Media and Information Literacy
A key component of information literacy is evaluating its truthfulness and avoiding plagiarism when incorporating it into your projects (American College of Education, 2023). At the same time, new media literacy specifically references any information gathered digitally. May it be from newsletter, email, podcast, or social media. This can be problematic as we build projects as instructional designers, determining whether the information is fact or fiction (American College of Education, 2023). Evaluating its integrity can be difficult, regardless of how it is obtained for projects, and it takes time and effort. In Robert Berkman's article "When Online Fact-checking Is Trap," he reflects on his website source, for instance, how the website did not have an active about us page (2021). If we work with digital, it is essential to understand what makes digital/online legit. Another professional tip is extension names. Typically, when researching or reading online, I trust more commonly used extension names, like .com and .org.
As mentioned above, social media could be considered new media. Let us think about that by knowing the difference between fact and opinion. Facts are statements that can be proven to be true or false. The opinion is a statement of belief that cannot be proved true or false but may or may not be based on fact. Like most instructional designers, have a checklist to confirm the accuracy of the information.
Here are a few things to follow and search for proof:
Verify the publication date
Create a list of supporting sources
Verify References and citations
Make sure there is no bias
Verify the URL
Verify the content
Take a look at their reputation
Ensure that contact information is available
You often confirm these things as if researching the history and feedback of a company that you could be applying for a position. Would you apply to a company where the first three Google comments are negative?
References
American College of Education. (2023). DL5713 Digital Age Learning Environments: Module 1 [Media and Information Literacy]. Information Literacy. https://ace.instructure.com/courses/1944593/external_tools/118428
Berkman, R. (2021). When online fact-checking is a trap: The weaponization of media literacy. Online Searcher, 45(2), 10–13.