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Jun 11, 2022 10 tweets 7 min read Read on X
I'm seeing a lot of memes related to gas prices being shared today. It makes sense. Not only are high gas prices a source of extreme frustration, but memes are an easy and satisfying way to capture and share what are often complex ideas and feelings. 🧵1/
Most people don't think twice about engaging with these informational amuse-bouches. They often seem harmless and dismissible - which may be one reason why these image based info-nuggets have become a popular tool for spreading disinformation & hate. 🧵2/ axios.com/2021/02/23/mem…
"For years there's been growing concern that deepfakes (doctored pictures/videos) would become truth's greatest threat. Instead memes have proven 2B a more effective tool in spreading misinfo b/c they're easier to produce & harder to moderate using artificial intelligence." 🧵 3/
We know that young people sometimes see memes as lighthouses in a stormy sea of competing media, guiding them to specific islands of information. "That’s how I find out what's going on in the world, and what kinds of stories I should be looking at." 🧵4/ slj.com/story/Get-Smar…
This can result in a number of undesirable outcomes:
📍Search terms distorted by language used in memes
📍Search results influenced by conspiracy theories, false information, etc.
📍Repeated exposure leading to internalized messaging
📍Desensitization to harmful content
🧵5/
.@dhudgins & I regularly use memes as a way to teach the #infolit principles in our book Developing Digital Detectives b/c
📍memes are easy to create and digest
📍memes are intentionally constructed media messages that are worthy of scrutiny
🧵6/ my.iste.org/s/store#/store…
Our work was used in this article from Scholastic Jr - which includes an activity that can be implemented right away.
junior.scholastic.com/issues/2021-22…
This version, from Scholastic Upfront, may be more useful for older learners.
upfront.scholastic.com/pages/promotio…
🧵 7/
Here's an activity I regularly use with learners of all ages to help them reflect on what they've learned - often about memes and #medialiteracy! This link will force you to make your own copy. You can also duplicate the Padlet board linked there. 🧵8/ docs.google.com/presentation/d…
But aren't some memes just funny? Of course! But dismissing memes, wholesale, as not serious sources of information sends the message that they aren't worthy of scrutiny, which couldn't be further from the truth. 🧵9/
For more content like this, sign up for our FREE monthly newsletter.
drkenbortphd.substack.com
🧵 end/

#digitaldetectivesquad
#infolit
#newslit
#medialit
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More from @jenniferlagarde

Oct 17, 2023
When I was a MS #librarian, I felt compelled to hold a @scholastic book fair b/c it was often my only source of funding. I told myself that holding the book fair meant I’d be able to add more books to the library for those kids who couldn’t afford to purchase at the fair. Later…
I was able to work w/the @Scholastic book fairs division. I met some incredible people during that time, including the President of the book fairs division, who cared deeply about increasing family literacy, and saw fairs as a way to get families reading together. When he…
left, things changed. Every single person I knew at @scholastic left or was laid off. These days I find myself asking where Scholastic would be without authors/illustrators? Without librarians? Without kids & families? Their labor & support built the company. Now when the most…
Read 7 tweets
Mar 4, 2022
The 650 tag in a library marc record consists of subject headings that power search results in the OPAC. These terms are hierarchical, meaning that terms at the top of the list are prioritized in the search results. With that in mind, I shared this marc for @JerryCraft’s New…
Kid in one of my sessions at #NCTIES22, asking participants to think about:

📍 the existing subject headings as they appear here
📍their order
📍what’s missing from the current list, and…
📍what readers would have to search for in order to find this book in the catalog.
Then I asked them to consider this question: if we do nothing to update this record to reflect the issues at the heart of this book, what readers are least likely to find it? In my experience, the answer is very often those readers whose hearts need this book most.
Read 14 tweets
Jan 5, 2022
Heads up #DigitalDetectiveSquad! Here's a quick #infolit lesson ripped straight from today's trending topics.

As I type this, the #mayoclinic is trending (on Twitter).
A quick look to find out why leads you to headlines like this one. For some time, this story (from NBC News), was the top result in the #mayoclinic feed. However, scroll down just a bit and the same headline, from dozens of other outlets, is repeated & shared thousands of times.
Here's what's missing from that headline: the #mayoclinic employs over 70,000 people. 700 people = less than 1% of its total workforce.

The headline to this story could have read "Vaccine mandate at Mayo Clinic results in employee firings of less than 1%"

News outlets make...
Read 12 tweets
Nov 5, 2021
“A group of parents found out where I live and came to my house to shout at me, while my children watched, about including pornography in the library.”

“Board members showed up at my school, while I was doing a book tasting, to audit my shelves for books teaching CRT.”

🧵⬇️
“A group is distributing homemade newspapers in my community. A recent one claimed that our school libraries contain books teaching kids that there are 73 genders to choose from.”

“Security had to escort a parent from our building who disrupted story-time to demand that I…
follow up a book about a Black astronaut with one about a white astronaut.”

“At our school board meeting, parents demanded that all school libraries be closed until the books had been evaluated for evidence of CRT.”

I could go on (and on).

One important thing to note about…
Read 9 tweets
May 25, 2021
This is an incredibly important #medialiteracy thread that I want to add one note to. The data collection described here is also a contributor to radicalization. In this example, the targeted content was toothpaste, but what if dude's mom had been a...
while supremacist or radical conspiracy theorist? (I'm sure she's none of those things, BTW). The algorithms don't care if they're pumping us full of toothpaste ads or filling our feeds with memes that encourage violent insurrection, they simply use the data we give them...
(willingly) to surround us with content that they've predicted we'll engage with. What's most important about this thread is the understanding that we don't have to search for that content, or erroneously click on something in order to tell the algorithms to give us more. As...
Read 9 tweets
Oct 11, 2020
My fist job interview for a #teacherlibrarian position took place at an elementary school in a very conservative part of NC. I will never forget it, in large part, b/c the principal of the school only asked me one question which was, “would you put this book in our library?”🧵...
As a brand new librarian, who had only ever taught middle/high school, I’d never read Nijland and De Haan’s King and King (which is the story of a prince who is charged w/finding a princess to be his queen, but who instead falls in love w/another prince) so I gave it a quick...
read and responded w/ “I would follow district policy, but if it were up to me, yes... I’d put it in the library.” Then I told the story of a boy I knew in the 4th grade who had 2 moms and how great it would have been for him to have access to a book like this back then. The...
Read 20 tweets

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