• A
  • A
  • A
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
Regular version of the site

Information Literacy and Trust in a Post-Truth World

2020/2021
Academic Year
ENG
Instruction in English
3
ECTS credits
Course type:
Bridging course
When:
1 year, 1 module

Instructor


Bryanov, Kirill

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course introduces students to major challenges that today’s digital media environments present to anyone seeking out factual information and systematically reasoned opinions, and equips learners with strategies to overcome these obstacles. You will learn to recognize biases inherent to various information sources, as well as to acknowledge your own biases and limitations as information consumers. You will explore the structural reasons behind the demise of objectivity in online communication and understand the importance of expertise in many domains of social life. You will find out why trust is the key asset in information markets, and how to build and maintain trust online. The course is designed to provide both a broader conceptual perspective on the issues of digital communication and tangible skills that will help you navigate the complex online information landscape. A particular emphasis is on hands-on activities and assignments that will help you consolidate and showcase your information literacy skillset. The course draws on the lecture material from the Coursera MOOC, Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World (https://www.coursera.org/learn/empowering-yourself-post-truth-world/)
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • The course is designed to familiarize students with social and organizational processes underlying information production in the digital age, as well as with potentially problematic consequences of uncritical information consumption. A practical goal is to equip students with techniques and strategies that will help them productively navigate today’s information landscape.
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • Understand the origins and mechanics of the major shifts in information environments that gave rise to the post-truth metaphor;
  • Critically assess the authority of online information sources and acknowledge the possibility of multiple, conflicting expert opinions;
  • Acknowledge their own biases and limitations as information consumers, and act so as to minimize the effects of their prior assumptions on how they process online messages;
  • Spot common techniques used to frame or misrepresent information online;
  • Apply the acquired skills to produce meaningful online content
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • The role of information literacy in the age of post-truth.
    Post-truth as the state of information environment where subjective biases and uninformed opinions challenge fact-based reasoning and truth-seeking expertise.The role of information literacy in promoting responsible, introspective information consumption.Metaliteracy model.
  • Expertise and authority.
    Social function of expertise.Strategies of evaluating information sources’ expertise.The role of subjective predispositions on perceived authority of information sources.
  • The role of trust in digital information environments.
    Varieties of trust and their role in production and consumption of information online. Collaborative information production in communities of trust.Threats to trust and privacy.
  • Varieties of information misrepresentation.
    Framing and frames. Devices and techniques used by media to construct the picture of social reality. Manipulating visual evidence.The truthiness effect.
  • Promoting meaningful communication online
    The original societal promise of the Web.The model of collaborative, civic-minded online information production. Platforms and formats for community-driven knowledge production.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking In-class contributions
  • non-blocking Individual report
  • non-blocking Final project
    Students will complete a final project based on the prompt from the Coursera MOOC:The goal is for students to create an online message promoting information literacy and share it with a person or group of people that they identify as vulnerable to biased or low-quality information. At the final class meeting, students will present their work and report ontheir experience sharing it with the public. This work can be collaborative, but each student must participate in presentation of their group’s final project. The project should attest to your newly acquired information literacy skills and your ability to help others become moreaware of their information consumption habits.
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (1 module)
    0.5 * Final project + 0.25 * In-class contributions + 0.25 * Individual report
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Ziva Kunda. (1990). The case for motivated reasoning.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Bransford, J., & National Research Council (U.S.). (2000). How People Learn : Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Vol. Expanded ed. National Academies Press.
  • Newman, E., & Feigenson, N. (2013). The Truthiness of Visual Evidence. Jury Expert, 25(5), 9–14.