MEDIA-AND-INFORMATION-LITERACY-REVIEWER.docx

**COMMUNICATON** - the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to someone else - the exchange of information and the expression of feeling that can result in understanding **T...

**COMMUNICATON** - the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to someone else - the exchange of information and the expression of feeling that can result in understanding **TRANSMISSION MODELS** **Lasswell's Communication Model (1948)** **Shannon-Weaver's Communication Model (1948)** **Westley and MacLean's Model of Communication (1957)**  **Gerbner's Model of Communication (1956)** **PUBLICITY MODEL** - communication as display and attention - audience as "spectators" rather than participants or information receivers **RECEPTION MODEL** - "Encoding/ Decoding\" model of communication by Stuart Hall (1993) - Messages are open to various interpretations. **RECEPTION MODEL\ Osgood- Schramm Model of Communication (1954)**  **Berlo's SMCR Model of Communication (1960)** **How is communication affected by media and information?** **MEDIA** - Communication Tools **INFORMATION** - data, knowledge derived from study, experience, or instruction, signals or symbols - knowledge of specific events or situations **MEDIA LITERACY** - The ability to read, analyze, evaluate and produce communication in a variety of media forms. **INFORMATION LITERACY** - The ability to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, effectively use and communicate information in its various formats. **TECHNOLOGY (DIGITAL) LITERACY** - The ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use, and create information. **MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY (MIL)**  **MEDIA AND INFORMATION** According to United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), media and information literacy recognizes the primary role of information and media in people's everyday lives. UNESCO defined MEDIA as to sources of credible and current information created through an editorial process determined by journalistic values, whereby editorial accountability can be attributed to a specific organization or a legal person. Media are vehicles that carry messages from one person to another or from one person to a group of large people. They serve as channels which people use to send or/receive information. On the other hand INFORMATION is a broad term that is derived from study, experiences, and or instructions. It can refer to any facts or details about subject that depict meanings to a person. (A broad term that can cover data, knowledge derived from study, experience, or instruction, signals or symbols. In the media world, information is often used to describe knowledge of specific events or situations that has been gathered or received by communication, intelligence or news. (UNESCO MIL Curriculum for Teachers). Media and Information Literacy \- According to William James Potter (2004), a Canadian communication educator, defines media literacy as a set of perspectives that people use actively to expose themselves to mass media and interpret the meaning of the messages they encounter. Perspectives in Potter's definition relate to people's positions. \- According to New Mexico-based Media Literacy Project (MLP) defines media literacy as "the ability to access, analyzes, evaluate, and create media." From, this two definition, it is concluded that media literacy is to build active, rather than passive, consumers of media. However, Media Literacy defined by UNESCO as understanding and using mass media in either an assertive or non-assertive way, including an informed and critical understanding of media, what techniques they employ and their effects. Also, the ability to read, analyze, evaluate and produce communication in a variety of media forms, e.g. television, print, radio, computers etc. Another understanding of the term is the ability to decode, analyze, evaluate and produce communication in a variety of forms. While Information Literacy is a set of abilities which require individuals to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, and use it effectively (The Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000). UNESCO refers Information Literacy to the abilities to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, effectively use, and communicate information in its various formats. From these bases, media and information literacy therefore is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create information from media and other information sources. UNESCO refers Media and Information Literacy also as to the essential competencies and skills that allow citizens to engage with media and other information providers effectively and develop critical thinking and life-long learning skills to socialize and become active citizens. **Similarities and differences between Media and Information Literacy and Technology Literacy:** It must be considered that studying Media and Information Literacy (MIL), technology literacy is another important concept and part of Media and Information Literacy. **Definition of Technology Literacy:** The Colorado Department of Education (2009) defines technology literacy as the ability to responsibly use appropriate technology to communicate, solve problems, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, design, and create information to improve learning in all subject areas and acquire lifelong knowledge and skills in the 21st century. According to University of Illinois technology literacy is the ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information. It also refers to the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers and to a person's ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment. Digital literacy includes the ability to read and interpret media, to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments. *[Thus, if media and information literacy is concerned with the use of the message, technology literacy focuses on the responsible and effective use of technology, tools, or networks in accessing, analyzing, evaluating, and creating message.]