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Journalism · MS elective · 3 credit hours · 16 sessions

Media Literacy & Critical Consumption

We live in an information deluge. This course equips students with the cognitive defenses to navigate a post-truth world. Students will deconstruct media messages to understand authorship, bias, and underlying economic motives. The curriculum covers the psychology of confirmation bias, the mechanics of algorithms, and the skills to verify information before sharing it.

§ 01 By the end you can
  1. Analyze the "5 Key Questions" of Media Literacy (Who created this? Why? etc.)
  2. Deconstruct advertisements and news to identify bias and framing
  3. Understand the "Attention Economy" and algorithmic radicalization
  4. Verify images and videos using Reverse Image Search and Geolocation
  5. Evaluate the credibility of sources (Lateral Reading technique)
§ 02 Sixteen sessions

The whole semester.

  1. 01The Media Landscape: From Broadcast to Network
  2. 02The 5 Core Concepts of Media Literacy
  3. 03Bias & Framing: How News is Constructed
  4. 04The Attention Economy: Clicks as Currency
  5. 05Fake News Types: Satire vs. Fabricated
  6. 06Verification Tools: OSINT Basics
  7. 07Cognitive Biases: Why we believe lies
  8. 08 · MidtermMidterm Examination
  9. 09Visual Literacy: Semiotics of Images
  10. 10Advertising: Persuasion Techniques
  11. 11Representation: Stereotypes in Media
  12. 12Social Media Algorithms & Echo Chambers
  13. 13Digital Footprints & Privacy
  14. 14Cyberbullying & Digital Citizenship
  15. 15The Future: Deepfakes & AI Media
  16. 16Final Project: The Media Deconstruction Presentation

Midterm around session 8. Final project briefed at session 8 or 9 and developed in stages until the juries.

§ 03 Final project

Final Project: The Media Deconstruction Presentation

How it’s judged

Recommended reading
  1. Media Literacy by W. James Potter
  2. The Smarter Screen by Shlomo Benartzi
  3. Factfulness by Hans Rosling
  4. Verification Handbook by Craig Silverman
  5. Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
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