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Day 1: Tuesday, February 17, 2015
1) Introduction
2) What is media?
3) What is media literacy?
4) What information literacy
5) Why media and information literacy is important
Day 2: Wednesday, February 18, 2015
6) New media and new media technologies
7) The different roles of new and traditional media
8) Social Media Best Practices (See Facebookguideforeducators)
Day 3: Thursday, February 19, 2015
9) MIL & Intercultural Dialogue
10) Practical Skills (Web; Video; Camera, etc)
Day 4: Friday, February 20, 2015
11) Practical Skills (Web; Video; Camera, etc)
12) Wrap; Future plans; Evaluation
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Introduction
―We live in a world where the quality of information we receive largely
determines our choices and ensuing actions, including our capacity to enjoy
fundamental freedoms and the ability for self-determination and development.‖
This course will assist teachers, students and youth become agents of social
change and enhance intercultural understanding through the development of
Media and Information Literacy in their schools and communities.
What is media?
Media is defined as a source of credible information provided through an
editorial process determined by journalistic values and attributable to
an organization or an individual. To the extent that media are an important
part of every society‘s communication system, their institutional make up can
mesh with a variety of non-media information providers, such as libraries,
museums, archives, Internet information providers, other information
organizations and citizens who produce their own content.
Media in another sense is a communication channel like newspapers,
magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, other telecommunications
through which information can be disseminated. Media can take the form of
singular or plural verb depending on the sense intended.
Mass Media is a means of communicating to a very large number of people.
This could be through a medium like newspapers, magazines, TVs, Radios, the
Internet.
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What is media literacy?
A Media literate person should have the competences that will enable him/her
to analyse, evaluate and create messages in a wide variety of media modes,
genres, and forms. Wikipedia describes Media Literacy as a repertoire of
competences that enable people to analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a
wide variety of media modes, genres, and forms.
Media Literacy is the ability to understand how the mass media works, how to
use or organise media messages to produce effective results. The question
Media Literacy seeks to answer are: How do we make meaning out of messages
and how do we put them to good use?
What is information literacy?
An information literate individual is able to:
Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
Evaluate information and its sources critically
Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of
information, and access and use information ethically and legally
Information literacy is therefore the abilitiy to identify the needed information,
evaluate and use them effectively.
Why media and information literacy is important
Individuals are faced with diverse and abundant information choices in their
academic, social, political, religious and cultural pursuit as well as public and
personal lives. Information is available through mass media. Information can
come to individuals in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its
authenticity, validity and reliability. The sheer abundance of information alone
will not create an informed citizenry without complementary abilities necessary
to use information effectively.
Due to proliferation of media and information resources in the contemporary
environment of rapid technological change, media and information literacy is
an increasingly needed tool for students, teachers, parents, media and
information professionals, policy makers, etc.
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New media and new media technologies
The different roles of new and traditional media
New Media as the name implies can be seen as information dissemination shift
from the old traditional practices. New Media offers a broader reach and
participation in programmes and events by citizens. It creates interactivity and
active engagement among the citizenry. People share videos, pictures, update
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their profiles and information on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, etc. This has great impact. Through these New Media channels
people can share their views, make suggestions, engage each other and policy
makers. It has revolutionized the way societies think and act.
Social Media
The steady growth in technology is creating an avalanche of opportunities in
today‘s world. Young people have already adjusted to this new world order.
Social Media has become a popular tool for interaction among young people. It
creates a platform and opportunity for sharing knowledge and information
exchange among the youth.
What kind of impact does social media have on the way young people
communicate?
MIL & Intercultural Dialogue
‗There will be peace on earth when there is peace among the religions; no peace
among religions without dialogue between religions.‘ – Hans Küng
‗Interreligious and intercultural dialogue is not only urgent but critical to the
survival of the human species. In our globalized, blended world, where different
religions and cultures encounter each other daily, you will have nothing but
turmoil and violence unless you actively promote interreligious and
intercultural dialogue to achieve harmony and understanding.‘
Thomas Banchoff, in Bridging Babel: New Social Media and Interreligious
and Intercultural Understanding
While religion can provide deep meaning and richness for people around the
world, it has also been, throughout history, a flashpoint for conflict and
misunderstanding. ―Unless ignorance and hatred can be overcome by tolerance
and understanding, religious and cultural conflicts are likely to continue—and
intensify.‖1
This tolerance and understanding can be achieved if religious leaders, teachers
and students acquire MIL skills to enable them distill information and apply it
in their relationship with the Other.
The emergence of new technologies makes the tasks for religious leaders,
teachers and students even more daunting. They are confronted with different
ways and platforms to connect with their followers, peers and the Other and
they have to understand the peculiarities and challenges of these platforms in
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order to use them to halt bigotry, prejudice, etc., and foster interreligious and
intercultural dialogue.
Media and information literacy (MIL) provides a strong platform for citizens,
including religious people, to understand and appreciate pluralism and
diversity, amongst other things. Media and information literacy has the
potential to become a powerful and positive force for peaceful co-existence and
effective participation in society.
Without MIL, disparities are likely to increase between those who have and
those who do not have access to information and media, and enjoy or not
freedom of expression. Additional disparities will emerge between those who are
able and unable to find, analyse and critically evaluate and apply information
and media content for decision-making.
New media and information technologies, while offering greater opportunities
for new types of citizens‘ engagement, centered on freedoms and eradicating
inequalities, also give rise to issues of safety, security, privacy, violence,
stereotyping, etc.
The use of these technologies can create tension between the need to empower
or to protect citizens as well as tension between global and local cultural and
religious interests that threaten to curtail the free expression and appreciation
of interreligious and intercultural diversity.
