Hapgood

Lots of media people today talking about whether “heated” rhetoric resulted in what we have seen in the past few weeks. But this is the wrong frame. The “heated rhetoric” approach to thinking about public discourse imagines political violence as a barroom brawl. Someone spills a drink. Someone calls that person an asshole. That person Continue reading

New Knight Foundation-supported study out about college students which very much confirms what we see in classrooms. Students: feel overwhelmed by the “firehose of news” feel unequipped to sort through that news want to read and share truthful accounts believe in journalistic principles of accuracy and verification but fall back on cynicism as a strategy, Continue reading

Back in 2015, I was blogging less and using a homegrown personal wiki more. And I was thinking about this problem of collaboration and attention. Going through my notes on the wiki from that time, I realized a bunch of my thinking had been formed by a book chapter from 1971 that I read in 2015, Continue reading

One of my great loves is Dewey. I share his belief that an educated engaged populace is crucial to democracy and democracy is crucial to the profession of those teaching in democracies. I think part of what we need to do is make sure all citizens have the tools they need to sort news from Continue reading

Facebook has a news information panel, and I like it lots. But it could be better. First, let’s look at where it works. Here it is with a decent news source: That’s good. The info button throws the Wikipedia page up there, which is the best first stop.  We got the blue checkmark there, and Continue reading

Earlier today Alexios Mantzarlis tweeted a GIF by @PicPedant that demonstrates a particular photo is fake in a precise way: This is interesting because recently I’ve been moving to GIFs myself for explanations. Here’s some demonstrations of our techniques, for example: Check for other coverage (in this case with a good result): Check what a person Continue reading

Update: I recently learned that this post has been selected for inclusion in a prestigious ACRL yearly list. Newcomers unfamiliar with our work may want to check out SIFT, our alternative to CRAAP, after reading the article. I reference the history of the so-called “checklist approaches” to online information literacy from time to time, but Continue reading

I’m writing a couple framing documents for some events coming up. This is one that I’m still drafting, but I thought I’d throw the draft up and take any comments. Note that this is already at max length. Also, one site name has been removed in an effort to not attract the trolls. And citations Continue reading

Beautiful essay this week by Zeynep on Politico, six paragraphs you should read to become a smarter human. But I just want to point to something in paragraph three very relevant to media literacy: Deluged by apparent facts, arguments and counterarguments, our brains resort to the most obvious filter, the easiest cognitive shortcut for a Continue reading