Media Literacy: Online Classes

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All the courses below are free to take. Most have the option to pay for a certification.

Brief Overview

  • Beginner Media and Culture by Saylor Academy via Alison: “This course will teach you the basic theories of mass media and new media, the different ways media affects culture, and the evolution of media over time. Mass media refers to the technology that reaches a large audience, while new media refers to forms of mass media that involve digital technologies.”
  • English for Media Literacy by University of Pennsylvania via Alison: “This course has been specially designed for non-native English speakers interested in learning more about American media. The cause covers the different types of mass media, such as newspapers, magazines, television, and social media, and the role they play in our lives. This will greatly enhance the vocabulary and language skills needed to critically analyze what you read and watch in today’s modern media.”
  • Making Sense of the News – News Literacy Lessons for Digital Citizens Coursera: “Never before has the need for News Literacy been more urgent. As news consumers are bombarded with a constant stream of fake news, propaganda, hoaxes, rumors, satire, and advertising — that often masquerade as credible journalism. . . This six-week course will help learners develop their critical thinking skills to enable them to better identify reliable information in news reports and to become better informed about the world in which we live. The course will discuss the key elements of journalism from the viewpoint of the news audience.”
  • Media, Society and Culture by BCcampus OpenEd via Alison: “This free online media, culture, and society course will give you an introduction to mass media, legacy media, social media, and society digital culture. You will learn how mass media products work and look into the influence of TV, film, and music on society and culture.”

Advanced

  • Critical Media Literacies and Associated Digital Skills by OERu: “Learning in a Digital Age (LiDA) is about learning on the Internet. Critical media literacies and associated digital skills is the fourth of four LiDA micro-courses, where you will develop critical media literacy skills and use multimodal communication to express outputs of learning effectively in a digital online environment.”
  • Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World by State University of New York via Coursera: “The post-truth world is a divided and partisan environment in which factual information has been displaced by subjective and biased viewpoints. Facts and expertise no longer matter when isolated communities deny truth and scientific reasoning in favor of whatever information suits their needs or aligns with their beliefs. Social media and emerging technologies have the power to connect global participants in a meaningful way; yet, they have also led to disconnected communities that fail to communicate past their own self-imposed boundaries. In this course, you will gain insights to recognize your own biases and identify preconceptions in today’s dynamic social information environment.”
  • Think Critically, Click Wisely: “[F]ollows the latest version of the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers, a pioneering document that presents a broad framework of competencies and pedagogical suggestions for educators and students to navigate today’s communication ecosystem with critical thinking and wisdom. This resource connects Media and Information Literacy to emerging issues such as artificial intelligence, education for digital citizenship, education for sustainable development, cultural literacy and the exponential increase in misinformation. With the effective use of this curriculum, everyone can become media and information literate.”
  • Media Literacy in the Age of Deepfakes by MIT OpenCourseWare: “Media Literacy in the Age of Deepfakes aims to equip students with the critical skills to better understand the past and contemporary threat of misinformation. Students will learn about different ways to analyze emerging forms of misinformation such as “deepfake” videos as well as how new technologies can be used to create a more just and equitable society. This module consists of three interconnected sections. We begin by defining and contextualizing some key terms related to misinformation. We then focus on the proliferation of deepfakes within our media environment. Lastly, we explore synthetic media for the civic good, including AI-enabled projects geared towards satire, investigative documentary, and public history. In Event of Moon Disaster, an award-winning deepfake art installation about the “failed” Apollo 11 moon landing, serves as a central case study”