HARAMAYA UNIVERSITY Media and Information Literacy Lecture Notes PDF

HARAMAYA UNIVERSITY Department of Journalism and Communication Lecture Notes for the Course Media and Information Literacy December, 2025 1 2024 Media and Informatio...

HARAMAYA UNIVERSITY Department of Journalism and Communication Lecture Notes for the Course Media and Information Literacy December, 2025 1 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  CHAPTER ONE 1. Introduction to Media and Information Literacy Media and information are necessities of your communicative lives. When you understand and use various media forms to access information, you consider yourself media literate. An information literate person, on the other hand, is able to recognize when information is most needed and is knowledgeable on how to locate, evaluate, use, and share it in different forms. When you are digitally literate, you are able to utilize different digital technologies and communication tools or networks to manage information. In a media- saturated world, it is inevitable that we learn and master these literacy skills. UNESCO defines literacy as the “ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts.” Literacy involves a wide range of learning, wherein individuals able to develop their knowledge and skills, achieve their goals, and participate fully in their community and wider society. All the definitions and descriptions of media suggest that it is a channel for transmitting information. With the abundance of media technology nowadays, you are overwhelmed with countless information from a vast collection of sources. And at times, you may even struggle to distinguish which among all these information and sources are useful and credible. But before you begin to identify the information you need and the places to look for it, you have to be familiar with the nature of information. The UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers regard information as a “broad term that can cover data, knowledge derived from study, experience, or instruction, signals, or symbols.” When you use media, information is referred to as the “knowledge of specific events or situation that has been gathered or received by communication, intelligence, or newspapers.” Media literacy, information literacy, and technology literacy are combined together as Media and Information Literacy (MIL). Since media and information is taking up more and more of our time, it’s important that we understand its influence on everything we do and how we can knowledgeably and skillfully navigate our way through them. 2 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. Take a look at the table below for the specific definitions of Media, Information, and Technology Literacy. Literacy Definition The ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media in a variety of forms. It aims to empower citizens by providing them Media Literacy with the competencies (knowledge and skills) necessary to engage with traditional media and new technologies. Information Literacy The ability to recognize when information is needed, and to locate, evaluate, and effectively communicate information in its various formats. The ability of an individual, either working independently or with others, to responsibly, appropriately, and effectively use Technology (Digital) technological tools. Using these tools an individual can Literacy access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create and communicate information. Table 1.1. Definition of Media Literacy, Information Literacy, and Technology Literacy Media and Information Literacy UNESCO defines Media and Information Literacy as “a set of competencies that empowers citizens to access, retrieve, understand, evaluate and use, to create as well as share information and media content in all formats, using various tools, in a critical, ethical and effective way, in order to participate and engage in personal, professional and societal activities.” In simpler terms, it is the ability to effectively and efficiently create, use, comprehend, and share information through any mediated communication. The ability to navigate the media is a powerful and crucial skill. set of competencies to access & retrieve, information and that empowers citizens understand & media content in all evaluate, & use, formats create, and share 3 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  in order to participate and engage in personal, in a critical, ethical professional and societal and effective way activities Media and information literacy skills can be divided into five main areas: Access – What kind of media were you absorbing? How did you get to it? Analyze – Where you making sense of its messages? Do you need these information? Evaluate – Were you aware that each message was created by someone with their own goals and opinions? Create – When you create media, like a Facebook post or an Instagram story, what is your responsibility to those who view it? Act – What do you do with all that information you just received? Can you access or locate other credible information sources? Being media and information literate means being able to know where and how to access sources of information; to analyze the meaning and importance of information we come across; to evaluate the value, truthfulness, and credibility of such information; to create, produce, and share media products knowing fully well your responsibility to your audience. With media and information literacy skills, you will have the power to think through each of these important questions every time you pick up your phone, publish a Facebook post, or turn on the TV. From the moment you wake up to the time you fall asleep, you are, in one way or another, exposed to all media environment. Wherever you go, you see and hear all forms of it and you may even be consuming media unconsciously. Unfortunately, there is a sad reality about media and information consumption in today’s society: Information Disorder. Information Disorder refers to the many ways our information environment is polluted – content are fake, used out of context, or weaponized to attack certain individuals or groups of people. Understanding this landscape is the first step towards better and responsible use of media and information. 1.2. The Information Disorder There are three categories of Information Disorder: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Mal- information. 4 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. 1. Misinformation – refers to information that is false, but the person sharing or disseminating it unknowingly perceives it as something true. A. False connection – when headlines or visuals do not support the content B. Misleading content - by cropping photos or choosing quotes or statistics selectively 2. Disinformation – refers to content that contains false information with the deliberate intention to mislead or deceive the audience. A. False context – when genuine content is re-circulated out of its original context B. Imposter content – persons’ bylines used alongside articles they did not write, or organizations’ logos used in videos or images they did not create C. Manipulated content – when genuine content is manipulated to deceive D. Fabricated content – fabricated “news sites” or fabricated visual 3. Mal-information – refers to information that is based on reality but is used to inflict harm Examples: A. Leaks to the press of private information for personal or corporate interest (e.g. revenge porn) B. Using a picture (e.g. of a dead child, with no context or false context) in an effort to ignite hatred of a particular ethnic group 1.3. KEY CONCEPTS OF MIL Some people might be thinking “I’m a tech-savvy millennial who knows everything there is to know about the Internet and the media.” However, media and information literacy is more than just using your phone or browsing the web. You may be tech-savvy but not necessarily media literate. To better understand this, here are the key concepts of MIL that you need to remember: 1. All media messages are constructed Messages, as products of media, are created by sources who deliberately or unconsciously choose the quality and quantity of content they wish to send or disseminate – what to include, what to leave out, and how to portray such information. These decisions follow the creator’s opinions and perspective, either intentional or instinctive, as influenced by their prior knowledge, assumptions, and biases. Thus, media products are never entirely accurate reflections of the real world. We should ask: Who created this media product? What is its purpose? 5 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  What assumptions or beliefs do its creators have that are reflected in the content? 2. Audiences negotiate meaning Meanings are truly in people. The meaning of any media product is not solely formed by the source or its creators but a collaboration between them and the audience – which means that the different audiences may have varied takeaways from the same content. Much like how creators have their influences in the messages they create, we, as consumers also have our own baggage too which determines how we react to and interpret messages. MIL encourages us to understand how individual factors, such as age, gender, race and social status affect our interpretations of media. We should ask: How might different people see this media product differently? How does this make you feel, based on how similar or different you are from the people portrayed in the media product? 3. Media messages have commercial implications A lot of the media messages that we consume every day are funded by advertisements or financed by businesses. Thus, some of these content are bound to sell a product or service or make a profit. For instance, some advertisements come in the guise as informative articles but are actually luring audiences to buy their product. 4. Media messages have social and political implications The media, as vehicles of information, may convey ideological messages about values, power, and authority. The media as the press, being the fourth estate, also has an explicit capacity of advocacy and implicit ability to frame social and political issues. These messages may be packaged out of conscious decisions, but more often than not, they are the results of unconscious biases and unquestioned assumptions – and they can have a significant influence on what we think and believe. In consequence, media have great influence on politics and on forming social change. TV news coverage and advertising can have a huge influence on the people’s political decisions, social views, and cultural perspectives. Representations of world issues, both in journalism and fiction, can affect how much attention they receive; and society’s views towards different groups can be directly influenced by how – and how often – they appear in media. And so we ask: Who and what is shown in a positive light? In a negative light? Why might these people and things be shown this way? 6 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  Who and what is not shown at all? What conclusions might audiences draw based on these facts? 