Think Tank on Countering Disinformation

U Lisbon - MediaEd Institute poster

Participants: 18 - 24 educators, librarians, graduate students, students, NGOs, and civil society representatives 

Outcomes

1. Deepen your awareness of the many forms of media in your life and how your media choices reflect and shape attitudes and values
2. Increase knowledge about the theory and practice of digital and media literacy education 
3. Appreciate how dialogue and discussion can help people resist the allure of harmful disinformation and propaganda
4. Learn to use digital learning platforms for analyzing propaganda and disinformation and apply activity-based media-centered pedagogies that deepen student engagement and learning.   

July 1, 2:45 PM - 5:30 PM 

1. What is Media Literacy and Why is It Important? (Yonty). Learn the vocabulary of media literacy and find common ground. Reflect on your motivations for using media as an educator, librarian, researcher, or student and consider how your choices contribute to advance critical thinking and communication skills that help advance social justice and civil society. Access the slides here.  

    

2. Finding and Countering Propaganda/Disinformation in Daily Life (Renee). Learn about propaganda and disinformation and analyze the impact of these messages on individuals and society. Access the slides here. 

   • Lesson 1: Definitions of Propaganda, Mind Over Media

   • Create a Mini-Podcast on Historic Propaganda in Portugal

   • VIDEO: What is Doublespeak?

   • VIDEO: A Linguist Analyzes Trump Communication Style 

      

July 2, 2 PM - 5:30 PM

3. Courageous Conversations (Renee). Learn about social media economics and the rise of conflict entrepreneurs who promote hate and fear by using rhetorical strategies that create feelings of shared grievance. Access the slides here.  

• Mind Over Media Propaganda Gallery

• Mind Over Media Lesson Plans

• Courageous Conversations

4. Integrating Media Literacy into Your Classroom or Library (Yonty). Generate a plan for sharing what you learned, create media to synthesize your learning, and consider other actions that can help to counter disinformation and harmful propaganda.  

• Future Protocol

High School Session 

July 2, 11 AM - 12:30 PM (90 minutes)

University of Lisbon is doing an outreach summer school for high school students (https://verao.ulisboa.pt/ - the program at FLUL is Letras Abra Mundos - the Arts Open Worlds). As the high scholars learn to navigate the media-saturated environment, they will document their process of analyzing one media message through a short production activity of creating a mini-podcast to share with their peers.

• Introduction: Tell a story about your childhood media 
• ML DISC: Using critical questions to analyze media using their phones
• Introduce the mini-podcast - create media 
• Share ti in a 5-members groups 

In this session the high school students share their media consumption and deconstruct the media representation of it to not only check for accuracy but also to discover the power relation behind the media message. Participants will use the media literacy critical question to uncover the tensions and ideology behind the media message they decided to analyze. Additionally, we will work to produce a short podcast in teams of 3 to share their analysis using a wide popular format of podcasting with their own smartphones. By the end of the workshop the participants will be able to identify genre and media constructs as they see the ability to produce their own accurate information.