More on the Weaponizing of Media Literacy

This article is a continuation of a similar theme I wrote about in the March/April 2021 issue of Online Searcher (“When Online Fact-Checking Is a Trap: The Weaponization of Media Literacy”). There, I described how certain malevolent interests were manipulating searchers to use seeded keywords to land on sites containing targeted misinformation and propaganda.

The implications of following malicious information I discussed came to a head on Jan. 6, 2021, after that article was written, illustrating the dangerous impact malevolent information can play in damaging our democracy. This should further motivate information professionals to step up, “not waste a crisis,” and take meaningful action. Barbara Fister, a librarian and part of Project Information Literacy, addressed some of these matters in her article “The Librarian War Against Qanon” published in the February 2021 issue of The Atlantic (theatlantic.com/education/archive/2021/02/how-librarians-can-fight-qanon/618047).

A Crowdsourced Lesson Plan

I welcome your contributions on how to effectively and sustainably teach news and media literacies that can meet the current challenges of our digital news and media environment. To that end, I have created a Google Doc template to develop a crowd sourced lesson plan.

To get more information and to share your experiences, lessons, content and exercises with other librarians and educators please link to tinyurl.com/newsliteracylessons.