Pieejamie kursi

INFORMATION LITERACY BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE

The information landscape is changing dramatically, including the way academic information is published or communicated. Librarians can highlight the range of information sources available and how to choose for academic study and research, for personal interest, for career development, or in the workplace. Understanding essential concepts about the information system, engaging in creative inquiry and critical reflection to develop questions and to find, evaluate, and manage information through an iterative process creating new knowledge through ethical participation in communities of learning, scholarship, and civic purpose adopting a strategic view of the interests, biases, and assumptions present in the information system. This module offers training to users and other learners to equip them to use and understand the library, recognize that information is available in a variety of formats, determine when information is needed and find it, evaluate the quality of information, and use information ethically and legally.


MEDIA LITERACY FOR LIBRARIANS

“Media Literacy” is often used interchangeably with other terms related to media and media technologies.

To clarify what we mean when we talk about media literacy, NAMLE offers these definitions: Media refers to all electronic or digital means and print or artistic visuals used to transmit messages. Literacy is the ability to encode and decode symbols and to synthesize and analyze messages. Media literacy is the ability to encode and decode the symbols transmitted via media and synthesize, analyze and produce mediated messages.

Media education is the study of media, including ‘hands-on’ experiences and media production. Media literacy education is the educational field dedicated to teaching the skills associated with media literacy.


FAKE NEWS AND DISINFORMATION FOR LIBRARIANS

The term "fake news" has been used increasingly in the last several years, but does not always refer to the same thing. Because false information can come in many shapes and forms, the term "fake news" can conjure up very different thoughts depending on the person using/hearing it and their own personal experiences. For the purposes of this guide we can define "fake news" as “purposefully crafted, sensational, emotionally charged, misleading or totally fabricated information that mimics the form of mainstream news” (Zimdars & McLeod, 2020). 

We can further break down this term by looking at three varieties of "fake news." The first two are more common, but the third can be equally as important:

  1. Disinformation - Content that is intentionally false and designed to cause harm. It is motivated by three distinct factors: to make money; to have political influence, either foreign or domestic; or to cause trouble for the sake of it.
  2. Misinformation - False content but the person sharing doesn’t realize that it is false or misleading. Often a piece of disinformation picked up by someone who doesn’t realize it’s false and shares it with their networks without the intent to do harm.
  3. Malinformation - Genuine information that is shared out of context with an intent to cause harm.