Teaching Media Literacy with Social Media News

Featuring tools, activities, and insightful stories from a CIA analyst and instructor with 30+ years' of experience, this practical and engaging book supports busy educators to teach the lifelong skills of news and media literacy to their students. Based on existing curriculum and teaching standards, this guidebook shows how social studies and English language arts (ELA) teachers can build students' confidence with social media evaluation skills, which are critical to engaging in civic discourse and building a stronger democracy. In Part 1, Whitehurst gives an overview of the media evaluation techniques based on those you would learn as a CIA analyst, including understanding how our biases and mindset make us vulnerable to disinformation, learning how media tries to persuade us, checking facts, and spotting disinformation. Part 2 dives deeper by showing teachers how learners can check if an argument on social media is valid, and how fallacies and manipulation tactics in online arguments can complicate this important skill. It is illustrated by examples from social media and contemporary popular culture in different mediums, including videos, photos, memes, and AI-generated content. You can also find fresh and updated social media examples on the author's website, News Literacy Sleuth. Packed with practical classroom resources, examples from popular culture, and engaging insights into the CIA analyst role, this book is designed to support middle and high school teachers with news and media literacy in social studies, civic education, and ELA.

Roy S. Whitehurst is a retired Media Analyst Instructor for the CIA. Roy spent 30+ years evaluating written information, photos, videos, and other media collected by the CIA before becoming an instructor, teaching media literacy skills to new CIA analysts.

1. How Young People Consume News Part 1: Learn the Skills 2. Playing On Our Emotions, Mindset, and Biases 3. The Information and Social Media Ecosystems 4. The Persuasive Power of Visuals 5. Evaluate Photos 6. Evaluate Videos 7. Evaluate Memes 8. Evaluate Ads 9. Evaluate Charts 10. Can You Fact-Check It? 11. Fact-Check It! 12. How to Spot a Bot 13. Artificial Intelligence: Embracing It Responsibly to Enhance Learning Part 2: Go Deeper 14. Spot Disinformation Game 15. Evaluate Text-Based Arguments 16. Evaluate Visual-Based Arguments 17. Spot Fallacies 18. Spot Manipulation Tactics Part 3: Apply the Skills Throughout the School Year 19. Evaluate Pop Culture, Civics, ELA, and Social Studies Events