Information
Literacy Guide:
Audience
– High School students
Introduction:
As a literacy
teacher at the high school level, I have created this guide to address an
important element of information literacy that is relevant and essential in our
“participatory” landscape of media creation and consumption. This guide
primarily addresses the critical
thinking skills necessary to intelligently navigate the world of social media communication. In an era
where “fake news” proliferates, especially through social media forums, it’s
incredibly important to develop critical thinking skills. The skills targeted
below, however, also connect to the broader literacy skills that are essential
for communication and research in college and the workplace.
Critical thinking skills: critical reading and writing in the age of social media
·
Critical
questioning
o
Questioning
is at the heart of evaluating the validity of information that appears on
social media timelines, in headlines on internet websites, and in memes that
get passed around through social media. Important questions include (but are
not limited to) the following:
§
Does
the information seem credible in general? Why or why not?
§
Who
wrote the information? (If an author is not credited, what might this mean for
the credibility of the information?)
§
Where
was the information initially posted? Does this source have a any clear bias?
§
Does
the claim make broad, unsubstantiated generalizations? If so, what part of the
claim might hold some truth?
§
For
memes and graphics, what kind of editing or photo-shopping is evident? What
might this mean?
§
Am I
inclined to believe the information solely because of my own biases? Why or why
not? What might this mean for me?
·
Critical
research: Searching for reliable evidence
o
Once
we question information that we see, it’s important to search for additional
information that could shed light on the reliability of the source, and the
accuracy of the claims. Next steps can include (but are not limited to) the
following:
§
Google
key words of the claim or topic and take note of the websites that come up with
related content.
§
Cross-reference
the information found on other websites/sources. What seems to be missing? What
appears the same? What new information do you find?
§
Take
note of the kinds of sites that contain similar information. What can I find
out about the source where the information is published? Are they well known?
Reliable? Are any of these sources a news sites that requires fact checking of
published information, and how do I know?
·
Analyzing
contradictions and nuances
in
information
o
It’s
very important to evaluate findings across numerous sources of information. Almost
always, this exercise will lead to contradiction, however. These contradictions
can result of differing interpretations of the same information, possibly due
to bias. Analyze and question these contradictions, and find the nuanced
differences between various sources. Often, the “truth” is somewhere in the
middle.
Reference:
Garcia, E., Martin, C. M., McPhee, M. (2012) Information Literacy Outreach:Building a high school program at California State University Northridge. Education Libraries, Volume 35 Numbers 1-2. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ989512.pdf