* **Media and Information Literacy: Every person's need** 1. 1st People Power Revolution in 1986: during the martial law under Pres. Marcos, the late Jaime Cardinal Sin urges Filipino people to support the military rebels against the dictatorship, he then used the power of radio to call upon thousands of Filipino to go to EDSA, prayed, rallied, marched and sang for days, which eventually had Marcos oust from presidency. 2. 2nd People Power Revolution (EDSA Dos) in 2001: Filipinos used their cellphones to text messages and convince their friends to participate in revolution; it was just one day 70million texts were recorded. 3. In 2014, mobile telecommunications networks, through widespread text messaging, advised the public against falling victim to text scams on supposed "discount," "prizes," and other fraudulent claims that aimed to deceive the consumers into sharing cellphone loads and private information. The above examples exemplify how media can be used to transmit various kinds of information. One primary purpose of MIL is to promote freedom of access to information that is essential to both democracy and governance. According to UNESCO: *[Citizens have the right to free speech and the right of access to public information. This information is equally the property of citizens. Media and other information providers such as libraries, archives and the Internet should help to ensure the right to freedom of information for each citizen.]* However, not all information is true and reliable. MIL promotes critical thinking to empower citizens to process and raise questions about the information they receive, the manner it was disseminated, and the purpose for which it was shared. In general, it is concerned with giving people understanding of the importance of media and other information providers in order to: 1\. Come up with informed decisions through careful evaluation and analysis of media messages and information. 2\. Learn about the "real world" around them, including the context or setting of messages and information, being able to segregate the truth from lies. 3\. Build a sense of community through which people become active participants in producing and sharing useful media messages and information *[Overall, learning MIL will help every person become a critical thinker, a producer of information, and an innovator of media and information]* **LESSON 2: THE EVOLUTION OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA TO NEW MEDIA** **Pre-Industrial Age (Before 1700s)** - People discovered fire, developed paper from plants, and forged weapons and tools with stone, bronze, copper and iron. Examples: Cave paintings (35,000 BC) Clay tablets in Mesopotamia (2400 BC) Papyrus in Egypt (2500 BC) Acta Diurna in Rome (130 BC) Dibao in China (2nd Century) Codex in the Mayan region (5th Century) Printing press using wood blocks (220 AD) **Industrial Age (1700s-1930s**) - People used the power of steam, developed machine tools, established iron production, and the manufacturing of various products (including books through the printing press). Examples: Printing press for mass production (19th century) Newspaper- The London Gazette (1640) Typewriter (1800) Telephone (1876) Motion picture photography/projection (1890) Commercial motion pictures (1913) Motion picture with sound (1926) Telegraph Punch cards **Electronic Age (1930s-1980s)** - The invention of the transistor ushered in the electronic age. People harnessed the power of transistors that led to the transistor radio, electronic circuits, and the early computers. In this age, long distance communication became more efficient. Examples: Transistor Radio Television (1941) Large electronic computers- i.e. EDSAC (1949) and UNIVAC 1 (1951) Mainframe computers - i.e. IBM 704 (1960) Personal computers - i.e. Hewlett-Packard 9100A (1968), Apple 1 (1976) OHP, LCD projectors **Information Age (1900s-2000s)** - The Internet paved the way for faster communication and the creation of the social network. People advanced the use of microelectronics with the invention of personal computers, mobile devices, and wearable technology. Moreover, voice, image, sound and data are digitalized. We are now living in the information age. Examples: Web browsers: Mosaic (1993), Internet Explorer (1995) Blogs: Blogspot (1999), LiveJournal (1999), Wordpress (2003) Social networks: Friendster (2002), Multiply (2003), Facebook (2004) Microblogs: Twitter (2006), Tumblr (2007) Video: YouTube (2005) Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality Video chat: Skype (2003), Google Hangouts (2013) Search Engines: Google (1996), Yahoo (1995) Portable computers- laptops (1980) netbooks (2008), tablets (1993) Smart phones Wearable technology Cloud and Big Data **EVOLUTION OF MEDIA** Where did these types of media originate? How did the people in the past communicate without media? How did media evolve? Marshall McLuhan (1969), a renowned