5. Each medium has a unique aesthetic form You must remember that the kind, quality, and quantity of information that you can communicate is determined by the media that you use. This includes the technical, commercial, and creative demands of each medium. So ask yourself: What techniques does the media product use to get your attention and to communicate its message? In what ways are the images in the media product manipulated through various techniques (for example: lighting, makeup, camera angle, photo manipulation)? What are the expectations of the genre (for example: print advertising, TV drama, music video) towards its subject? In general, always remember that critical thinking is immensely necessary for discerning the media source and the kind of information that you consume. Critical thinking trains us to take a step back, to evaluate facts and form evidence-based conclusions. Being media and information literate doesn’t mean we always criticize everything; rather, it means that we try to distinguish between claims and information with evidence and those without. In the next part, we will be discussing the benefits of being a media and information literate individual. 1.4. Benefits of Media and Information Literacy 1. It teaches you how to verify information and acknowledge others’ perspectives. Is this photo real or edited? Did this person really say this statement? Is the source of this article credible? Is this post backed with evidence? These are the things the MIL teaches you to ask. Ultimately, it compels you to discern the credibility of information you come across especially on the Internet. 2. It encourages audiences to think critically. With critical thinking, you are able to wisely use the information you have with you to objectively form an informed opinion or perspective about a certain matter or issue. You are also able to discern whether these information makes sense, what it contains, and what it lacks. You not only get to formulate your own ideas using the information you’ve acquired, but also cite these ideas as examples to support your opinions. 3. It promotes responsible information sharing and dissemination. 7 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. With the spread of false information nowadays, MIL encourages you to step back and evaluate the truthfulness of the things you share in social media and even those that you speak of to your friends, relatives, or colleagues. 4. It helps you identify and understand the media’s role in our culture. From the billboards to the texts and the videos that we see around us, media tend to promote our culture in various ways. MIL makes you conscious of these influences on your preferences, tastes, choices, and even lifestyles. This is important for you to be aware of the extent of media’s influence on your life so as for you to evaluate whether it has been doing you good or bad. 5. It teaches you to think and decide objectively, factually, and reasonably. Each story and information that you see everywhere you go has a side. MIL reminds us that the messages we encounter often have more than one side and that it is our responsibility to explore these other angles. Knowing all sides of the story will not only keep you neutral in issues but will also help you stay aware of texts or images that are meant to deceive its readers into picking sides, such as fake news or propaganda messages. 6. It encourages you to actively participate in public affairs as a citizen. Media keeps you updated with what’s happening in current affairs. Have the opportunity to voice out your opinions, whether literally or in social media, gives you the ability to actively engage in public discourse, healthy conversations, where the views of people may affect the collective opinion of others regarding a certain issue. If done correctly, sending out a voice or starting a movement through social media can also make an impact in government affairs or make a similar change in the world. 7. It teaches you to create your own content responsibly Media creators aren’t only those who work under the media industry. In reality, even our Facebook posts or tweet are already a form of media. You, in turn, are creating a piece of information that you’re willing to share, and each post that you share on social media contains information that you are responsible for. 8. It makes you better appreciate media products MIL makes you more familiar of how media messages and productions are created, developed, improved, packaged, advertised, and disseminated. Your knowledge on these make you value more the work and effort poured into making such products. Moreover, as you view or listen products of art through media, you are able to appreciate not only its entertainment value but also its technical aspects. 8 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. 1.5. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF JOURNALISM and MIL Fundamental Principles of Journalism Fundamental Principles of MIL Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth It enables people to effectively participate in truth-seeking process Its first loyalty is to citizens. It must focus on empowerment of citizens. Its essence is a discipline of verification MIL is also a discipline of individual verification. Its practitioners must maintain an MIL should not be about telling independence from those they cover people what to think or how to think but to think for themselves It must serve as an independent monitor of power. While media are the 4th Estate, MIL enables the 5th Estate (citizens). It must provide a forum for public MIL enables people to participate criticism and compromise. in the public discourse and dialogue It must strive to make the significant interesting MIL stimulates curiosity and technology and relevant. exploration in people to understand the relevance of information and media in their lives. It must keep the news comprehensive MIL enables people to consider the and proportional plurality of information and media Its practitioners must be allowed to MIL stimulates reasoning and conscience, with exercise their personal conscience which we are all endowed Source: Grizzle, A. (2018), Unpublished Work 1.6. FIVE LAWS OF MIL FROM UNESCO These Five Laws of MIL are essentially key principles as articulated by Alton Grizzle and Jagtar Singh for UNESCO. A brief description of the Five Laws of MIL is provided below. Law1. Information, communication, libraries, media, technology, the Internet should be used critically by society. They are equal in status, and none of these sources should be considered more significant than others. Here we would like to draw attention to two keywords: “critically” and “equal in status”. The first principle says how important it is that consumers of information, like its creators, have a critical attitude to the information they receive. As a person tunes into the analysis and 9 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. evaluation of information or media content, he/she will look for the most truthful, most impartial information for information awareness. The equalisation of all media by status is indicated in order to avoid the perceived domination of one or another media or information source and encourages the search for alternative information sources. Law 2. Every citizen is the creator of information / knowledge. Everyone has the right to access to information / knowledge and the right to self-expression. Media and information literacy should be for everyone, both for men and women, and is closely related to human rights. In the context of the Internet and modern media, any person has the opportunity to become an author / co-author and distributor of information. For the implementation of this activity, the international community is developing methods to ensure equal access for all to information tools. Governments are working towards this end and amending their legislation by various regulations governing legal relations in the field of information exchange, the right to receive and disseminate information, duties and agency for public and private organisations and individuals. Moreover, the observance of this Law of gender equality is a mandatory requirement. Law 3. Information, knowledge and communications are not always neutral, independent or impartial. Any conceptualisation, use and application of the MIL should make this statement transparent and understandable to all citizens. As soon as we start selecting and sorting facts, we already begin to influence information and its filtering. This is not necessarily associated with manipulation, rather in order to make emphases we sometimes select what is primary and what is secondary. However, this is in essence a process, by which we attempt to show the world or describe issues from ones’ own point of view. This Law only emphasizes that this situation takes place, and while working with sources and in general in the process of working with media and other information providers, this fact must be taken into account. Law 4. Every citizen wants to receive and understand new information, knowledge and messages and be able to communicate with others, even if he does not express this desire. Their rights should never be violated. This principle is also enshrined in the laws of almost all countries by constitutional law. However, due to the development of ICT, this right has become more clouded by technological developments. Technological capabilities have changed the methods of communication. In this regard, it is important that this constitutional right is not violated even in the conditions of digital transition, the process of modern information interchange in electronic format. 