Introduction to Media Literacy 4219-SD0091
Introductory course on Media Literacy. It addresses students’ needs as media participants: creators, consumers and disseminators. It aims to equip students with basic tools to access media, to strengthen their skills of critically analyzing media messages, evaluating them and acting responsibly in the media environment. The course looks at the modern media landscape
and aims to identify main phenomena taking place there. It will address such issues as news production, fake news, algorithms and AI contribution to the media world. We will try to understand main theories governing the media and analyze how they operate in practice. The course will embrace a practical approach with a lot of students’ input during classes.
Course coordinators
Type of course
Mode
Learning outcomes
Knowledge:
Students will get acquainted with the issues of media literacy and responsible acting as media participants: creators, consumers and disseminators.
Students will learn main theories governing the media (production and effects) and analyze how they operate in practice.
Skills:
Students will develop critical approach to discuss media messages.
Having an understanding of the processes in the media world and various interdependencies, they will be able to formulate simple hypotheses about media functioning along various agendas, interests and points of view.
Students will attempt to work with primary media sources analyzing and evaluating media message quality, veracity, credibility and point of view to consider and predict potential effects or consequences of messages.
Students will practice their skills of team work, discussion, presentation.
Students will try to communicate the results of their findings in speech and writing in English.
Competences:
The course will be an introduction to media literacy equipping students with tools to approach and understand modern media environment (concerning issues of ethics, objectivity, representation - stereotyping, omission), in their roles as media
receivers/participants.
Students will become active participants in the media environment both as young researchers and media receivers/creators.
Students will try to apply ethical principles and social responsibility to their communication behavior and conduct.
Assessment criteria
Presence and active participation: 10 pt
Media related exercises: 60 pt (4 x 15 pt or otherwise)
Final project devoted to chosen aspects of American media: 30 pt
100-90/5, 89-85/4+, 84-78/4, 77-71/3+, 70-61/3, 60-0/2
Bibliography
A few titles for the background:
Carr, Nicolas. The Glass Cage: How Our Computers Are Changing Us. NY: W.W. Norton, 2015.
Pariser, Eli. The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You. London: Penguin Books, 2012.
Potter, W. James. Media Literacy, 7th edition. LA: Sage Publications, 2014.
Potter, W. James. Seven Skills of Media Literacy. LA: Sage, 2019.
Van der Linden, Sander. Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity. NY: W.W. Norton, 2023
Additionally articles from journals and other media sources on American media as well as actual media material.