Canadian communication theorist from University of Toronto, provides a clear story on how media evolved through technological determinism. Technological determinism -- is a theory that believes technology is a steering factor in how a society develops its structure and values. It tends to posit that technology is a single cause resulting in a multitude of complex political, economic, and social changes. McLuhan contends that media are critical forces or compelling influences that shape how an individual think, feel, and act and how societies organize themselves and operate. In other words, media greatly affect other things, thereby resulting too many changes in the lives of its users - the audience. McLuhan explained how this setup works by subdividing the history into four epochs or ages. 1. **Tribal Age** -- first period that is characterized by the prevalence of oral communication, its structure of society being described as "dominant auditory sense of life." Tribal age is described also as "Oral society dependent on speech and word-of-mouth", who lives in a world of "acoustic space." The first of these innovations is the development of the phonetic alphabet, which paved the way to what McLuhan termed as the age of literacy. 2. **Age of Literacy** -- the introduction of phonetics as a bombshell, "installing sight at the head of the hierarchy of senses." Human beings learned to read and write, which amplified the use of the sense of sight, lessening the role of the other sense of the human body. This development allowed the people to communicate and share information privately. From auditory sense, the tribal people learned to write and express themselves through hieroglyphs, such as in the early writing forms of the Egyptian, Babylonian, Mayan and Chinese cultures, later through the alphabets. By this age writing also formed a linear way of communication, example letters form words, and words form sentences. This cultivated linear thinking contributed to the development of disciplines such as mathematics. The dominance of sight over the sensory balance of the tribal man characterizes this age. 3. **Print Age** -- the third period as McLuhan detailed was highlighted by the invention of the Gutenberg press or movable type in 15th century. Books and papers were reproduced manually, making these forms of media restricted to the ruling class or the elite members of the society. But when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, books were reproduced by thousands. Knowledge was no longer restricted to the privileged rich and ruling class. This period was characterized by the further dominance of visual space and logical thinking. Sharing ideas became faster and acquiring information became easier. The same age laid the groundwork for the industrial age, a point in history from the 18th to the 19th centuries, marked by the transition in manufacturing processes. The mechanization became the blueprint of the forthcoming development during the industrial age. 4. **Electronic Age** -- last period in McLuhan's theory is the electronic age, a period characterized by the dominance of the electric media, such as telegraph, radio, film, telephone, computer and television. For McLuhan, the invention of the telegraph in 1830's started an electronic age revolution that diminished the role of the print media. McLuhan further describe the electronic age as a forced that turned the planet into a global village, where are all globally connected, even at a distance. With this, the movement of information further expanded and enabled a person to be at one with humankind. Television brought global news to everyone's knowledge. **The Stages of Communicative Change** In history there have been three major phases of change in communication and this change affected the three dimensions mentioned above: energy, time and space. The first phase, which took place over the course of centuries and dovetailed with the expansion of the ancient empires, was grounded upon certain transportation techniques, namely animals and the wheel, but it culminated in the discovery of new intellectual technologies: writing and arithmetic. This gave rise to major invasions and migrations from the lands of ancient China to Rome. It opened up major routes that plied the lands from East to West. Along the way, the communicative energy improved, communication time was stepped up and space was somehow reduced. However, from today's perspective, the movements appear very tentative. The second phase, starting around 1400, particularly dovetailed with the expansion in maritime transport, namely the discovery of new navigation and cartography instruments and techniques, and with the development of the book and the consequent spread of printing in Europe, which in turn fostered an expansion in the tales that intellectually promoted the adventure of "discoveries" and "new worlds". These transformations proliferated; the cultural climate generated vast successive critical movements in the West, including the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment. The world began to resemble what it is today. But the vast compression of energy, time and space of our age had not yet taken place The third phase became explosive and it has been taking place since World War II until today. It dovetails with the information explosion and the communications revolution --- electricity, digitalization, information technology and telecommunications. New languages and codes are emerging, as are new instruments for processing