10 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. Law 5. Media and information literacy is not acquired overnight. It is a constant and dynamic experience and process. It can be considered complete if it includes knowledge, skills and attitudes regarding the use, creation and transmission of information about media and technological content. Today, the MIL is being defined as a combined set of competencies, which should be formed gradually and in parallel with the formation of each person. Speaking about the fact that the MIL is relevant today starting from pre-school education, experts emphasise that information today surrounds and accompanies everyone, everywhere and always. If you count the media resources that are in every home, in every family, it will become obvious that the formation of an MIL is the same primary need as the skill of eating, personal hygiene, etc. CHAPTER TWO 2.1. MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY IN JOURNALISM EDUCATION Journalism has always been a discipline of information verification. However, it is imperative that journalism education and practicing journalists give more emphasis on their information competencies. This is so given the distortion of media and other information spaces due to the phenomena such as propaganda, fake information, pranking, digital aggression, trolling, etc. occurring in the field of journalism. The crisis is growing. “Information overload” generates “information uncertainty”. The manipulation of consciousness through various information, communication, and technological tools leads to a situation where citizens and audiences are “swallowing” any information that is provided to them because of the lack of “critical autonomy”. Journalism education and practicing journalists should also embrace the reality that as modern and ordinary citizens interact with media and information platforms, they are constantly involved in sharing information and engaging in new online cultures. These new online cultures give citizens more agency or autonomy to influence information creation and flows. The question is how critical are citizens about the new autonomy that they have. Journalism education must then expose training journalists to new competencies to interact with their audiences online and offline. Journalism should revitalise the role of communication and the media in the development process, as well as their function as a tool for the active participation of citizens in society. Only journalists, who have the skills to find, analyse data and information created by others and create stories from this data and information will be able to effectively fulfill their functions. Journalists who know how to analyse and explain what public events mean and what audiences 11 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. can do to prepare for what will happen next, will be able to competently convey information that is accessible to the audience. Media and journalism are moving in parallel along two directions in the field of MIL: The first is the implementation of active measures, projects aimed at developing resources to improve the competence of journalists on MIL The second is to promote, through the media, popularization, informing the audience of analysis and critical thinking in the consumption of information. 2.2. Educational MIL Platforms for Journalists Media and information literacy is often referred to as education for life in the global media world. MIL educational resources located in information hubs with updated expert-based multimedia content are essential for journalists up skilling. UNESCO is one of the main initiators and coordinators of numerous programmes and projects in this direction. Since the adoption of the Grunwald Declaration (1982), which paved the way for international media education, UNESCO has continued to support the development of competencies in the field of MIL among people. Experts believe that MIL competence and critical thinking about media content is crucial for the health and well-being of the younger generation, as well as for their future participation in the civic and economic life of the country. 2.3. Monitoring And Moderating Media Message To Reduce Potential Negative Impact On Citizens The cases where poor quality journalism and unsubstantiated content on-line, leads to the manipulation of media messages and thus the manipulation of people are often used as central arguments for censorship. Establishing editorial policies within media organisations is a proven mechanism to control what is aired or published. The issue is that the speed at which journalists and the media must gather, edit, and publish news sometimes result in serious limitations in controlling quality. Ensuring that journalists are trained to monitor and moderate the potential negative impact of media messages on people then offers a triple-layered defense to balance the first to publish principle with ethically protecting and communicating truth to citizens. Therefore, in addition to teaching standard journalism principles to journalists such as truth, accuracy, relevance, timeliness, balance, fairness and impartiality, independence, etc., journalism education should also foreground some of the suggested competencies and issues below to help journalist to better moderate and monitor media messages in the interest of citizens: 12 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  Basic psychological training in the area of cognition, how people come to think and respond to new information; how they know, learn and understand information Emotional literacy from the standpoint of citizens and audiences Promoting MIL as a way to stimulate critical thinking in audiences Developing platforms and using tools to connect with audiences to assess their response to certain media message, making these findings public, and ethically implanting these feedbacks to adjust future messaging to audiences 2.4. Building Bridges between Media Professionals and Information and Library Professions through Mil Promotion Humanity is becoming information societies, where, under the influence of new technologies, the flow of information is exponentially growing, and the influence of the media is rapidly increasing. The use of information and communication technologies in all domains of human life is becoming dynamic and global in nature. People and especially the younger generation today is under the influence of new media, though not passively. They are also influencing information creation and flows as mentioned earlier. Libraries have traditionally been warehouses of information. Today, libraries are evolving and are far more than just storehouses for books. They have enormous resources of information and knowledge that can be enhanced through media skills in their management. Library staff work as guides on information labyrinths, they now have two tasks, to organize information storages so that they can be guided in the canons of digital highways, but at the same time they must be able to orient the reader, the user of information resources to find the necessary information in huge volumes and arrays. Personal information culture is formed precisely at the points of access to information. Therefore, libraries become important nodes at the level of personality formation. It is precisely here that it is necessary to include the activities to form MIL habits (information literacy, media literacy, and digital skills). The main advantage of a library in the formation of MIL competencies is that they have a real information flow guide trained in working with information Why is it important? The access points to information and knowledge such as libraries constitute the platform where it is possible to form MIL and, media ecology. As libraries continue to provide adolescents and 13 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. young people with broad access to the Internet and technology, it is important that they also become more involved in preserving MIL competencies Journalism education should stimulate in journalists ways in which journalists and media can partner with librarians and the opportunities such partnerships can yield: Help young people to develop the skills of “healthy” consumption of news and other information on the Internet. Providing fake identification guides and evaluating the credibility of online news resources (for example, not trusting headlines, checking sources, disbelieving photos, commenting and specifying if there is doubt about what has been written) — this is a form of media and information literacy training that is applicable to both public and in-school libraries. 2.4. Working with Non-Conventional Information Sources Journalism is about identifying, in the shooting flow of everyday events, things that are really important and of significant people’s concern, thus making journalist’s main task the professional collection of information, its processing and subsequent dissemination in the form of news. Journalism is to be always based on documented facts. Journalist’s working process begins with the analysis of facts and their sources where they first encounter the concept of media and information literacy, with their professional competencies in the field directly affecting the outcome of their work. It is their skills of working with sources, processing facts, analysing and critically interpreting the material that shape the final product. When collecting information, the journalist should put its verification for authenticity and accuracy their priority, always remembering that “the reliability of facts is confirmed by competent opinions, comments of experts, supported by evidence and arguments.” These attributes distinguish journalistic information from all other. Facts are collected long before the journalist sits down to write the text. Review of a large number of sources, media materials, publications on the topic, etc. — all this forms in his mind the picture of events, phenomena, themes that need to be covered. In working with the actual material for publication, two stages can be distinguished: Different methods are used to gather information: a conversation or an interview with a person, personal observation, work with documents in archives, analysis of a sociological survey, review of the content of other media, including Internet sources. Rethinking information. Documents, photos, voice recordings — everything is used! 14 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. All this must also be comprehended and rethought. In the initial information it is necessary to carefully understand why it is necessary to check and double-check the data, facts, quotes, etc. In the course of rethinking information, it is usually considered how to diversify the coverage of the topic in various ways. Moreover, it is necessary to focus on how you can use different sources of information. No need to be limited only to interviews of stakeholders. Having obtained the necessary factual material, it is necessary to divide it into primary and secondary parts. This division, however, does not mean that the former will receive more attention, and the latter — less. This approach allows you to build the main concept and choose the main focus in your material. 