Evolution of Media Literacy

The Evolution of Media Literacy

• Click on the 3 dots in the bottom-right corner to be able to click on Full Screen
• Use the keyboard right arrow OR click on the arrow to the right of the slide to advance
• On some slides, you have to click on or use a mouse to hover over an icon to reveal additional information: Use this as an opportunity to consider how you would answer the question or fill in the blank before revealing the answers

Hot tips for navigating this interactive presentation:

RCA 630-TS | CC BY-SA 3.0

First radio broadcast | CC BY 2.0

Oldest newspaper | Public domain

Printing machine | CC BY-SA 3.0

(Hover over each image to reveal more)

Our story starts with the evolution of media...

WTLV News Set | CC BY-SA 4.0

Books | Public domain

RCA 630-TS | CC BY-SA 3.0

First radio broadcast | CC BY 2.0

Oldest newspaper | Public domain

Printing machine | CC BY-SA 3.0

...which looked something like this in 1992

So this is the media students were consuming in 1992

WTLV News Set | CC BY-SA 4.0

Books | Public domain

Students had a few more tools for creating their own media, but still few opportunities to make their voices heard on these platforms

WTLV News Set | CC BY-SA 4.0

Books | Public domain

So this is the media students were consuming in 1992

Here's another way to think about it: the orange circle is the world of media consumed by students; the blue circle is the media they're creating: much smaller and not connected to the "information ecosystem"

What about media literacy?

What about media literacy?

Adults were concerned about kids watching too much TV: "It's rotting their brains!"

What about media literacy?

Media literacy activities often focused on teaching students how to make their own videos as a way to critique what they were seeing on TV

Adults were concerned about kids watching too much TV: "It's rotting their brains!"

In school, students did research by going to the library and reading books and looking through periodical indexes for print articles

There was little concern about fact-checking or evaluating the credibility of sources because they had already been vetted as part of the publication process

In school, students did research by going to the library and reading books and looking through periodical indexes for print articles

But a technological innovation was about to come along and dramatically change how people get information

WTLV News Set | CC BY-SA 4.0

Books | Public domain

By 2000, students were still consuming this media...

...but now they were also consuming websites

You just had to hope people would somehow find out about your GeoCities or Tripod site and maybe tell their friends :)

Some of those websites were blog platforms where students could create their own media messages

...but now they were also consuming websites

Students' opportunities to make their voices heard increased because of the World Wide Web, but were still fairly limited

You just had to hope people would somehow find out about your GeoCities or Tripod site and maybe tell their friends :)

Some of those websites were blog platforms where students could create their own media messages

...but now they were also consuming websites

And, importantly, the blue circle is starting to overlap with the orange: students are playing a (small) role in the "information ecosystem"

The orange circle has gotten bigger (more media for students to consume); the blue circle has also gotten bigger (more opportunities for students to create and share)

What about media literacy?

What about media literacy?

Adults were concerned about what kids were seeing online because websites do not go through a vetting process to get published

And one of the biggest concerns was students getting information from Wikipedia

What about media literacy?

Adults were concerned about what kids were seeing online because websites do not go through a vetting process to get published

In school, students were warned away from the internet (especially Wikipedia!) and advised to stick to the safety of print sources.

In school, students were warned away from the internet (especially Wikipedia!) and advised to stick to the safety of print sources.

Media literacy activities were being developed to help students fact-check information and evaluate the credibility of sources they found on the internet

Give yourself a treat if you used to spend a lot of time talking about Boolean operators :)

Media literacy activities also focused on helping students understand how Google's search engine works so they'd be able to get the best search results

But yet another technological innovation was about to come along that would increase the need for media literacy, expanding what students need to be able to do and understand

By 2015, students were mainly consuming this media...

...and this is also the media they were now creating

By 2015, students were mainly consuming this media...

The circles now overlap; students are not just creating media but participating in the "information ecosystem" by "liking," sharing, etc., which helps messages spread

The orange circle has expanded again; the blue circle is almost as big: students have the opportunity to create and share on the same platforms as other creators

Media literacy changed in response

In fact, media literacy changed so much, that we're going to look at it in the context of some of the "media literacy questions" we want students to be able to answer

6. How does this technology work?

5. Does this information source exhibit a biased perspective?

4. How accurate is this statement according to other reliable sources?

3. What is this source's reputation for conveying information fairly & accurately?

2. Who is responsible for the content of this information source?

1. Is it OK to use this information source for academic questions?

Some Media Literacy Questions

Let's revisit the previous "media literacy eras" to see how these questions are addressed in each (And, yes, there is a whole other "media literacy era" that we'll get to eventually)

And the PRE-ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ERA

The PRE-SOCIAL MEDIA ERA

There's the PRE-INTERNET ERA

Let's revisit the previous "media literacy eras" to see how these questions are addressed in each (And, yes, there is a whole other "media literacy era" that we'll get to eventually)

Let's see how each of the six media literacy questions we're focusing on has been addressed by educators in each era

Only use print!

No reason to stick to print

Just don't use Reddit!

Don't use Wikipedia!

Wikipedia is actually looking pretty good

Print is still the best!

(Click on the clicking-finger icons to reveal how each teacher addressed the question in their media literacy era)

1. Is it OK to use this information source for academic questions?

2. Who is responsible for the content of this information source?

The author and the publisher.

We know not to look for authors or publishers, but it can be hard to figure out who was originally responsible for content because...