and spreading information, and a considerable step has been made toward mobility and flexibility in transport and the circulation of goods, people and information. This process, which we can encapsulate with the name digital revolution, has radically transformed the way humanity establishes relationships among its members: from now on, these relationships will be universal. A key factor in this is the exploitation of fossil fuels and nuclear energy in both automotives and aviation and the digitalization of information and its application to all walks of life. **New Media or Information Age** Tribal age, age of literacy, print age and electronic age all revolved around traditional media. But the recent decades blossomed with the invention of computers and the internet, paving the beginning of a new era of media -- the new media or information age. New media as defined by Cambridge dictionary as the products and services that provides information or entertainment using computers or the internet. Dr. W. James Potter (2008) enumerated three key innovations that led to the development of this new mass medium: affordable personal computer, the digitization of information and the internet. All other traditional media, Potter explains, were channels to deliver uniform, intact messages from senders. New media changed this landscape. It marked a major turnaround in communication, transforming the end users of media from being mere "receivers" of messages into "senders" who are also able to create content themselves **Philippine scenario on Media evolution:** Major media evolution in the Philippines existed in the pre-colonial period when the Spaniards introduced the natives to the effects of the print age, but the use of media started in the country during the pre-colonial times. **Pre-Colonial Period:** \- Umalohokan or town crier served as a walking bulletin that went around the barangay to deliver public announcements. \- Different forms of literature were also developed during the pre-colonial years (e.g. sabi (maxim), bugtong (riddle), kumintang (war song), tutul (folk tale), darangan (epic poetry). \- Decrees and other forms of literature were immortalized through scripts on leaves and barks of trees, written in ancient Filipino systems of writing (such as baybayin and kavi) **Spanish Period:** \- Spaniards introduced the print media to Filipinos using paper and ink. \- In 1593, Doctrina Christiana, first ever book published in the country. \- First Spanish information sheet called Aviso al public appeared in the country on 1809. \- Del Superior Gobierno was the first regular newspaper in the country, introduced on 1811 by Spanish government. \- La Esperanza (1846) was the first newspaper distributed daily in the country. (All these papers catered to the Spanish elite, focusing on news from Spain.) \- During this period, strict government censorship was applied to newspapers. \- Upon the rise of Filipino ilustrados, nationalistic newspapers came into existence. (E.g. La Solaridad (1889), Kalayaan (1898), La Independencia (1898), etc.) \- Cinema came to the Philippines in 1897, just as the spotlight was dimming for zarzuela and vaudeville; a Spaniard named Pertierra introduced the motion picture to Filipinos in Manila on January 1, 1897. By August 1897, the Spanish soldier Antonio Ramos opened up a movie house in Manila for the general public to enjoy. It was also Ramos filmed local scenes in Manila, making him the first motion picture producer in the country. **American Period :( 1898 -- 1946)** \- Newspapers published by American journalists were introduced. (E.g. The Manila Times (1898), The Bounding Billow and Official Gazette (1898), Manila Daily Bulletin (1900) and Philippine Free Press (1908). Similar to Spanish period, most of the editorial content of these newspapers were pro-American and were based on religious and political partisanship. \- The Philippine Herald was among the nationalist newspapers emerged during these times. \- El Nuevo Dia (The New Day) founded by Sergio Osmeña in Cebu (1900). \- El Renacimiento (1908) and Sakdal (1930) \- During these times American regime when the broadcast radio was introduced. (It was KZKZ (1922) the first radio station was established by American ex-soldier Henry Herman Sr. \- The first feature films with and without sound also emerged during this period such as the Rose of the Philippines (1909), Ang Aswang (1932) and Punyal na Guinto (1933). \- From 1930's to 1950's, the golden age of Philippine cinema began. It was these period also when the films such as Zamboanga (1937) and Genghis Khan (1950) were recognized internationally. \- Another mass medium that was used in the country was the Komiks. Antonio Velasquez "Father of Filipino Komiks" first illustrated with Romualdo Ramos a cartoon character named Kenkoy, published in January 11, 1929 issue in Liwayway. Komiks continued to flourish in succeeding decades until its decline in the early 2000s. **Japanese Period :( 1941-1945)** \- Japanese disbanded all publications during their occupations except those used by the Japanese government such as the Manila Tribune, Taliba and La Vanguardia. A board of information was setup serving as primary regulatory body for regular censorship. However, underground papers still made their rounds in the country. The period that followed, the Postwar Era (1945 -- 1972) became the golden age of Philippine journalism, for the Philippine press was considered the "freest in Asia". In 1953, television was introduced in the