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

Follow my thinking and recommended resources for this project on Twitter: @wfryer #ConCW

Return to my "Media Literacy Resources" homepage

Check out the slides for my May 2022 ATLIS presentation, "Teaching About Conspiracy Theories and Media Literacy." This presentation was recorded and is also available as an audio podcast.

Teaching About Conspiracy Theories & Media Literacy by @wfryer (May 2022)

Description:

Conspiracy theories are popular on social media and influence our local as well as national conversations and politics. How we can constructively teach about conspiracy theories and help students develop their media literacy skills to better evaluate information and sources in our digital world? This session will highlight the "Froot Loop Conspiracy Theories" media literacy unit, taught to 6th graders since fall 2020 at Casady School in Oklahoma City. By focusing on the Apollo Moon landings, students learn how to use and apply the "SIFT" web literacy framework (S = Stop, I = Investigate the source, F = Find trusted coverage, T = Trace to the original) analyzing together several online videos. While this unit is designed for middle school students, it an be adapted for other grades / ages / developmental levels. Access the full unit on lessons.wesfryer.com/lessons/conspiracy-theories.

Welcome to an ongoing project catalyzed by a mountain of Twitter direct messages between Brian Turnbaugh (@wegotwits) and Wes Fryer (@wfryer) in 2019-20 following the Summer 2019 Summer Institute in Digital Literacy in Rhode Island. This blog post from July 23, 2020, provides more background about this project and our current resources.

Feedback and suggestions are welcome! Share on Twitter with the hashtag #ConCW and userIDS @wfryer @wegotwits!

Our current project resources include:

Summer Institute in Digital Literacy: July 2020

Archived Video Link (53 min, 7 sec)

Workshop: Summer Institute in Digital Literacy

Date/Time: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - 6 pm ET / 5 pm CT / 4 pm MT / 3 pm PT

Description: Media literacy, web literacy, and the ability to employ critical thinking strategies as we consume, filter, and share information today are vital. Join Brian Turnbaugh (@wegotwits) and Wes Fryer (@wfryer) in an exploration of classroom strategies, resources, and lesson ideas related to conspiracy theories and culture wars online, in social media and mainstream media. Workshop resources on medialiteracy.wesfryer.com/concw.

Presentation Slides

Conspiracies and Culture Warls July 2020 SIDL Workshop

Media Exhibits for Digital Forensic Analysis

Inspired by the Mind Over Media propaganda collection of the Media Education Lab (@MedEduLab @reneehobbs), Brian and Wes have started a collection of media artifacts to use with students in lessons relating to the themes of this "Conspiracies and Culture Wars" media literacy project. Use this Google Slideshow (also embedded here) and copy/paste slides for student group or individual analysis.

As explained on slide 2, we recommend creating a digital space for students to share their analyses.

Media Exhibits for Digital Forensic Analysis

Project Pitch #digiURI 2020: Conspiracies and Culture Wars by @wegotwits & @wfryer

Mountain Moot: 16 July 2020

Mountain Moot 2020 Keynote

Title: Conspiracies and Culture Wars: Media Literacy NOW!

Description: Social media and digital technologies shape public perceptions, mainstream media headlines, and culture today more than ever in earth history. To be literate and constructive citizens of our communities, everyone connected to the web needs robust skills to filter information, identify credible sources This presentation seeks to connect the dots.