Hmm, "author" and "publisher" don't really apply to websites

(Click on the clicking-finger icons to reveal how each teacher addressed the question in their media literacy era)

2. Who is responsible for the content of this information source?

(Click on the clicking-finger icon to reveal why it can be hard to figure out who was originally responsible in the social media era)

We have to distinguish between information sources and apps that aggregate information from different sources

And when students say, "The information source is Google," we have to explain that Google is a search engine that provides links to information sources but is not an information source itself (Remember this is back before Google did get into the information-creating business)

The information might have been re-posted, which means we might have to trace it back to its original source

We know not to look for authors or publishers, but it can be hard to figure out who was originally responsible for content because...

Ah, remember the pre-post-truth times?

3. What is this source's reputation for conveying information fairly & accurately?

And look at the URL ending!

It was published so of course its reputation is good.

And read the "About" page!

Let's use the CRAAP test!

We now leave the source to go find out what other sources have to say about it; we don't rely on a source to tell us about itself because...

(Click on the clicking-finger icons to reveal how each teacher addressed the question in their media literacy era)

(Click on the clicking-finger icon to reveal how media literacy techniques have adapted as new technology has emerged)

But one-size-fits-all checklists just don't work anymore

And URL endings like .edu or .gov might not guarantee credibility after all

These techniques made sense back in the early days of the internet: you could make some calls about credibility using these clues

3. What is this source's reputation for conveying information fairly & accurately?

And look at the URL ending!

We now leave the source to go find out what other sources have to say about it; we don't rely on a source to tell us about itself because...

And read the "About" page!

Let's use the CRAAP test!

4. How accurate is this statement according to other reliable sources?

...by using the World Book Encyclopedia

It was published so of course it's accurate.

We can use the internet to fact-check the internet

You should fact-check...

(Click on the clicking-finger icons to reveal how each teacher addressed the question in their media literacy era)

5. Does this information source exhibit a biased perspective?

We need to talk about this!

We need to talk about this!

We need to talk about this!

(Click on the clicking-finger icons to reveal how each teacher addressed the question in their media literacy era)

(Click on the clicking-finger icon to reveal what has changed since the internet era)

This can be a good thing: hearing voices that weren't heard before

And it can be a not-so-good thing, if those perspectives are biased in a way that can cause harm

One thing that changed as new technology came along is that, as people accessed more media messages, they also encountered perspectives they might not have encountered before

Biased perspectives have been with us since before Gutenberg got to work on the printing press

5. Does this information source exhibit a biased perspective?

We need to talk about this!

6. How does this technology work?

Here's how Google's search engine works...

Um, do you mean microfiche?

Understanding how search engines work is still important, but now we also need to deal with...

(Click on the clicking-finger icons to reveal how each teacher addressed the question in their media literacy era)

(Click on the clicking-finger icon to reveal what we also have to deal with in the social media era)

And students aren't just searching for information: they're encountering it on their social media feeds, which means we want them to understand how algorithms work

And then there are bots, which affect how information spreads and are driven by technology that needs to be understood

Oh, and there's one other technology that's important to understand so we can how decide how we're going to use it--or if we're going to use it in the first place

...things like "Search Engine Optimization" that affect how search results are generated

6. How does this technology work?

Understanding how search engines work is still important, but now we also need to deal with...

Remember that whole other "media literacy era" we were going to get to eventually?

We're getting to it now

Students began consuming information like this...

How can media literacy address this new way of generating information?

We can use the same "media literacy questions" we've been using--we'll just come up with some very different answers

AI ERA

PRE-AI ERA

PRE-SOCIAL MEDIA ERA

PRE-INTERNET ERA

Here's our latest "media literacy era"

AI ERA

Let's think about how each of the six media literacy questions can be applied to AI-generated information

1. Is it OK to use this information source for academic questions?

(Click on the clicking-finger icon to reveal ideas for how to address this question in the AI era)

AI ERA

Instead of declaring AI-generated content always OK or never OK, it might be useful to engage students in thoughtful debates about the pros and cons of using AI-generated content in different information-seeking contexts

2. Who is responsible for the content of this information source?

(Click on the clicking-finger icon to reveal ideas for how to address this question in the AI era)

AI ERA

This is another question that could lead to interesting discussions about who could be considered "responsible" for AI-generated content: Can a computer program be responsible? How much does the responsibility lie with the people who create it?

3. What is this source's reputation for conveying information fairly & accurately?

(Click on the clicking-finger icon to reveal ideas for how to address this question in the AI era)

AI ERA

Students can "laterally read" to investigate the reputations of different AI-powered tools, comparing what experts in relevant fields are currently saying about how effective the tools are at generating information that's fair and accurate

4. How accurate is this statement according to other reliable sources?

(Click on the clicking-finger icon to reveal ideas for how to address this question in the AI era)

AI ERA

Students can (and should) check the accuracy of statements that can be verified as true or false, as well as evaluate the strength of claims they find in AI-generated content

5. Does this information source exhibit a biased perspective?

(Click on the clicking-finger icon to reveal ideas for how to address this question in the AI era)

AI ERA

Students can (and should) examine AI-generated content to determine if it reflects any perspectives that have been distorted by bias; they can also investigate how bias shows up in information generated by a machine

6. How does this technology work?

(Click on the clicking-finger icon to reveal ideas for how to address this question in the AI era)

AI ERA

This should be the first question students answer about AI; it's especially important that they know AI generates information by predicting/guessing responses based on the data it's been trained on

When it gets here, how will we apply the media literacy questions?

A couple of questions to leave you with:

What's coming next?!?

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

Created by Lesley James | Updated 11/27/2024

Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Media Literacy & Digital Citizenship Program