2.5. My Responsibility as a Media Producer/Journalist In the communication process, an individual may also be a producer of message or content. So what is your role as a media producer? Let’s start with how it is defined. In its most technical meaning, media producers are described as people who oversee media projects (like films, TV shows, etc.) from conception to completion and may also be involved in the marketing and distribution process (Gonzales, 2016). However, throughout the years, the term has evolved to take in those who contribute intellectual or creative content through and in media, even including your Facebook posts, tweets, Instagram photos, or vlogs. Simply put, in today’s context, media producers are people who are capable of creating and sharing information through a media channel – that includes you. Technological advances in the Digital Age gave tons of people access to tools for communication and media creation. However, this opportunity also opened a chance for illegal and irresponsible making and sharing of media messages. Here, you will learn your responsibilities as a media and information literate content producer. 1. Give credit where credit is due. Today, information is right on the tip of our fingers. With the use of technological innovations like cellphones, laptops, the Internet, we can easily access and share information and media content – share a post, pass an image, forward a text message However, always remember that although some of these information is available to us, their rights still rest on their original creators. Thus, it is important that we give proper credit to the owners or sources of the content we use (articles, texts) or things we share (images, posts). What happens when what you’re sharing is someone else’s property or could harm somebody? You may be answerable to the offended party or you may be held liable under the law or regulations of certain organizations. 2. Avoid sharing raw and unverified information 15 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. Raw and unverified information are those that has yet to be examined or confirmed. For instance, an announcement of a new COVID-positive case from a random person on Facebook without a formal statement from the Department of Health or proper authorities. While this information may be true, still, they are not yet proven so and so it may also be false or incomplete. We can say that a piece of information is verified if credible people, news outlets, or organizations present evidences of cases of facts to support the truthfulness and reliability of such information. 3. Think about who can see what you have shared Always assume that anything that you online can be seen by other people – people who may be influenced by your words or opinions or people who may disagree. Moreover, always be aware of how your messages may be interpreted. So before sending that message or posting that status, evaluate how you constructed and packaged your message, and ask yourself, will your intended receiver or audience understand this message the way I want them to? 4. Be open to learning and constructive criticisms As previously discussed, each individual media consumer brings to each media encounter a unique set of ideals, experiences, and backgrounds and these factors influence how they understand and interpret the media they consume. Meaning, some people may share our view while some will disagree. Thus, it is important to keep an open mind to contrasting opinions and constructive suggestions and understand that these may actually be learning opportunities for you which will help you establish well-informed opinions. 5. Share expert knowledge The Internet is a great platform for sharing good information. However, it can also be used to spread misinformation and distortions. If you hold a lot of knowledge about a certain topic or subject, don't be afraid to share it online in a manner that is helpful and accurate. 6. Respect other people’s privacy Do not share information that friends or family entrusted you to keep confidential or information that is private in nature especially without their consent. Moreover, remember not to share information about others that could get them -- or yourself -- into trouble, both personally and professionally. 7. Always be respectful Being respectful should be your default manner, whether talking to a friend or dealing with someone professionally. Being respectful includes accepting constructive criticisms, politely disagreeing, and never resorting to bullying or personal attacks. No matter how differing opinions may be, you should always try to cultivate an environment for a healthy and respectful discussion. 16 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. All these skills – from understanding the landscape of information disorder, knowing the concepts of media and information literacy, to being a responsible user and producer – all develop you to become a media literate individual CHAPTER THREE 3.1. Internet What is the internet? The internet is a network that connects computers around the world. It does so by using a computer language common to all computers online called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). This is where the term IP address comes from, which is the address of the device that information you access is sent to. Through this common computer language, information and data are split up into small chunks (called packets), sent through data lines, and then reassembled for the person accessing them. (Source: DW, Media and information literacy: A practical guidebook for trainers, 2021) The internet is a global network of circuits, tubes, and packets of data that connect countless billions of computerized devices and the people that use these devices. In doing so, it provides a gigantic, complex, always growing and spreading infrastructure for the sharing of information. Many services are carried along this network, including email, social media, and the World Wide Web. The web is not the same thing as the internet although the terms are often used interchangeably. The web is a system of hyperlinked pages and documents that exist on the internet. Put another way, the internet is a huge network consisting of many smaller networks and operations, including the web. Using internet services, people find one another, learn about one another, exchange information and social support, work, play, and become connected so copiously and completely that, we can say, they become superconnected. (Source: Mary Chayko, Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life, 2017). Who owns the internet? No one actually owns the internet itself because it is a “network of networks.” Individual companies and organizations own their own networks, and these are all connected to millions of other networks to form the internet. 17 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  No single individual or organization controls the internet in its entirety. The internet is more of a concept than a tangible entity, and it relies on a physical infrastructure that connects networks to other networks. Who are internet’s global players? Although no single person or organization controls the entire internet, there are a few players and companies who are very influential in the online world. They include companies like Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Google from the United States and JD.com and Alibaba from China. They all have their own agendas and motives (e.g. making money, collecting data about users, etc.) There are other powerful players involved in the many different aspects of the internet. Some offer services, like internet providers and hardware and software developers and producers. Others play key roles in web security, commerce, and communications. (Source: DW, Media and information literacy: A practical guidebook for trainers, 2021) The internet and world wide web (www): are they the same? Internet: A global network connecting millions of computers. Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled, the internet is decentralized by design. Each internet computer, called a host, is independent. Its operators can choose which internet services to use and which local services to make available to the global internet community. World Wide Web: A system of internet servers that support specially formatted documents. The documents are formatted in a markup language called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) that supports links to other documents, as well as graphics, audio, and video files. This means you can jump from one document to another simply by clicking on hot spots. Not all internet servers are part of the World Wide Web. While the internet is a large connection of networks (hardware), the World Wide Web is a way to access information on the internet. It is like the software you need to run programs on the hardware of your computer. Thus, the internet is much broader than the World Wide Web. Reflection questions: 1, How do you think the motive/agenda of these key players affect the contents of digital outlets? 18 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  2, What is the difference between the internet and the web? Which one is broad and which one is specific? 3.2. Social media What is social media? Conceptualization of social media Though there is no an agreed consensus on who coined the term ‘social media,’ the concept appeared in the 1990s with the advent of internet-based communication tools which facilitate online interaction. Social media refers to the new communication platforms that is based on the internet and allows interaction with users and virtual communities. Social media can be seen as online Instructors or enhancers of human networks, networks of people that promote connectedness and integration as a social value. However, not all digital based platforms are social media. To be considered as social media, the platform should allow at least participation and interaction. Social Media is a group of Internet based applications that are built on the ideological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content. Social media allows users to: consume and publish content, engage in dialogue with other users, and/or interact with brands and companies – in real time or sequentially, independent from the users’ physical location. Boyd and Ellison (2008) conceptualize social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to: 1. construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, 2. articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and 3. view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. 