Conspiracies and Culture Wars: A media literacy inquiry project by Wes Fryer

"Teaching the Conspiracies: Part 1"

Description

In this 6 week course, participants will learn how the SIFT web literacy framework (Stop, Investigate the source, Find trusted coverage, Trace to the original”) paired with lateral reading, offers excellent strategies for interrogating online information to decide what is valid and trustworthy. Ongoing culture wars, rife with conspiracy theories and social media fueled “rabbit holes,” make our fractured information landscape challenging to navigate. We will use a lesson series focusing on the NASA Apollo moon landings, contemporary YouTube “hoaxers,” as well as “flat earthers” to develop better media literacy skills! We will also create a variety of media products together, including sketchnotes, interactive whiteboards, and narrated slideshows to demonstrate our learning. By the end of the course, participants will have the knowledge and skills to teach and facilitate media literacy lessons utilizing SIFT and lateral reading, helping develop resilient skills for informed citizenship.

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Weekly introductory videos for each module are now publicly available in this YouTube playlist. (updated 29 March 2024)

Course Goals

Course Outline

Week 1: Introduction to the World of Conspiracies

Week 2: Why Are Conspiracy Theories Popular?

Week 3: Contemporary Conspiracy Theories

Week 4: Moon Landing Hoax?

Week 5: Moon Hoax Not?!

Week 6: Culminating Project and Reflection

To continue your journey of learning with media literacy and "Teaching the Conspiracies" specifically, I encourage you to subscribe to my periodic Substack newsletter (wfryer.substack.com) as well as follow me on social media.