Media and Information Literacy initiatives can help religious people acquire
competencies to advocate and create their own counterbalance to dominant
cultures by sharing their stories through discussion and creative engagement,
thus promoting interreligious dialogue and pluralism.
Recognition of religious diversity goes hand in hand with efforts to promote
interreligious dialogue. In many instances, however, there is a narrowing of
religious representations in the media and other information outlets, leading to
a general feeling of invisibility among members of different religions and
groups.
Moreover, in the case of the network of mainstream media, such a limited
range of representations tends to promote the creation of stereotypes through
what is often called the process of ‗othering‘, whereby the media fix, reduce or
simplify according to the dictates of standardized program and formats.
Such media representations may serve to reinforce the power of vested
interests and exacerbate social exclusion by excluding critical or marginalized
voices, which usually belong to the category of ‗Others‘.2
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Media and Information Literacy has the citizen as its starting point. However,
people are not regarded as inactive from an MIL perspective. Rather, they are
actively involved in constructing their own realities.
This view of active, self-determining citizens is critical to interreligious and
intercultural dialogue in which communication is a given. MIL can enhance
interreligious understanding and thus render people more critical of how they
engage the media and information industries and how to ensure interreligious
and intercultural harmony.
MIL thus equips people to be more discerning and probing of the world around,
thereby becoming more self-aware and better able to appropriate the offerings
of media and information for exchange of ideas, dialogue and self-identity.
This process of self-identity formation is critical to interreligious and
intercultural dialogue, enabling people to understand their own religious and
cultural points of departure, and thus engage in dialogue on the basis of an
―authentic communication‖ in which they ―have an awareness of the ways in
which they might be manipulated or coerced and an awareness of the ways in
which differential power is operative in the society‖.3
Notes
1 Hoerger, E (ed.) 2010. Bridging Babel: New Social Media and Interreligious
and Intercultural Understanding. Washington, D.C,: The Berkley Center for
Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, p. 3.
2 Van den Bulck, H. and Van Poecke, L. (1996). National language, identity
formation, and broadcasting: the Flemish and German-Swiss communities. In
Braman, S. and & Sreberny-Mohammadi, A. (eds.), Globalization,
communication and transnational civil society. Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton
Press, Inc.:, pp. 157-177. See also Branston, G and Stafford, R. (2003). The
media student’s book. Third edition. London and New York: Routledge.
3 Saffari, S. (2012). Limitations of dialogue: conflict resolution in the context of
power asymmetries and neglected differences. In Mojtaba Mahdavi and W.
Andy Knight (eds.), Towards the dignity of difference? Neither ‘end of history’
nor ‘clash of civilizations’. Ashgate: Surrey & Burlington, pp.245-259.
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For Students
PART 1
MIL emphasizes Critical Thinking & Critical Skills. The IDENTIFY
framework is the first lesson in Part One.
The lesson plans in Part One focus on giving students a set of critical skills—
comprehension, analysis, evaluation—to be used to help them appreciate how
media cover news. Part One of the curriculum teaches students how to identify
what ―news‖ matters, how to monitor media coverage, and how to understand
the media‘s role in shaping global issues
IDENTIFY why information is important to individuals…and to civil society
IDENTIFY what‘s newsworthy: what‘s covered where?
IDENTIFY how audiences access news
IDENTIFY how audiences interpret information
IDENTIFY the viewpoint of news stories
IDENTIFY how news organizations use words
IDENTIFY how images can influence news messages
IDENTIFY how the news media attract an audience
IDENTIFY core journalistic standards and values
IDENTIFY the foundations of good reporting and ethical journalism
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS IDENTIFY FRAMEWORK
Students who complete some or all of these lesson plans will have worked
through the following points:
Information is key to our understanding of the world around us, our
ability to find a meaningful role in it, and our capacity to take
advantage of the resources available to us.
Information is power. When information is concentrated within the
hands of a few or only in the hands of elites, the public‘s ability both to
make decisions and to assess the decisions of others is greatly
reduced.
An ethical and pluralistic media can ensure transparency, accountability
and the rule of law.
Words and pictures have different abilities to attract attention to issues
and events, yet fundamentally, both work to promote participation in
public and political discourse
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All information is subject to interpretation. The fullest airing of an issue
occurs in a responsible and pluralistic media environment. That free
and open airing of an issue leads in turn to participatory governance
where special interests are less able to singularly spin public debate
and shape public policy.
Why Information Matters
IDENTIFY why information is important to individuals… and to civil society
When people know what is happening, they are better equipped to make all the
decisions of their lives: where to live, what school to go to, where to work, who
to vote for.
Class discussion: What kind of information is important to you? What
would you not be able to do if you had no way of getting information
from other people or other places?
Class discussion: What does your community need or want to know
about right ―now‖? What matters to your community: it may be
government laws, but your community might also care about sports,
food, housing and use of land, family connections, health,
transportation, etc.
Student exercise: Go to a place in your community where people
gather—it may be a street corner, a restaurant, a playground, etc.
Make a list of information that you could get at those places that you
either need or would like to have. Order the list in terms of its
importance to you.
Follow-up exercise: What are the differences between ―my‖ information
needs and my family‘s needs? What do adults need to know that is
different than what children and teenagers need to know? What kind
information do different jobs demand? Do some jobs demand more
information–or just different kinds of information? What kinds of jobs
need information about what has just happened and what kinds of
jobs need information that stays the same over time.
Class discussion: What does it mean to be a citizen and be involved in a
community? How does information not only keep us informed but help
us to be responsible citizens?
