1st Edition
Teaching Media Literacy with Social Media News Practical Techniques for Middle and High School Classrooms
Featuring tools, activities, and insightful stories from a CIA analyst and instructor with 30+ years’ experience, this practical and engaging book supports busy educators to teach the lifelong skills of news and media literacy to their students.
Based around existing curriculum and teaching standards, this guidebook shows how Social Studies and English Language Arts (ELA) teachers can build students’ confidence with social media evaluation skills, which are critical to engaging in civic discourse and building a stronger democracy. In Part 1, Whitehurst gives an overview of the media evaluation techniques based on those you would learn as a CIA analyst, including understanding how our biases and mindset make us vulnerable to disinformation, learning how media tries to persuade us, checking facts, and spotting disinformation. Part 2 dives deeper by showing teachers how learners can check if an argument on social media is valid, and how fallacies and manipulation tactics in online arguments can complicate this important skill. It is illustrated by examples from social media and contemporary popular culture in different mediums, including videos, photos, memes, and AI-generated content. You can also find fresh and updated social media examples on the author’s website, News Literacy Sleuth.
Packed with practical classroom resources, examples from popular culture, and engaging insights into the CIA analyst role, this book is designed to support middle and high school teachers with news and media literacy in Social Studies, Civic Education, and ELA.
1. How Young People Consume News Part 1: Learn the Skills 2. Playing On Our Emotions, Mindset, and Biases 3. The Information and Social Media Ecosystems 4. The Persuasive Power of Visuals 5. Evaluate Photos 6. Evaluate Videos 7. Evaluate Memes 8. Evaluate Ads 9. Evaluate Charts 10. Can You Fact check It? 11. Fact Check It! 12. How to Spot a Bot 13. Artificial Intelligence: Embracing It Responsibly to Enhance Learning Part 2: Go Deeper 14. Spot Disinformation Game 15. Evaluate Text-based Arguments 16. Evaluate Visual-based Arguments 17. Spot Fallacies 18. Spot Manipulation Tactics Part 3: Apply the Skills Throughout the School Year 19. Evaluate Pop Culture, Civics, ELA, and Social Studies Events
Biography
Roy S Whitehurst is a retired Media Analyst Instructor for the CIA. Roy spent 30+ years evaluating written information, photos, videos, and other media collected by the CIA before becoming an instructor, teaching media literacy skills to new CIA analysts.
"Roy Whitehurst's Teaching Media Literacy with Social Media News is exceptional in the media literacy field. Leveraging his CIA expertise, it offers educators a well-researched toolkit with practical techniques, real-world examples, and engaging lesson plans. This indispensable guide empowers teachers to help students excel in our complex digital world, fostering critical thinking about contemporary media."
-Tim Jones, Library Media Specialist and K-12 Media Literacy Teacher of the Year 2023 (NAMLE).
“In a complex information environment, learning how to evaluate different kinds of information is essential for tweens and teens in and beyond the classroom. The excellent help and advice in “Teaching News Literacy With Social Media: Practical Techniques For Middle and High School Classrooms” will be a boon to teachers and students. A wide variety of lesson plans, exercises and information will help teachers develop their students’ critical thinking skills. Exercises using popular social media platforms will help make the lessons relevant to students.”
-Joanna Burkhardt, Faculty Librarian, University of Rhode Island
“If ever there was a time for this book, this is it. Forces are at work overtime to fool media illiterate students. Roy Whitehurst is uniquely qualified to provide educators with a critically important tool for their toolbox. You'll be pleased to have this one on the shelf for teachers.
-Frank W Baker, Media Literacy Clearinghouse, 2019 UNESCO Honoree
