The course will direct you to lots of further resources, including local and regional examples from in and around the Manchester area. There’s film and historic film from The North West Film Archive, archival material from the Special Collections Museum and poetry available in the Manchester Poetry Library which are all part of Manchester Met’s Library and Cultural Services.
Important: To access this course, you’ll need to enrol:[
Self Study Pack Content
With student Co-creators: Eleanor Eden, Caitlin Hallows, Niall McKenna and Nishalini Tamilmaran
And with support from e-learning technologist Kate Woods
Video transcript
Welcome to Media and Misinformation.
This self-directed RISE course will delve into the world of navigating information in the digital world, giving you the skills to feel confident and positive about using digital information.
Essentially, the course aims to improve your media literacy skills, which the Media and Information Literacy Alliance (MILA) talks about as
‘…engaging with media and information safely and healthily, critically and actively, with positive social consequences.’ (Media and Information Literacy Alliance, no date:online)
Engaging confidently with media, marking misinformation and making informed choices has many benefits to your personal, academic and working life.
So, here’s what we’ll cover.
Module 1 will put the course into context, looking at the way we shared information in the past and cases of historical misinformation- so get ready for the newsroom, animals on the moon and the original influencer.
Module 2 will look at the current context and explore some of the issues and possibilities of information in the digital landscape. Put your journalist hat on to spot deepfakes and the Pope in a puffer jacket!
Module 3 explores the biases and influences that we all contend with and why it’s so important to recognise this as a part of a healthy relationship with information. Here you’ll go exploring in echo chambers, spot some bots, and evaluate some conspiracy theories.
Module 4 gets practical, giving you tools and tips to view information with a critical eye including some tips on exploring AI generated material.
Finally, Module 5 aims to give you the ability to make things positive by protecting your information, money and wellbeing online.
That’s the plan, so let’s get started!