19 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  In many countries, social media like Facebook have become the most important source of information for people; that is why social media have also become extremely important distribution channels for traditional media like newspapers, radio, and TV. Today, many consumers access media content through social media rather than going directly to a media outlet’s website or buying a newspaper. What makes sites like Facebook distinct is that they are integrated (convergent) platforms that combine many media and information and communication technologies, such as webpage, webmail, digital image, digital video, chat platforms, discussion groups, guest book, connection list or search engine. Hence, their convergent nature even makes them more preferable than the mainstream media. Social networking sites have become un-avoidable parts of our life and we fill isolated and void when we quit using them even for a short period of time. These sites are even becoming important factors in shaping adolescents and emerging youth’s identities, affecting psychological well-being, and changing their social interaction habits with their physical surrounding. Top social media platforms According to oberlo.com, Facebook (2.8 billion active users), YouTube (2.3 billion active users), WhatsApp (2 billion active users), Messenger (1.3 billion active users), Wechat (1.2 billion active users), Instagram (1.2 billion active users), Tiktok, Linkedin, Snapchat and Twitter are the top ten social media as of January 2021 worldwide. Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with values such as giving people a voice, serving everyone, promoting economic opportunities, keeping people safe and protecting privacy and building connection and community. It has over 200 million businesses, and over l billion stories and 100 billion messages are shared a day. According to their official page, their mission is giving people the power to build community and bring the world to closer together. (https://about.facebook.com/). YouTube is a video sharing website that began in 2005 with the mission of giving everyone a voice and showing them the world. According to their official page, they 20 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  operate in the belief that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share and build community through our stories. Their values are based on the freedom of expression, freedom of information, freedom of opportunity and freedom of belonging. According to oberlo.com, over 720,000 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube everyday worldwide, while 1 billion hours of video are watched daily on the platform. 90% of consumers say that they discover new brands and products via YouTube. WhatsApp, unlike YouTube and Facebook, is a chat, messaging and/or call platform which was founded in 2009. According to their official page, their mission is serving as an alternative to SMS by sending and receiving a variety of media: text, photos, videos, documents, and location, as well as voice calls; aiming to let people communicate anywhere in the world without barriers (https://www.whatsapp.com/about/). This platform is not among the widely known platforms in Ethiopia. Messenger is one of the Facebook products which is used for chat. Its difference from Facebook chat is that messenger makes it easy to message almost anyone, even without being friends on Facebook or having their phone number. On Messenger anyone can show their reaction, share photos and videos, send money easily and securely, share their location, play games and much more (https://messengernews.fb.com/about/). Wechat is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, Wechat is now used as one of the leading mobile apps serving as the Chinese version of WhatsApp, with extra services added to it. Wechat is expanding its horizon from China to the whole world. CHAPTER FOUR 4.1. Information Disorder on social media Bots, Cyborgs, Sock puppets and Trolls Bots and Cyborgs 21 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. ❖ Since coordinated Information campaigns are carried out through a network of multiple social media accounts to achieve the goal of disseminating and amplifying information more quickly, it requires an organized army of social media actors/users to run smoothly. ❖ At the beginning it was the army of social media foot-soldiers who did the job; but slowly information technology experts figured out an easier way, through fake social media account, and they learnt that one expert can operate a host of fake accounts, masquerading as genuine social media users. ❖ This opened up the door for many possibilities; for one, now it has become possible to have few social media geeks run an information campaign on social media by impersonating users, numbers in hundreds and thousands, to create an information disorder on issue they wished. ❖ The advancement in information technology has introduced an even elegant solution which is the possibility of using artificial social media accounts or bots and cyborgs in this activity. ❖ A bot is a software application that can automatically perform tasks assigned to it by humans. Whether a bot does good or bad completely depends on the intentions of its “owner.” ✓ Not all bots and cyborgs are bad: as bots and cyborgs are computer programs, they can be used for good purposes such as social enlightenment ❖ A Cyborg on the other hand is a half computer, half human-controlled entity that executes instruction given to it by its operator in the digital world. ❖ In this context, a bot or a cyborg is a computer program designed to create accounts and disseminate information on social media masquerading as a real user. ❖ The bots referred to in this context are social bots, active on social networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. They can be used to spread specific ideological messages, often with the aim to make it look as if there is a groundswell of support for a particular topic, person, piece of content or hashtag. ❖ Although there are many kinds of social bots out there depending on the purpose they serve, amplifier bots are the most important in the spread of information disorder. ❖ Amplifier bot does exactly what it sounds like: amplify and spread content, with the goal of shaping online public opinion. By working together in large numbers, amplifier bots seem more legitimate and therefore help shape the online public opinion landscape. ❖ It can also be used to make individuals and organizations appear to have a larger following than they really do, since its power comes in numbers. 22 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  ❖ A network of amplifier bots can attempt to influence hashtags, spread links or visual content, or gang up to mass spam or harass an individual online in an attempt to discredit them or to make them seem controversial or under siege. ❖ Amplifier bots that spread disinformation do it mainly through hashtag campaigns or by sharing news in the form of links, videos, memes, photos or other content types. Hashtag campaigns involve bots constantly tweeting the same hashtag, or set of hashtags, in coordination. ❖ Apart from enabling cost-effective coordinated campaign of disseminating disordered information, it has also made it possible to deceive social media algorithms to echo content. The goal is often to trick trending algorithm into adding a specific hashtag to the trending topics list. ❖ Purchasing or creating bots is relatively easy. Countless sites will sell you your own bot army (botnet) for just a couple of hundred dollars or even less. But a sophisticated, humanlike botnet is much harder to create and maintain. ❖ A botnet is a collection or network of bots that act in coordination and are typically operated by one person or group. Commercial botnets can include as many as tens of thousands of bots. ✓ Cost effective and accessible technology: in relation to the cheap cost of bots and cyborgs, it has enabled cost effective and accessible means of dissemination of information and hence creating information disorder References: https://datajournalism.com/read/handbook/verification-3/investigating-actors-content/3- spotting-bots-cyborgs-and-inauthentic-activity https://www.dawn.com/news/1518967/grabyourkeyboards-inside-pakistans-hashtag-mills Process Questions Share your experience with…? “Fake Social Media Accounts?” 4.2 Trolls and Sock Puppets ❖ Closely aligned with automated accounts, and fall under the same category of fake accounts are the so-called Sock Puppets and Trolls. Driving its name from the art of puppetry where a puppet master uses its hand covered up in sock to masquerade as something else and put on a show, sock puppets are social media accounts that are used to conceal real identity of the persons behind. 23 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. ❖ A sock puppet is an online account that uses a false identity designed specifically to deceive. Sock puppets are used on social platforms to inflate another account’s follower numbers and to spread or amplify false information to a mass audience. ❖ Sock puppet is an alternative online identity or user account used for purposes of deception. ❖ Physically, sock puppet disguises the hand of the person who makes it speak, a digital sock puppet conceals the real-world identity of the human being controlling the fake account. ❖ Since sock puppets are about the concealing of digital identities, sometimes, expert say it is too close to Bots. Sock puppets are not always Bots or automated accounts, they can be human-controlled accounts. ❖ However, sock puppets are not only about covering real identity. Sock puppets are widely used for propaganda and hijacking social media conversations, writing fake reviews. ❖ Sock puppets are useful when someone wants to participate in an online community and needs to look like other members to fit in. ❖ In grassroots online communities, people ask their peers what type of car they should buy, discuss political candidates, or recommend restaurants, tennis shoes, and dentists. We tend to assume that people participating in these discussions are people just like us with no secret agenda. They aren’t trying to sell us a certain car so they can make money; they’re just sharing their opinion. This is a situation ripe for Sock puppet by blending in the conversation and work for their financial or other goals. ❖ Closely related to Sock Puppets are Trolls which are mostly human-control accounts deliberately posting offensive or inflammatory content to an online community with the intent of provoking readers or disrupting conversation. ❖ Trolling is the act of using inflammatory content to harass and insult others online to roil them up into engaging. ❖ Troll farm is a group of individuals engaging in trolling or bot-like promotion of narratives in a coordinated fashion. ❖ The hallmark of trolls and trolling is the use of inflammatory content to harass and irritation people online. Sometimes trolls and trolling can be used to promote or debunk certain narrative. ❖ Not all trolls are fake as social media accounts, but some online trolls use their real identity while harassing people online. Spotting Information Disorder ❖ Media literacy discipline dictates that the Golden Rule for fact checkers, especially in the age of information disorder, information warfare and manipulation, is to treat any and all information as potential information disorder until it is verified. 