What's Newsworthy?
Identify what‘s newsworthy: what‘s covered where?
What is news? Who decides? How are the decisions made?
Class discussion: Different media make different choices about what is
news and what is important news. List as many factors as you can that
might direct a news outlet to consider what‘s important. (You might
want to consider the outlets‘ audience, location, medium—print, radio,
TV, online, etc
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Student exercise: Think of three important events that happened: one
in your own life, one in the school where you go, and the third in the
community in which you live. Explain which of these events would be
covered in the media–would the events be in your school media, the
local media, the national media? Why? What‘s the criteria that
different media use to judge what they report on?
Student exercise: Select a news story that has recently been in the
news. See if you can figure out why the story has been chosen for
coverage. You might want to consider the following eight factors–those
that editors and producers use to consider whether a story should be
published or broadcast
1. Timeliness: Did the event just happen?
2. Proximity: How close is the event, physically and psychologically?
3. Prominence: How many people have some knowledge of the person or
event?
4. Significance: How many people will be affected? By how much?
5. Currency: Is the event part of an on-going issue? If not, should people
know?
6. Controversy: Is there conflict or drama?
7. Uniqueness: Is it a first, last, largest, least, best or worst?
8. Emotional Appeal: Is there humor, sadness or a thrill?
Accessing News & Information
Identify how audiences access news
Who is the audience for news? Who needs news? How do different audiences
(adults, teens, those in power, those not, wealthy, poor, men, women, etc.) get
their news?
Class discussion: Different media/different purposes: You yourself
use different media for different reasons and at different times. What
media do you use? When do you use it? Why do you use it?
Student exercise: Here's a list of information that we all want to find on
occasion: the weather, the time of our favorite TV programme, what
station shows the film we want to watch, what hospital our relative is
in, where to do the research for our homework. Where should one go
to get each type of information?
Class discussion: Different audiences/different media: Some media
appeal to certain kinds of audiences more than others. Why?
Student exercise: Consider the news that appears in newspapers, on
radio, on TV program, online or via cell phone. Do different media
reach different people? Why? Who uses which media?
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Student exercise: The way news and information is delivered and
accessed can have a bearing on how audiences interpret and
incorporate the news and information. Does the way an audience
access its news have a bearing on whether that audience believes the
information to be true?
Identify how audiences interpret information
Everyone interprets information and news from their own perspective.
Class discussion: What in your experience might make you interpret
information differently than someone else your own age? in your own
family? in your neighborhood?
Student exercise: Have a teacher pick a photograph from the newspaper
and give it to students without a caption. Have the students each write
a caption and then compare the different captions–and the original
newspaper caption.
Follow-up exercise: The same exercise can be done with headlines:
students can be given the same story and be asked to write a headline.
Then post all the headlines that are written. What are the differences?
(They might be of language. They might be what point is emphasized.)
Follow-up exercise: Rewrite that story for two different audiences (old,
young, men, women, different political groups, etc.) What would
change? What would not?
Class discussion: Does all news have to follow the same stylistic
template? Is there room for creativity, remixing and individual
expression?
Student or small-group exercise: Find several examples of alternative
media (radio, podcasts, websites, newspapers, text messaging, etc.)
that report news in different ways than mainstream news
organizations. What is the value of their kind of news delivery? Are
they reaching a different kind of audience? Is their information more
credible? Less credible? Why?
Multiple Sources
Identify the viewpoint of news stories
Many news media give both facts and commentary. Audiences need both AND
need to identify the difference between fact and opinion.
Class discussion: Is there any way to give people the facts of an event or
issue without a viewpoint coming through? Should reporters try to
write an ―objective‖ news story? Is there such a thing as ―objectivity‖?
Further class discussion: If there not such a thing as ―objectivity,‖ what
should reporters strive for? Fairness? Balance? Pluralism? Neutrality?
Many news organizations make distinctions between opinion pieces
(sometimes grouping them on a specific opinion page) and general
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news reporting? Should there be those distinctions made, if ALL stories
have some perspective?
Student exercise: Compare the front pages of multiple newspapers
(local/regional/national). Are the stories the same? Why or why not?
Student exercise: Select a story in any section of the newspaper (news,
sports, entertainment). Read the story. Underline the facts that the
reporter mentions. Pay attention to whether a piece of information is
truly a ―fact‖ or is just something that is said by someone quoted in the
story. (i.e ―the president said‖ may be a ―fact‖–but what he said may be
an opinion.)
Follow-up exercise: Using the same story (or a different one from any
section of the newspaper underline any words that suggest an opinion
or a perspective by the reporter. Consider also the ordering of the
information and what information is emphasized.
Follow-up exercise: Take a look at one newspaper. Where have the
editors decided to put various kinds of information? Is there a political
news section and a sports section for instance? Is there a ―news‖
section and an ―opinion‖ section?
Follow-up exercise: Are the opinion stories signed and identified or are
they unsigned? Are you told any information about those who write the
signed opinion pieces in the paper? Are you told about the political
perspectives of the editors of the newspaper–the ones who write the
unsigned opinion pieces?
Small group project: Find two stories (in the news section) on the same
subject in two different newspapers or different news outlets (i.e. online
sources). What changes from one version to another? Is one more
―factual‖ than the other? How do you decide that one is more based on
facts
Follow-up exercise: Find a story in one newspaper that is written about
in the ―news‖ section and also written about in the ―opinion‖ section. Is
there any difference? Do you learn different information? Is different
language used? What‘s the difference between telling someone the
―facts‖ (what reporters call the ―Who, What, Where, When, Why and
How) and trying to convince that person of the meaning of those
―facts‖?
