Skip to Main Content

Fake News vs Real News: Media Literacy

This is a guide to assist you in spotting fake news and finding the real news.

Media Literacy Concepts

Media Messages:

  • Manifest Messages are direct clear messages
  • Latent Messages at indirect messages
  • Cumulative messages are built up and repeated in different ways to reinforce the message

Media Literacy Concepts:

  • All media messages are constructed
  • Media messages shape our perceptions of reality
  • Different audience, different understanding of the same message
  • Media messages have commercial implications
  • Media messages embed points of view

Media Literacy Skills:

  • Develop critical thinking skills
  • Understand how media messages shape our culture and society
  • Identify target marketing strategies
  • Recognize what the media maker wants us to believe or do
  • Name the techniques of persuasion used
  • Recognize bias, spin, misinformation, and lies
  • Discover the parts of the story that are not being told
  • Evaluate media messages based on our own experiences, skills, beliefs, and values
  • Create and distribute our own media messages
  • Advocate for media justice

Keys to Interpreting Media Messages:

  • Process
    • Media Communicator
    • Function
    • Comparative Media
    • Audience
  • Context
    • Historical
    • Cultural 
    • Structure
  • Framework
    • Introduction
    • Plot
    • Genre
    • Conclusion
  • Production Elements
    • Editing
    • Color
    • Lighting
    • Shape
    • Scale
    • Relative Position
    • Movement
    • Point of View
    • Angle
    • Connotation of words and Images
    • Performance
    • Sounds-Music, Dialog, and Background Sounds