24 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. ❖ Understanding various forms of information disorder certainly helps information consumers to hold healthy level of suspicion regarding what they see online; but, unfortunately, for journalists and fact checkers it is not enough. Why? While regular citizens can just ignore potential information disorder they come across, journalists can’t since it is their responsibility to get to truth. ❖ Yet again, fact checking, especially information verification is a particularly time and resource consuming endeavor. Journalists and fact checkers can’t afford to verify all information they encounter; they can’t afford to ignore it too. ❖ On top of that, even with good understanding of various forms of information disorder: misinformation, disinformation, mal-information and information campaigns it does not mean that one can see information disorder from a mile away. ❖ Even with fairly good grasp of various forms of information disorder, journalists often get taken for a ride by the complexity of the information manipulation of the digital age. ❖ The truth is most information manipulations are not presented so clearly and distinctively; most of the time information disorder is masked; it masquerades as genuine content in form of news articles, speeches, political slogans, online reviews, learned analysis, parodies or satirical content. ❖ What a conundrum? What to do? ❖ The trick is to be systematic. That is before committing to investigating (the first step in verification) a particular piece of content, one has to perform a light review of the content of interest and establish that there is enough suspicion for content to be flagged. ❖ Flagging a piece of content is a process of tagging it as potential information disorder; it is a way of saying the content or any part of it cannot be reused or shared or interacted with before proper verification. ❖ It is important to note that flagged content does not mean that it is case of information disorder; just saying it has the potential to be one; flagged content could as well be factual and true. But what goes into the decision to flag a content? ✓ There are few things to look for; Some sort of a checklist to support fact checkers’ suspicion of a content as potential information disorder. ❖ Usually, the presentation of content, the source of the content and claims made in the content provide adequate ground to flag a content or not. ❖ What do we mean by that? 25 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  ✓ The presentation: When way the content is presented is clearly intent on invoking emotional response from the reader, i.e., when it creates emotions like sadness, happiness, anger, remorse, amusement and the like. ✓ The Source: When there is something off about the source of the content and citations, i.e., if the content came from unverified, untrustworthy or sketchy- looking website or social media account; when the sources is has a well-known track record of spreading information disorder: when content comes from satirical or parody sources etc. ✓ The Content (Claim): When the claims being made in the content are not normal; i.e., when claims are exaggerated, unexpected, controversial, conflicting, confirming a bias, too good to be true etc. Process Questions Share your experience? “Have you ever seen a news headline that provoked a strong reaction in you?” “What was it and How did you react?” 4.3. Emotional Gauge to Information Disorder ❖ Alternative to the make-shift checklist we have explored above there are different approaches to spot information disorder; In one way or the other, most of these approaches attempt to exploit the human emotion and use it as gauge to identify the potential for information disorder in a specific content. ❖ What it means is the stronger the emotional response a piece of content is invoking the more likely for it to be potential information disorder. The grater the emotional reaction, whatever kind of emotion, the content is generating, the greater for that content to be flagged. ❖ IREX’s Learn to Discern, media literacy manual, has developed a tool called “Name It, To Tame It”, a term coined by psychiatrist Dan Siegel to treat problems associated with emotional reaction. ❖ “Name It, To Tame It” is a tool that involves three steps to explore your emotional reaction to a specific content and to decide whether it should be flagged or not. ✓ Pause: Turn your head away from the screen or paper. ✓ Ask: What am I feeling? ✓ Say: The name of the feeling to yourself After naming your feeling you can decide to flag the content if the emotional reaction is strong or it involves any of the strong emotions listed in the checklist above. CHAPTER FIVE 26 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  5. 1. REPORTING MIL DEVELOPMENT: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES The media have always been a powerful watchdog in stimulating public debate about the need for public policies in various development areas such as climate change, gender equality, human trafficking, and freedom of expression etc. Ensuring the sustainable development of MIL for all has become a crucial national and global concern. However, reporting about MIL development in the media is minimal to non-existent. Recent sporadic instances are evident in light of the rise in disinformation. Media and information literacy (MIL) policy and strategy enhance the creation of knowledge- driven, inclusive, pluralistic, democratic, and open societies. MIL policy and strategy are crucial for the survival of modern governance and global citizenship in the digital world. Without a MIL policy and strategy, disparities are likely to increase between those who have and those who do not have access to information and media, and enjoy or not freedom of expression. Additional disparities will emerge between those who are able and unable to find, analyse and critically evaluate and apply information and media content for decision- making The media can help to advance public debate about the urgent need for national MIL policies in every country. The work of a journalist is based on handling primary information, checking it for accuracy. But in this age of information boom and lightning-fast development of technologies, this area is becoming more and more technological and requires new skills and abilities. An immutable rule: a skeptic journalist. He is obliged to question everything that he sees and hears. He is obliged to verify the information he disseminates. And since not only a professional journalist, but also a man on the street is becoming the creator of information flows, the foundations of media literacy become the necessary skill of absolutely everyone who comes into contact with information. There are basic rules for stopping the spread of inaccurate information: Identify the source (who began to distribute it; do I trust this source). Find alternative evidence or denials of information (at least three independent sources, if the fact is of doubtful nature) The source is the person from whom the original utterance or action originates. This may be a person who participated in the events (an eyewitness) or is intimately familiar with the original source. It is never redundant to check information from different sources, solicit comments from experts and competent people. It is necessary to clearly separate the fact from the comment, the text from the context. 27 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  Opinion of the opponent. If we are talking about opinions, the number of sources is not important, if they adhere to the same position, then the author risks being biased. It is necessary to present the opposite point of view, too. In this case, the number of sources of opinions does not work for the quality of the material. Positions must be balanced. Especially in a conflict situation, there are at least two sides — two poles. Therefore, it is necessary to map the stakeholders and find out their opinion on the issues covered by the parties. Accuracy of facts is more important than speed. Emotions are a very dangerous enemy of a journalist. In handling information, one should be guided not so much by one’s own emotions as by logic and a healthy share of skepticism. There is a constant danger of succumbing to the general mood, own sympathies and wishful thinking. Especially under the influence of permanent time pressure for any modern journalist. It is necessary to fight the desire to publish the first «hot» news, if there is a probability to spread false information. Care in using information from social networks. Social networks concurrently facilitated the work of journalists, since very quickly there is news from the witnesses of the events, and the social network often contains a large number of comments showing different opinions, but the information of social network users needs to be more thoroughly checked and verified by at least three independent sources. Use all kinds of verification tools. Social networks are another important source of information and an indicator of public sentiment, as well as the object of study for a journalist. Modern technologies have created the phenomenon of “a thousand eyes”: when an extraordinary event occurs, ordinary citizens — users of social networks, “civic journalists” are the first to report it. Of course, such information needs to be thoroughly checked for authenticity. At the same time, user-generated content is also used as an auxiliary tool for identifying fake information, factoids and copy-paste. When checking information received from the social network, you should first verify the authenticity of the account. This can be useful for further clarification of information, obtaining details as well as to establish the authenticity of the facts. We distinguish fact, factoid, and fake. One of the fundamental principles of the work of the editorial board of a quality publication has historically been and remains the presence of an editorial filter. Today, many people call this process the term “fact-checking” — that is, checking the accuracy of the disseminated information. 