Word Choices
Identify how news organizations use words
Often the public is unaware that words that have one definition to one group
and a different meaning for another. We may be aware of what we think a word
means, but not be aware that another set of people understands the same word
differently.
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Class discussion: Compare the words that different media use to talk
about the same event or issue. Generate a list that have used
differently by different groups. Some people talk about ―Climate
Change‖ while others talk about ―Global Warming.‖ A ―rebel‖ to one
group of people might be considered a ―fighter‖ by another, a ―death‖ to
one group might be considered ―murder‖ by another, a ―religious
organization‖ to one group of people might be consider a ―cult‖ by
others. Do those words or phrases mean the same thing?
Student exercise: With students working in pairs or groups, take a set
of stories and look at specific words that the news outlets used—did
the different outlets use the same words to describe the same event or
issues? And if they did use the same words, did they use them equally
often
Class discussion: Do media describe or cover people differently
depending on their gender, race/ethnicity, class/caste, age, religion,
handicap or politics?
Student exercise: With students working in the pairs or groups, take a
set of stories and consider the people who were talked to or quoted. If
the same type of people were talked to, were they referred to in the
same way (the same descriptions used?) i.e Are the same details
mentioned about women as men (for example, the clothing of women)?
Are the same details mentioned about minority as majority groups or
political opponents? What might be the impact on readers or viewers of
any differences that you find?
Follow-up discussion: Media may reflect their audiences‘ attitudes
towards other groups or other places. They can also have an impact on
those attitudes. Give examples of how different ways of reporting on
different groups or places can result in positive outcomes–say to
overcome prejudice and stereotypes?
Student exercise: If you find a story that stereotypes different people or
groups of people, rewrite it. What did you have to change in order to
eliminate the stereotype?
Images as Messages
Identify how images can influence news messages
Class discussion: Find an event that has been covered by both
newspapers and TV. How is the story covered differently? What do
images tell that words on a page cannot? Which version of the story
gives the audience more usable information? Which version is more
compelling? Is the version that is more informative the same one that
is more compelling? If not, is that a problem?
Student exercise: Find an article that has a photo as part of the story.
Does the photo tell the same story as the text? Does the photo give
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additional information? How does the caption makes a difference to
your interpretation of the image?
Student exercise: Select an article from a newspaper or a story from
radio. If you could add a photograph to the story what—or who—would
it depict? How would that image add to the story? How would that
picture change your understanding of the story?
Attracting Audiences
Identify how the news media attract an audience
Which type of news stories, headlines, photographs, video, audio, etc. attract
the largest audiences? Do news outlets always want the largest audience?
Class discussion: What news outlets in your region attract the largest
audiences? Why? Who do the news outlets appeal to?
Student exercise: Pick a local news organization. You‘ve been hired to
attract more young people as an audience to that newspaper, radio
program, TV station, etc. What would you do?
Student exercise: As a class select a story in the news. Divide the class
into four parts.
1. Have one part of the class come up with three headlines for the story
that emphasize the positive elements on the story.
2. Have the second part of the class come up with three headlines that
are as neutral as possible about the news story.
3. Have the third part of the class come up with three headlines that put
a negative light on the story‘s events.
4. Have the fourth part of the class come up with three headlines that
sensationalize the story—that dramatize some element in the story.
Class discussion: How might these different headlines make you feel
differently about the story—even if the story itself is not changed? How
might you rewrite the story itself to be more positive, more neutral,
more negative or more sensational?
Journalism Standards
Defend core journalistic standards and values
What is essential to good reporting? Accuracy, fairness, ―balance‖ and the
necessity of disclosing mistakes. These are the critical elements.
Class discussion: Telling the ―Truth‖: ―Truth‖ is a problematic term for
journalists. Why? Are there different ―truths‖?
Student exercise: Find a news story in any medium. Answer the
following questions:
1. Is a story accurate? How does the reporter convince his or her readers
that the ―facts‖ are correct?
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2. Is it fair? Has the reporter given proportionate attention to the details
of the story that is covered—has he or she over-emphasized or under-
emphasized important elements of the story? (Would political
opponents agree that the story is fair?)
3. Is it balanced? Talking about ―balance‖ sometimes presupposes there
are only two sides. What if there are far more than two sides? What is
the value of hearing a diverse set of voices–people who hold different
political opinions, people who are officials and people who are workers,
women as well as men, etc.?
4. What if there are at least two opinions but the great majority of people
share one belief (i.e. the Earth is round, not flat)? Should journalists
give equal time to opinions that are minority opinions? What about
opinions that are minority political opinions? What if the opinions are
hateful? What if the opinions are minority scientific opinions (such as
those who believe in creationism or who do not believe in the science of
climate change or do not believe in connections between the HIV virus
and AIDS)? Should those opinions be treated by journalists as
―neutrally‖ as the opinions held by the majority of scientists?
Class project: Select 6 different online news sites and look for how (and
where) they post their corrections. Do all the outlets tell their readers
about the mistakes they make? Do they all have ombudsmen (or public
editors or readers‘ editors)? How is the public served by the role of
ombudsmen? (You might want to look at this recent study [19] on
transparency and how online media admit their mistakes.)
Journalism Ethics
Identify the foundations of good reporting and ethical journalism
Media must build trust and credibility with their audiences. One way news
outlets do so is by adhering to unwritten and written codes of conduct. Codes
of ethics provide the guidelines for news media to operate. The best of these are
the result of a thoughtful process of self regulation that emphasizes journalistic
transparency, while protecting sources, and promotes honesty and service to
the community, especially those groups of people who may be under-
represented.
