except where otherwise noted.

Created By
Jamie Witman
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Credits:

Created with an image by PhotoMIX-Company - "internet search engine tablet samsung" . All other credits provided on spark page.