country. **Martial Law Period: (1969-1986)** \- During these times privately owned institutions were taken over by the government. Few newspapers that operated during those years were Daily Express, Bulletin Today and the Times Journal. -- Media was fully censored and many editors and journalist were arrested. Broadcast stations like ABS-CBN 2, RPN 9, and IBC 13 were also sequestered by the government but also these times amid the repressive political environment, the film industry flourished, with notable filmmakers producing what may be considered as the best Philippine cinema. **Post-Martial Law Period:** \- People Power Revolution of 1986 proved beneficial to the media industry as censorship was lifted and the freedom of expression, of speech and of press were reinstituted. Democracy was reestablished and media institutions were once again thriving. Internet was first made available in the Philippines on March 29, 1994 through connection made by Benjie Tan at a PLDT network center in Makati City. \- Today, there are 44.2 million active internet users in the country, representing 44% of the total population estimated at 101 million. Interestingly, there are 114.6 million mobile subscriptions in the country as of 2015, which is more than the total Filipino population. This only means that many Filipinos own more than one mobile phone, reflecting their need to have greater access to information. \- Consequently, many government agencies and private entities are now using the power of mobile technologies and the internet in communicating and transacting with their clients. Scheduling of passport applications are done online; ecommerce and online shopping have become a trend; and even complaints and customer feedback are taken through text messaging, social media monitoring (on Facebook and Twitter) and e-mail. The Philippine media have evolved through many difficulties brought by colonization, wars and political struggles. Although Filipinos lag behind other Asian countries in terms of infrastructure and technologies, this did not limit their capacity to acquire and utilize various forms of media. In terms of governance, especially in a democratic society, communication and media play important roles in ensuring that people are able to voice out redresses and grievances, and provide citizens the information they need. Repression during the Spanish, American, Japanese and Martial Law periods paved the way for alternative media, which catered to the people's desire for unbiased and free information. **LESSON 3: INFORMATION LITERACY** What is information? If you try search the word "information" by using the search engine Google, in a matter of seconds millions of different and many results will come up on the article about the word "information" in such that how you can read each of this article related to the word "information. Do you think you will be able to finish reading all these results in one setting? Or do you need to read all the information these results provide? If you want to look for the definition of the word "information" only few results will be relevant and the rest results are just only connected to various websites about objects and institutions containing the word "information." Being able to determine which of the information one has to consume is one skill necessary amid the expansion of available information in the society -- information literacy. The invention of the computer and the creation of the internet opened the door for an interconnected society where massive information is being sent received by people every second. The technological breakthrough is the past decade -- smartphones, tablets, Wi-Fi connections, others -- impeccably brought mass communication to the world of cyberspace. Still, this unparalleled advancement also brings a number of conflicts to the users; the following are the conflicts that users may encounter: unrelated and irrelevant information are displayed often time's information is not essential to what you are researching or trying to look for. This because search engines are programmed on displaying often clicked or visited results that contain the keyword(s) that you have typed. Some of these results may not be relevant to the information that you are looking for, but they are related through keywords. The problem with information age is the proliferation or excess of wrong information (Hollis, 2011). Each day, there are different information being produced in all parts of the world. Whether in schools, in workplaces, or in your own personal home, you come across different information that are available through libraries, the media, community resources, organizations, and other information sources. **Difference of INFORMATION, DATA and KNOWLEDGE.