Class discussion: Why do news audiences value news organizations that
adhere to a code of ethics? Why do such codes make good business
sense?
Student exercise: Take a look at the ethical codes of conducts for news
organizations in your region. Do you think they are strong enough? Do
the media outlets follow their own (or the industry‘s) code of ethics?
Find specific examples of where they do or do not.
Agenda-Setting Media
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Identify how media help set local, national and global political, social and
cultural agendas
How does news travel? How does a story that is picked up by one news outlet
get passed on to other news outlets? Some major media outlets seem to set the
agenda for news--the agenda of politicians, the agenda of businesses, even the
agenda of teen-agers. Everyone talks about what stories those news outlets
cover and what opinions those news outlets express. What makes a news outlet
agenda-setting?
Class discussion: What makes a news outlet so "important" that
everyone seems to pay attention to it? What makes a news outlet
influential in setting policy--why do lawmakers pay more attention to
certain news outlet than others? What makes a media outlet influential
in setting cultural interests--why do young people listen to the
opinions from one outlet more than others? Are the elements that
make a news outlet influential politically the same elements that make
a media outlet influential culturally?
o Follow-up discussion: Do you think the most influential news
media are those that best adhere to the best standards of
journalism, such as accuracy and fairness?
Student exercise: Chose 3 major media outlets in your region--they can
be newspapers, television stations or radio stations (or any of those).
Read the front page of the newspaper or watch or listen to the major
news program of the day for the 3 outlets you pick. For each outlet
make a list of all the stories that are covered on the front page or in
that news program. Then write up a comparison of how the media
covered the news on that same day. You will want to consider such
questions as:
o How many of the stories from each outlet are local, how many
are national, how many are international?
o Which stories are covered by all three outlets?
o Which stories are unique to one outlet?
o Which stories do you think will get people talking?
Student exercise/research: Consider how influential certain musicians
are in your region. Do you think the musicians who get the most
attention on the radio or on television or via other media are the "best"
musicians? What role does money play in bringing those musicians to
everyone's attention?
o Select a major musician or musical group in your area and
research how that musician or group makes its money. Is the
musician supported by a major record label or other
corporation? Are there any business links between the musician,
the recording company and the media outlets?
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Monitor
Monitor and compare media coverage
The MONITOR framework is the second section in Part One.
The lesson plans in Part One focus on giving students a set of critical skills—
comprehension, analysis, evaluation—to be used to help them appreciate how
media cover news. Part One of the curriculum teaches students how to identify
what ―news‖ matters, how to monitor media coverage, and how to understand
the media‘s role in shaping global issues
MONITOR how different media cover the same news issues and events
MONITOR how different media handle graphic images
MONITOR how media cover politics and public policy
MONITOR how news coverage affects social and corporate
institutions—schools, religious institutions, community groups, local or
national businesses, etc..
MONITOR how media affect culture and politics
MONITOR the differences between state-controlled (and/or state-owned) media
and editorially independent or private media
MONITOR the business of media
MONITOR media and other people‘s rights
MONITOR media and gender issues
MONITOR media and developing/non-western countries
MONITOR stereotypes in entertainment media
MONITOR media for partisan reporting
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS MONITOR FRAMEWORK
Student who complete some or all of these lesson plans will have worked
through the following points:
Access to information is critical for the smooth functioning of news media
and for the society to hold its political, religious, business and
community leadership accountable. Freedom of information laws are
an important part of creating the enabling environment necessary for
independent and pluralistic media to thrive.
Independent media draw their power from reporting responsibly on the
communities they serve. Ethical reporting—accurate and fair
coverage—in turn gives the public the knowledge they need to
participate in and build a civil, democratic society.
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A free and pluralistic media sector—one that crosses media platforms
(print, broadcast, online) and political perspectives—helps
communities better reflect on themselves
If those in power manipulate journalists, if those journalists don‘t protest
against that manipulation—or willing capitulate to it—the media
become just another arm of authority, a propaganda tool to distract,
deceive and betray the public
Freedom of Expression works to ensure that more than a select few are
able to determine what is expressed and discussed in the media. When
media control is dispersed into many hands, opinions that are not
popular can often still find a forum.
Effective local and online media outlets can give people the means to
participate in democratic processes. They can fill the void left by
corporate media interested in reaching large audiences that ironically
may not include the underrepresented or marginalized populations in a
society.
The increasing concentration of ownership of the sources of news and
information into fewer and fewer hands is one of the greatest
contemporary threats to freedom of expression. When media ownership
is concentrated, those few owners exercise a great deal of control over
the character of the local or national discussion of issues.
The fact that the news has become a profit center for many owners
means that cost considerations lie behind decisions about what stories
to cover, how much to cover them, and what angles to push. Ultimately
the question becomes very basic: how much is news and information
valued?
Different Perspectives
Monitor how different media cover the same news issues and events
Monitor how different media cover the same news issues and events
Getting news from multiple venues and multiple media (print, radio, TV, and
online): do different types of media cover the same stories? Why get information
from multiple sources?
Class project: Find three different types of news outlets‘ coverage of the
same story (i.e. magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, online, etc.). What
are the difference in the stories? Are the differences for logistical
reasons (i.e. one outlet had more time or one outlet gave more space to
the story) or are they for political or demographic reasons (i.e. one
outlet has a audience of business and professional people and the
other has an audience which is less educated and well-paid)? What do
you learn from reading/hearing/seeing all three stories that you
wouldn‘t have learned from just getting one of the stories?