28 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. But modern fact-checking is not limited to this function, but represents a new form of organization of the material — the approach, format, method of presentation. As practice shows, the fact-checking does not boil down only to checking the published material, it forms the material itself. In journalistic practice, fact is an event, a phenomenon that is clearly established and indisputable, therefore a fact must not only be established, but verified, re-checked and fixed. In the format of fact-checking, it is important not only to prove or disprove the information, but also to show the sources, the algorithm of verification, to make a story out of it. Fact-checking is not limited to a set of established rules. It is based on such personal qualities of a journalist as responsibility, lively interest and non-indifference. Of course, a journalist should be well — versed in the properties of the media landscape and be well aware of how to use the services. The modern realities of digital media are such that truth becomes less important than the effect. Therefore, factoids appear — that is, the initially non-existent facts, which are published in the media, are distributed online, and receive evaluation and reaction. Find examples from local and international media. Insert the heading and media outlet, where the material was published. Miscommunication. The title, illustration or content is not related or inconsistent. Content imposter. Facts without a source, the source is impersonal False context. When a fact is inscribed in a false context and thereby distorts its essence Fabricated content. Fully crafted content designed to harm. Manipulative context. Original information is presented so as to provoke a reaction. Confusing content. Knowingly similar statement to cause confusion and questions. Satire and parody. There is no obvious goal to harm, but there is a desire to fool 29 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. 5.2. VERIFICATION FOR FACT CHECKING ABCs of Investigation Verification as important as it is for fact checking, it is not possible to verify each and every piece of information, argument, claim or story. That is why fact checkers have developed a technique to flag potential cases of information disorder before verification. Although flagging potential cases of information disorder plays a huge role in filtering contents for verification, being flagged alone is inadequate for content to qualify for verification process. Flagged content cannot automatically go into verification; in fact, even almost sure cases of information disorder do not qualify for verification since the later requires time, money and human resource to accomplish. There is need for further prioritization before verification to be done. To do that fact checkers and journalists need to consider two factors: ✓ Public information: As factchecking is an undertaking that demands time, money, and human resource, it should only focus on information disseminated to the public using electronic, print or online communications system/ mediums. ✓ Public-interest information: As factchecking is an undertaking that demands time, money, and human resource, it should only focus on information that is relevant (essential) to the public. But, how can we identify information that is relevant to public? ▪ Relevance can be discerned from: i. Feedback: the feedback given to the information, especially if it is on social media- reactions like shares, likes, comments and dialogues can inform as to the relevance of the content. ii. Issue: understanding what the content is about; what the central issue says and if the issue is controversial, provocative, or influential to the public. Once a piece of content is prioritized for verification since content comes in different shapes and sizes and formats there is a need to know where to start the content investigation process. 30 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  Investigation is first step to verification; fact checkers first investigate content systematically to identify individual elements that can be verified. Usually, for content presented in a written format, it is the evidence/fact that supports the claims that will be verified; however, not all content formats are written; content can be photo, audio, video, graphic, etc. Therefore, the source of content, the date, the location, the intention/motivation and authenticity of any content needs to be properly verified. So, where do we start? There needs to be a method/technique: Most follow the ABC method. The three focus areas of investigation: Actors, Behavior and Content; ABCs of investigation in short is a systematic way of approaching verification and fact checking, at large. ❖ Actors: means entities directly or indirectly involved in creating and Sharing of the information. These could, usually, be social media accounts, bots, websites and individuals. Social Media accounts, bots, websites could be sources or amplifiers of information ❖ Behaviors: means the way the information sources and disseminators are acting; are there irregular (inauthentic) behavior? Is there behavior that suggest some level of coordination like it would be in case of information campaigns. These could, usually, be in the form of unnatural behavior, coordinated campaign etc. ❖ Content: means any form of content that sources use to disseminate the content/information. These could, usually, be figures, pictures, videos, infographics etc. Actors: Social media accounts, Bots, Websites and Individuals ✓ Social media accounts: Investigating social media accounts involve investigation of photos, names and date accounts were created etc. ✓ Bots: Investigating bots involve Profile (photo, name, date of creation); bot like behavior (frequency of information shared) ✓ Websites: Investigating websites involves questions like is it a verified website, is it secure, does it have spelling and grammar errors, when was it created, who owns it, information showing address (phone, email, address). 31 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  ✓ Individuals: Investigating individuals involves the identity, phone, email, address, social media pages, job, education, and associations of people behind, whether they are sources themselves or they are quoted in the sorry. Behavior: concerns unnatural behavior, coordinated campaigns Content: Concerns the information disseminated in various formats: these could, usually, be figures, pictures, videos, infographics etc Pillars of Verification ❖ The most important part of fact checking work is verification; it is about examining and establishing the factual accuracy of any claim or argument or authenticity of photos or videos. ❖ In earlier lesson, we stated factual claims has strong reasons and supportive evidence and the act of examining that evidence and source of the evidence is verification. ❖ Where and how to start verification? It is about Five-Pillars of verification. ❖ The important chapter in factchecking is verification. Factcheckers need to ask the following five key questions when starting verification: ❖ What (Original creator and source of the information) (Provenance) ❖ Who (The immediate source of the information) ❖ When (Time Information created) (Date) ❖ Where (Place information was created) ❖ Why (Motivation of creator) In general, when we say verification, it means investigating the source, content or the behavior with regard to a piece of information, and cross-check the reliability and dependability of the sources, legitimacy, accuracy and veracity of the content and the authenticity of the behavior of actors involved with that piece of information. Verification is about checking and rechecking whether: An information is based on or have originated from a reliable, trustworthy and dependable Source; 32 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  The content is made up of accurate or factual claims, veracious evidence, legitimate/authentic photos and videos and; And, the actors involved with creation and distribution of the information don’t show inauthentic or inorganic or non-human activity on the media platforms. Investigating Accounts The Key to any verification and investigation work is the ability of the fact checking journalist to ask the right questions and spot things which are out of order. But there must be sufficient information to adequately answer the questions asked by fact checker and to speed up the process of data collection, the use of various network applications and software are required; This is where Verification Tools comes in handy. And Social Media verification Tools are one of such application which are useful in verification process. Social media Accounts include those created on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok etc.… Investigating Twitter Accounts Foller.me https://foller.me/ ✓ Insert Twitter handles in a box that begins with @ and click analyze: ✓ It is an application based on Twitter (social media platform) and is used to investigate twitter accounts ✓ Twitter account personal information (when the account was created, how many followers or friends are there; it answers all of these questions) ✓ It gives Twitter accounts activity analysis which would help verify if the account is genuine and controlled by the person whom the account claimed ✓ Messages tweeted and topics ✓ Shared Twitter messages, hashtag mentions ✓ Time of tweets 33 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  ✓ It is used to identify fraudulent twitter accounts ❖ Generally, foller.me analyzes the twitter account of interest from seven different perspectives: but, this also true for most social media verification tools: Accounts Information: The information section shows the publicly available information about a requested Twitter profile. It also shows you the users join date and time zone among other things. Account Statistics: These are the numbers. Followers, friends, lists and most importantly the followers to following ratio - something you should definitely watch out for as it is indication of fake accounts. Fake accounts created for purpose of spreading information disorder would have more following than followers so small ratio followers to following ratio. Topics engaged: This section is divided into three sub-sections - topics, hashtags and mentions. Each one is based on the user's latest tweets. Hover your mouse over the items to see their usage. This could become handy especially if you investigating the involvement of the account in an information campaign. Tweets: This will take you through the user's latest tweets and their contents in an easy to understand and short table. Tweets, retweets, tags, replies, mentions, links, media and more. A great way to spot spammers and automated accounts. Attitude: This section scan for smiley faces through the latest user's tweets and count the happy ones versus the sad ones. Not at all times valuable, but can easily spot emotions. Activity Time: This section will show you what time the user's most active. Not only valuable info about the best time to reach the user but can also spot spammers and automated accounts. ❖ Applications with similar purposes: Twitonomy: https://www.twitonomy.com/; Followerwonk: