Thinking Critically About Sources in an Age of Misinformation
Biographical Sketch
Sarah Morris is the Head of Instruction at the Emory University Libraries and serves as the liaison to the English department. Sarah has been involved in a variety of media literacy projects that seek to address misinformation, including a forthcoming ACRL Cookbook entitled Thinking Critically About Sources, a Mozilla Foundation funded curriculum project called Mission:Information, and a curriculum project designed to support The Global Voices NewsFrames citizen journalist community. Sarah has an MSIS from the University of Texas and an MA from the University of Chicago and her research interests include media literacy, high school to college transitions, and STEM education.
Type of Presentation
Individual presentation
Brief Description of Presentation
In this session, participants will develop strategies for ways to help students develop their critical thinking skills in an age of misinformation. Ensuring that students can not only identify and evaluate different types of sources but can also delve more deeply into how and why different types of sources are produced can be a way to empower students with the skills they need to find and use information for a variety of purposes, and to navigate a complex media ecosystem.
Abstract of Proposal
Librarians have long worked to equip their students with the skills to identify and evaluate different types of sources, from scholarly to news sources to ads to op-eds. But this work has become increasingly complex in an age of misinformation, and an age of incredibly complicated media ecosystems. It is more vital now than ever to help students develop their critical thinking skills and their ability to reflect, ask questions, find and evaluate content, look at things from different perspectives, and synthesize resources.
In this session, participants will explore ideas, share resources, and develop strategies for ways to help students develop critical thinking skills in an age of misinformation, with a particular focus on helping students deal with different types of sources. Ensuring that students can not only identify and evaluate different types of sources, from scholarly works to opinion pieces to satire to sponsored content, but can also delve more deeply into how and why different types of sources are produced can be a way to empower students with the skills they need to find and use information for a variety of purposes, and to navigate an increasingly complex media ecosystem often beset by misinformation.
This session will use a blend of discussion, activities, and small and large group collaborations to engage participants. The main goal is to have participants leave with clear next steps and action plans that they can take back to their home institution in order to try out new ideas and approaches to this topic.
Location
Session 3D (Habersham, Hilton Garden Inn)
Start Date
2-22-2019 3:00 PM
End Date
2-22-2019 4:30 PM
Recommended Citation
Morris, Sarah, "Thinking Critically About Sources in an Age of Misinformation" (2019). International Critical Media Literacy Conference. 22.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/criticalmedialiteracy/2019/2019/22
Thinking Critically About Sources in an Age of Misinformation
Session 3D (Habersham, Hilton Garden Inn)
Librarians have long worked to equip their students with the skills to identify and evaluate different types of sources, from scholarly to news sources to ads to op-eds. But this work has become increasingly complex in an age of misinformation, and an age of incredibly complicated media ecosystems. It is more vital now than ever to help students develop their critical thinking skills and their ability to reflect, ask questions, find and evaluate content, look at things from different perspectives, and synthesize resources.
In this session, participants will explore ideas, share resources, and develop strategies for ways to help students develop critical thinking skills in an age of misinformation, with a particular focus on helping students deal with different types of sources. Ensuring that students can not only identify and evaluate different types of sources, from scholarly works to opinion pieces to satire to sponsored content, but can also delve more deeply into how and why different types of sources are produced can be a way to empower students with the skills they need to find and use information for a variety of purposes, and to navigate an increasingly complex media ecosystem often beset by misinformation.
This session will use a blend of discussion, activities, and small and large group collaborations to engage participants. The main goal is to have participants leave with clear next steps and action plans that they can take back to their home institution in order to try out new ideas and approaches to this topic.