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Role-play exercise: A major natural disaster (earthquake, cyclone, flood,
heatwave, etc.) has just hit and your immediate area is the center of
the devastation. Hundreds, perhaps thousands are dead. Houses and
other buildings have collapsed. Local and national officials, including
medical personnel and the armed forces are scrambling to help. Relief
flights are beginning to come in to the area. Communications between
your area and the outside world remains possible via phone and
Internet.
Divide the class into three.
1. One group of students should pretend to be international reporters from
international news organizations (most of whom don‘t speak the local
language)—the BBC, CNNI, Al Jazeera, the Associated Press, etc.
➢ Have the students who are the international journalists decide what stories
they are going to cover. Who is the primary audience for their stories? How will
they find out what happened? Who will they talk to?
2. One group of students should pretend to be local reporters from the local
news organizations—print, radio and TV outlets.
➢ Have the students who are the local journalists decide what stories they are
going to cover. Who is the primary audience for their stories? How will they find
out what happened? Who will they talk to?
3. One group of students should pretend to be local citizens who have their
own blog sites online.
➢ Have the students who are the local bloggers decide what information they
are going to post on their own websites. Who will be their audience?
What are the advantages and limitations of each group ―covering‖ this disaster?
Follow-up class discussion: If there were no local reporters on the
story—if all the news came from people who were not living in the
area—what type of information would likely not be covered? Who
would lose out?
Class discussion: The Internet has led to the emergence of a new type of
reporter. The citizen journalist may be someone with interest in local
events and writes about these happenings on what is called a blog. The
blogger may be a reporter, with journalism training, who seeks another
and, perhaps, more personal outlet for their reporting. But more often,
bloggers are individuals in a community, with no formal journalism
training, who have something to say and the Internet provides the
platform for them to do this on a global scale.
Student exercise: Where do you place bloggers in your list of
trustworthy news sources? As a news consumer, do you need to take
additional steps to verify a blogger‘s reporting? If so, what?
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Student exercise: What kind of information can ordinary citizens
provide via the Internet or cell phone? Can those citizen-bloggers be a
substitute for local reporters in a crisis? Why or why not? What about
in general (when there is no crisis, but just every day news is
occurring)?
Graphic Images
Monitor how different media handle graphic images
Monitor how different media handle graphic images
How should media balance what their audiences can bear with what their
audience needs to be told? What‘s offensive? What‘s necessary?
Student exercise: What news photographs do you remember? Why are
they memorable?
Student exercise: Look at the television or newspaper coverage of a local
controversial story. Do you agree with the images the producers or
editors selected to tell the story? How would different images have
changed the audience‘s understanding of the importance what
happened?
Class discussion: Many people in the audience of a media outlet are
offended when editors and producers use graphic images. How can
editors and producers tell their readers and viewers about their
reasons for running such pictures? Does it make a difference to know
why an editor or producer selected a certain image or video clip?
Role-play exercise, Part I: Consider that the students in the class are
all editors at a local newspaper or producers at a local television
station. One of the news outlet‘s reporters comes back to the newsroom
with the story of a horrible accident that happened in your town. A bus
full of people has crashed, killing 10 and injuring 12. Another 8 people
were uninjured. The reporter took photos (or videotape) of a wide
ranges of scenes. Some of the images show just the crumpled bus.
Some show the survivors—some of the photos of the survivors show
close-ups of them keening in grief over the bodies of their dead or
injured relatives; other photos of survivors are from a greater distance
and show the destruction of the entire scene. Some photographs show
the wounded—some show the wounded bloodied and crying off by
themselves, others show the wounded receiving medical attention by
emergency personnel who arrived on the scene. Some images show the
dead—some show the dead in sufficient close-up that the fatal injuries
can be clearly seen and the people can be recognized, other images
show the dead from a distance—in fact the only way to really tell that
they are dead is through a photo caption saying that these people are
dead.
➢ The story is to run in the news outlet selected by the students. The question
for the student-editors/producers is: What single photo should be used to
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illustrate the story or what selected footage should run on TV as the story is
being reported? Do you show the dead or the wounded? Do you show the
rescuers or the grief of the uninjured survivors? Be sure to consider who is the
audience for your news outlet.
Role-play exercise, Part II: After selecting the type of news image you
think is appropriate consider if the story was slightly different. Would
you make the same choice? Why?
➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if this accident didn‘t happen in
your town, but occurred in the country next door?
➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if this happened in the country next
door, but people from your town were killed?
➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if this was the third major accident
of a bus in your town in the last 6 months?
➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if those who were traveling on the
bus were school children? What about if a famous person was one of the
passengers?
➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if you know that this was not a
random accident—the driver was drunk and he was the cause of the tragedy?
➢ Does it make a difference to your choice if the tragedy was not caused by an
accident, but was caused by a suicide bomber?
PART 2: MIL & INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE AS WELL AS CHALLENGES
AND RISKS RELATED TO ONLINE CONTENT
Internet opportunities and challenges for students
Taking part in the information society is essential for citizens of all age groups.
The Internet provides great opportunities to improve life for all users. It has
positive effects on education, the working world and economic growth. With
easy digitalization and storage of information, and accessibility through a wide
range of devices, the Internet has enormously increased the information
resources available to people.
Children and young people are often well acquainted with its applications and
can benefit from its use tremendously, but they are also vulnerable. Risks and
threats accompany this positive development, often in parallel to those that
already exist in the offline world.