https://followerwonk.com/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com Facebook Advanced Search: https://www.facebook.com/search Investigating bots 34 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  ❖ Bot and automated accounts can sometimes be easily detected without having to resort to the use of specialized tools; Fact checkers/journalists can use the follow easy to follow checklist to identify automated accounts: ✓ Look at the profile. Did the user just join recently? Do their photo, handle, and screen name match, (for example, a woman's picture and a man's name?) Also, more anonymous users are more likely to be bots. ✓ Look at the name carefully, for slightly varying forms are usually used to mislead or impersonate another account or person. Type the user’s name as it should appear into Twitter or Google and see if the post you're looking for is still there. ✓ Reverse-image search the photo. Lots of fake profiles steal photos from real people, which means that when we share their posts, we're not just sharing misinformation, but we might be hurting that real person too. Be suspicious of your search turns up lots of different names. ✓ Does the account follow thousands of users, or have thousands of shares, but only has handful of followers or friends? ✓ If so, that is a definite sign of a bot Botometer botometer.iuni.iu.edu ❖ Insert the Twitter handle in a search bar that begins with @ and click either check user, check follower, or check friends ❖ It is an application that measures tweet activities (frequency of released information) and measures if it is a bot ❖ If the Botometer reaches the red section, it means the account is more likely to be a bot ❖ If the Botometer indicates on blue, it means the chance of the account being a bot is small ❖ Deciding whether it is a bot or not based on the frequency of the release of information (tweets) is not always dependable; because there could be social media users whose release of information might resemble a bot 35 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  ❖ Generally, Botometer analyzes the twitter account of interest on a scale 0 to5: those close to 5 more bot like and those to zero not. ❖ Botometer is a machine learning algorithm trained to calculate a score where low scores indicate likely human accounts and high scores indicate likely bot accounts. To calculate the score, Botometer compares an account to tens of thousands of labeled examples. When you check an account, your browser fetches its public profile and hundreds of its public tweets and mentions using the Twitter API. ❖ This data is passed to the Botometer API, which extracts over a thousand features to characterize the account's profile, friends, social network structure, temporal activity patterns, language, and sentiment. ❖ There are different types of Twitter bots. Like the overall bot score, each bot type score describes how much the account acts like a specific kind of account. We currently have six types: 1. Echo-chamber: accounts that engage in follow back groups and share and delete political content in high volume 2. Fake follower: bots purchased to increase follower counts 3. Financial: bots that post using cashtags 4. Self-declared: bots from botwiki.org 5. Spammer: accounts labeled as spambots from several datasets 6. Other: miscellaneous other bots obtained from manual annotation, user feedback, etc ❖ Applications with the same purpose Truthnest፡ https://app.truthnest.com/ 5.3. MIL IN PRACTICE The flow of information that surrounds us and the people, who create and distribute content the reliability of which is dubious, requires treating the stated material with doubt. Especially information from Internet sources and social networks needs to be rechecked through other sources. Here is an approximate checklist for verifying the source of information and content. 36 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. These steps were developed by the International Fact-Checking Network. 1. Check source It is necessary to ascertain from which resource the information was streamed and it is not important that you check the title, photo or link. 2. Recheck this information against other sources. If this is reliable information, it will often be published on other resources as well. Also beware of fake sites that have similar or similar names of known resources 3. It is necessary to check the name of the author, if this is a practicing author; he should have a publication history. Also usually there are links to his previous publications... 37 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. 4. If you have any doubts about the authenticity of the photo or video, upload it to the search engine. You can also check out the video through the Youtube Data Viewer. 5. You also need to carefully check the statistics. Statistics is a delicate matter and does not tolerate amusement or emotionality. True statistics always has a logical sequence, temporal, quantitative and qualitative data. An incomplete picture may hide important information. 6. Make sure that there are experts ready to help you. There are many websites for fact-checking. Information not widely publicized may remain out of their sight. And you can do your bit in the fight against misinformation 7. You can ask specifying the author, source or title information and check for accuracy 38 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. 8. Is just one misinformation or disinformation of so many worth so much effort? The answer is yes. Misinformation passed by you comes to your relatives and friends, and then it is multiplied at times reaching millions of people. Disinformation is aimed at causing harm, damage to individuals or society. Your one click can change this chain reaction. 5.4. USING CHECKLIST IN MIL PRACTICE What is a checklist? A checklist is an algorithm of actions or a simple and clear tool for self-verification. The checklist contains a list of control criteria, questions or tasks that help not to miss important points of work, save time, avoid mistakes, structure information. It can be an important element in the work of a journalist with information sources. The checklists of this manual may be useful during the pre-production, production and post-production stages of media production. CHECKLIST # 1: HOW TO PROMOTE MIL Experts identify the following core competencies of MIL for journalists. In turn, media trainers should take these requirements into account in the learning process and develop and be able to 39 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. apply methods for their formation. Dear reader, think and determine in what way these competencies can be effectively imparted to journalists during their work on themselves. In filling in the table, you need to focus on your own experience and knowledge. Work on yourself is the main principle in the “how to promote MIL” process. CHECKLIST # 2: HOW TO INTEGRATE MIL IN JOURNALIST’s REPORTS 40 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. In the table below, find the most similar and different principles among the main principles of journalism and MIL principles 5.5. CHECKLIST # 3: WORKING ON SOURCES ✓ Is there a background to your topic ✓ Are there any statistics on the topic? ✓ Were subject polls conducted ✓ Which experts can confirm / voice the facts? ✓ How many local experts need to be interviewed ✓ How many international experts can be found by topic ✓ Is there additional / visual confirmation ✓ Are there any sociological studies on the topic that confirm / refute the data ✓ Which media outlets have additionally covered this topic? ✓ How / from what angle has the subject been further / additionally covered 41 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  ✓ Are there any documentary sources ✓ How many / which of the obtained facts serve as supporting material ✓ Are there any facts that can be included in the headline? ✓ Are there any details that can be used to visually accompany the material? ✓ Are there any information that can be used to prepare info graphics? 5.6. CHECKLIST # 4: HOW TO WRITE TEXT-BASED JOURNALISTIC MATERIAL Work on the main idea of the article (45 min) Formulate the main idea Answer the question: what is the main idea of my article? The wording should be short and concise. 1–2 sentences. In order not to get stuck it is useful to set a timer for 10–15 minutes. Give a pilot name The title should reflect the essence of the article, but should not slowdown in writing so you do not need to polish it for a long time because then you can come back to this. It is helpful to set a timer for 20–30 minutes so that the process does not drag on. Creating the structure of the article (30 min) Formulate 5–7 subtitles Write subtopics of the article in the brainstorming mode. You can fix them in the form of an intellectual map. The more subtitles that are formulated the better. In order not to get stuck on this, put the timer for 15–20 minutes. Select 3–4 key subtitles Re-read the main topic and based on it select 3–4 sub-topics that are most important for reflecting the main idea. Timing action plan with precise timing (~ 60 min) Allocate time for each subtopic. Record in front of each subtopic how much time it takes in minutes to write it. Consider the search for illustrations and the creation of schemes. Creating the structure of the article (30 min) 42 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N. Allocate time for “Results” The time for summing up should not be longer than the time allocated for create subtopic. In the results you need to briefly touch upon only the basic thoughts voiced in the article. The results should be in the style: “Earlier in the series...” Allocate time for proofreading Time to correct mistakes and formulate more correct names. Specify dates Check if the received plan fits in due time for the release of the article, if not then decide which constituents of the article can be discarded. Create (print) work plan Based on the required time and deadlines, create a file (text or electronic tables) where each stage of work will be tied to a specific date. Allocate a place to mark the time actually spent. Print the plan and hang in a visible place CHECKLIST # 5: HANDLING OPEN DATA Verify the source of data. If there is no reference to the source, such data cannot be taken for granted, they need to be rechecked. Such a database is rated very low. What is the format of the data?.xls,.csv — good database,.docx,.pdf is not a database. We process data in OpenRefine or Excel. Ensure that each variable is in a separate column. Ensure that the description of the variable is in a separate line. ensure that there is a separate table for variable groups 43 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.  44 2024 Media and Information Literacy Compiled by: Fikru N.