Publication Date

Summer 2021

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Jane Fife (Director), Ted Hovet, and Peggy Otto

Degree Program

Department of English

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

This thesis encourages the intentional and explicit integration of the best practices in media literacy education within the first-year composition classroom. The nature of FYC, which incorporates such content as research skills and source evaluation, provides an ideal opportunity to address the online misinformation and disinformation that have resulted in growing political polarization and cynicism. Recent findings suggest that these trends can be countered with the teaching of practices like lateral reading to verify a source’s veracity. After first demonstrating the challenges that university freshmen may bring with them to campus, this project makes suggestions for simple, consistent practices that instructors of FYC can incorporate into existing courses to support the media literacy of the next generation of online citizens.

Disciplines

Digital Humanities | English Language and Literature | Reading and Language | Rhetoric and Composition

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