The explosion of hate websites and other websites that present opinion posing
as objective fact represent a challenge for those seeking to identify reliable
sources of information, and it is critical that religious leaders, like other
teachers and citizens, have the tools to identify these websites. How can
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religious leaders recognize hate websites and separate commentary from fact?
How can religious leaders help their followers to critically analyze information
and opinion, especially when it comes to representations of other religious
communities?
The best way to help young people and adults stay out of harm‘s way is to
empower and educate them on how to avoid or manage risks related to
Internet use.
The issue of radicalization among religious communities has emerged as a
concern in many countries and among many religious groups around the
world. Taking measures to protect minors may help address the problem. As
helpful as these measures might be, however, total reliance on protection
strategies has not been effective in enabling young people to use the Internet
responsibly.
As a critical starting point, it is therefore important to empower religious
leaders and young people to avoid or manage the risks and pitfalls inherent in
using the Internet, and assist them in using the Internet as a platform to
promote messages of peace and reconciliation. Technologies can play a useful
and supportive role in this area.
Young People in the Virtual World
After completing this unit, teachers will be able to: ●Understand young people‘s
Internet usage patterns and interests ●Have basic awareness of terms and
conditions, codes of conduct and privacy regulations with respect to Internet
use ●Develop their ability to use educational methods and basic tools to help
young people, particularly in religious communities and schools, use the
Internet responsibly – and make them aware of the related opportunities,
challenges and risks.
This unit can be taught using resources you can find online, such as a rights-
free videos about the Internet and its expanding features and impact society.
Alternatively, you can prepare a short PowerPoint presentation on Web 2.0.
It should include as many of the key elements of the virtual world as possible.
Organize discussions in small groups about these key elements. 1. Ask each
group to prepare and deliver a short presentation on the benefits of Web 2.0.
2. Youth in religious communities, like other people, encounter images of the
Other online.
What are the platforms on which youth learn about or engage with the Other?
What are the risks and opportunities associated with web use? How are
communities working to educate Youth to responsibly use the Internet? 3. If
time allows, and computers with Internet access are available: Ask religious
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leaders if they belong to social networks and/or use the web, and if so, how
frequently.
Ask them to surf the web, set up a profile, look up profiles of others, upload
and download content from Internet platforms (e.g. Wikipedia), and take part in
chat rooms, online collaboration, blogging and twittering. A discussion with
trainees after this activity should focus on the educational benefits and
responsible use of the web, and its challenges and risks. Write down and
discuss some of your personal concerns when using the web.
Ask religious leaders to organize themselves into small groups. Each group
should discuss and list at least five main activities they think young people
engage in on the Internet. Ask them to rank the importance of these activities
on a scale of 1 to 5. Each group should present the outputs of their
discussions, explaining how they organized themselves and what influenced
the decisions they took. The trainer should then present actual statistics
(prepared prior to this session and based on existing resources) about
children‘s use of the Internet if such figures are available.
Compare the outputs of the group work with what actual statistics say.
Discuss. Are there surprises? Are there statistics about Internet use specific to
your region or country? If not, what are the implications? Discuss what can be
done about the absence of such statistics. Discuss with religious leaders the
general terms and conditions, codes of conduct and privacy regulations of
different Internet applications. Then encourage them to develop a model code
of conduct, focusing on the use of Internet by children and young people.
After completing this unit, students will be able to: ●List and describe the
challenges/risks of Internet use and where they are most likely to occur,
especially as they relate to religious communities. ●Develop knowledge about
risks and threats that potentially accompany newly developed Internet
applications ●Understand the interdependencies between users‘ behaviour and
the likelihood of them being a victim or a perpetrator ●Identify hate websites
or groups using social media to promote hate, and explain some options for
responsibly and effectively responding to hate on the Internet ●Apply this
knowledge to enable religious leaders to use the Internet more responsibly.
CHALLENGES AND RISKS RELATED TO ONLINE CONTENT
Age-inappropriate content: The Internet provides a wealth of content for all
groups of users. Mainstream interests are served as well as special interest
groups. Nevertheless, not all content should be accessible for children and
young people. So it has to be carefully decided which content is appropriate to
which age group.
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Special attention should be given to content that is not illegal in general but
might harm younger users. Age-inappropriate content like adult pornography
might especially harm younger children when exposed to it unintentionally.
The risk of facing age-inappropriate content can result from the user‘s own
conduct when searching for it deliberately, as well as stumbling across it
without intending to.
Content that is not appropriate for all age groups might be provided for
commercial reasons, but can also be generated by users themselves. Access to
the former might be restricted to closed user-groups only, while user-generated
content is mostly publicly available and therefore needs special attention. Since
today many children and young people have a mobile phone with multimedia
functionalities and access to the Internet at their fingertips, it must be
considered that they might access age-inappropriate content when on their
own and not having an adult for guidance at their side. Mobile devices also
enable children to produce their own digital content in any life situation, thus
contributing to the increasing volume of user-generated content.
Illegal content (i.e. racism and child pornography): The type of content
classified as illegal depends foremost on national laws, although some type of
content is outlawed in most countries. Nevertheless, illegal content is available
and can be accessed unintentionally or deliberately by children and young
people. Attention should also be paid to children and young people as potential
victims of illegal content, e.g. by taking and publishing pictures or videos of
child abuse.
Lack of verification of content: Given that content available through the
Internet is often not verified by an independent source, it is important that
young people learn to read content with a critical eye and not take everything
that is said at face value. User-generated content, characteristic of the Web 2.0
environment, can often be partial, biased or inaccurate. Younger users need to
be aware of the dangers of simply believing anything they read online.
Incitement of harm: There are many sites on the web inciting users to harm
themselves (e.g. websites promoting suicide, anorexia or sectarianism). With
Web 2.0 and the increasing possibilities to publish user‘s own content, the risk
of being exposed to content inciting harm is growing. In particular children and
young people are in many cases not able to make a realistic assessment of the
risks arising from following the instructions given in such websites.
Infringement of human rights / defamation: In the anonymity of the web,
propaganda against certain population groups or individuals can easily be
widespread. In addition, one can presume that people act differently online
when they do not have to face their counterparts or victims directly and
therefore are not immediately confronted with the consequences of their
conduct. Thus the risk of infringement of human rights and being a victim of
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defamation is much more likely online than in reality. Also, defamatory content
is harmful to children and young people whose opinion might be influenced by
misleading information.
Inappropriate advertisement and marketing to children: Inappropriate
advertisement means the risks of receiving or being exposed to advertising for
products and/or services that are inappropriate to children like cosmetic
surgery. The more users give away private information (i.e. name, age or
gender), the more likely they are to receive advertisements or be asked to
participate in lotteries.
Since children are in many cases unaware of the consequences of typing their
names into forms and boxes on the web, they are profoundly at risk.
Considering the high penetration rate of mobile phones among children and
young people, attention should also be paid to this additional channel for the
dissemination of advertisement.
Privacy: Once published on the web, content can spread rapidly around the
world and remain in existence indefinitely. Users, and in particular children
and young people, are often unaware of the short-and long-term consequences
of publishing texts and pictures they may not want to make available publicly
later. Data stored on a server or a platform can be easily accessed by others
and people may not be aware of how unprotected their personal data can be. It
is important when using the Internet that people fully understand the
environment they are working in.
Copyright infringement: Copyright infringement is a risk mostly related to the
conduct of users themselves. Irrespective of whether a copyright has been
infringed deliberately or accidentally, the infringement is seen as fraud by the
holder and puts the violator at risk of penalty.
Harmful advice: Forums, blogs and other contact-related areas of the Internet
provide a platform for the exchange of information and advice between users.
This can be valuable assistance but can also facilitate contact with
inappropriate or even more harmful advisors. The risk of receiving harmful
advice, in particular for children and young people, is greater in social
community platforms or other Web 2.0 applications than on regular websites.
Identity theft: Getting hold of, and making use of, other people‘s electronic
identity (e.g. user name and password) with the intent to commit commercial or
other fraud and to benefit from it is called identity theft. Identity theft is a
growing risk as the number of virtual identities is increasing with the number
of people online and particularly those using personalized services.
Money theft/phishing: Phishing refers to the process of harvesting bank
details, in particular personal identification numbers (PINs) and transaction
authentication numbers (TANs), with the intent to ransack other people‘s bank
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accounts. Young people are more likely to not recognize a fake website and to
give away their bank details.
Commercial fraud: Commercial fraud happens when sellers pretend to sell
goods or services which, after payment, either do not show the promised
attributes or are not delivered at all. It can also result from identity theft and
phishing. Another source of commercial fraud can be the sale of digital services
(e.g. a ring tone) at an unreasonable and unfair price, often bound to a
permanent subscription to the service that was not intended by the buyer. In
the majority of cases, users (and in particular young people and children) are
unaware of the consequences of such contracts concluded online.
Grooming: Grooming refers to paedophiles using the Internet as a means to
contact children and young people while concealing their adult identity. They
often build their strategy on children‘s longing for friendship and familiarity. All
areas of the Internet that provide platforms for personal contact and exchange
are likely to provide a basis for grooming attacks.
As mentioned before, the mobile phone (as an additional device to contact
others and to access social networks) should be taken into strong consideration
here, especially as children look at their mobile phone as a particular part of
their private life and are mostly on their own when using it. Thus, with the
increase of mobile communication technologies and social networks, the risk of
falling prey to a grooming attack and then accepting a dangerous invitation has
become much greater.
Bullying: Various types of bullying seem always to be part of people‘s lives.
Bullying one another is certainly simplified by the Internet due to the
anonymity provided by the medium. Children and young people in particular
risk being both victims of bullying and offenders. Hence bullying is related to
one‘s own conduct as well as to the conduct of others.
Even though publishing content like defamatory pictures can be part of
bullying, the phenomenon is chiefly related to online contact. As mentioned
before, multifunctional mobile phones are often used for taking pictures with
the intention of bullying and then uploading the pictures to the Internet or
sending them via multimedia messaging (MMS) to others. Since many children
and young people have a mobile phone equipped with a digital camera, bullying
is becoming easier. Disclosing private information: When setting up a profile on
a social community platform, users are invited to disclose private information
to present themselves to the community. Also in chat rooms and forums users
may disclose private data to others, such as their address or telephone
number. Young people in particular, are unable to foresee the consequences of
publishing their private data. They are often unaware that a chat room is not a
private but a public area.
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Profiling: With the increasing number of profiles a person can publish on
different platforms, there is a greater risk that personal data published on one
platform will be merged with data published on other platforms or given away
elsewhere (e.g. in polling or raffles). Thus profiles are created that make it
possible to directly address the person with potentially unwanted content,
services and advertisements. Profiling can be carried out from the website
when personal data are displayed publicly, but a more dangerous practice is
when profiles of users (or their partial profiles) are harvested from the database
behind the website and sold by the platform provider to third parties.
The materials used here were adapted from different sources, including AFRICMIL publications, UNESCO’s Media and
Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers; Media and Information Literacy: Policy and Strategy Guidelines as well as
Media Wise: Empowering Responsible Religious Leadership in the Digital Age (KAICIID).