** **Information** defined as knowledge that a person gets about someone or something (According to MerriamWebster's Dictionary). As mentioned in Lesson 1, it is a broad term derived from study, experiences, or instruction. **Data** refer to unstructured facts and figures that create the least impact on the receiver (Thierauf, 1999). **Knowledge** on the other hand refers to the human understanding of a subject matter derived from experienced, learning, and thinking. People often confuse information with data and knowledge and use the term interchangeably. Data become information when they are contextualized, categorized, calculated, and condensed (Davenport and Prusak, 2000). Information therefore is data organized with relevance and purpose, made meaningful by person. Words, news, and numbers are data that become information when people associate something to it that makes it useful to them. **Knowledge Societies as a Source of Development** Knowledge societies are about capabilities to identify, produce, process, transform, disseminate, and use information to build and apply knowledge for human development. They require an empowering social vision that encompasses plurality, inclusion, solidarity, and participation. A s emphasized by UNESCO during the first phase of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the concept of Knowledge Societies is more all-embracing and more conducive to empowerment than the concept of technology and connectivity, which often dominates debates on the information society. Issues of technology and connectivity emphasize infrastructures and governance of the network planet. They are clearly crucial, but should not be viewed as end in themselves. In other words, the global information society is meaningful, only if it favors the development of knowledge societies and sets itself the goal of "tending towards human development based on human rights". This objective is all the more vital since the Third Industrial Revolution -- the revolution of the new technologies- and the new phase of globalization that accompanies it have swept away many familiar landmarks and accentuated the divisions between rich and poor, and between industrialized and developing countries, as well as within national communities. For UNESCO, the construction of knowledge societies "opens the way to humanization of the process of globalization". **Information Literacy** Many scholars defined information literacy differently. One is from The Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000 defines information literacy is a set of abilities that enables and individual to recognize when information is needed; and locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. While, the Alexandria Declaration adopted by the High Level Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning in November 2005 defines information literacy as means to "empower people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goal" (Horton, 2007). While media literacy focuses on the understanding, usage, and production of messages received from different media, information literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, and use information effectively. In SUNY Council of Library Directors, Information Literacy Initiative Committee, Final Report, September 30, 1997 defined information literacy constitutes the abilities to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, effectively use, and communicate information in its various formats. As said by William Pollard, an American physicist, information is a source of learning and is considered a benefit; but when unorganized, unprocessed, and unavailable to people who will use it, information become a burden. **Information Literacy, just like media literacy, is all about critical thinking.** From the results of the online search exercise 5.0 you did, you should be able to recognize the information you need and carefully select the useful information. Here are the five key questions (Center for Media Literacy, 1995) when engaging with images and information messages around us. Who created this message? What creative techniques were used to attract my attention? How might different people appreciate and understand these messages? What lifestyles, value systems, perspectives, and points-of-view are represented in this message? Conversely, what is omitted? Why is this message being sent? These questions are the building blocks for the analyses of media and information texts. You need to develop the skill of unpacking media and information texts, guide questions such as the five above lead you to an inquirybased experience, where the mere asking of the right questions generate an "Aha!" moment. From there, learning ensues or developed. **Who puts Information on the Internet?** There are many kinds of Internet sites that you might find during the course of a search -- sites created by different people or organizations with different objectives. The three-letter codes preceded by a dot (.), simply known as the domain, give you fairly good idea of who is publishing the Internet site. **Ethical Use of Information** In the current state of flooding information, one should consider the following familiar concepts that will practice in ethical use of information in order to avoid misunderstanding or worse, legal sanctions. **Privacy** is defined by the Merriam-Webster's dictionary as the state of being alone or being away from public attention. In this age where information is easily accessible through the internet, the concept of privacy is often questioned. Even information tagged as private in a digital medium, such as email, a social networking personal message or even a file saved in a hard disk can be still be accessed by a technology expert who has the ability to get through digital securities, this is why different life-ruining scandals happen, such as sex videos and wiretapped phone conversations. **Accuracy** relates to the correctness and truthfulness of the information source to the details of the information. Dates, places, persons involved and other details are essential data in testing the accuracy of an information source. **Plagiarism** is a usual problem on the internet these days. Since people have wide access to huge number of information online, it is easy for them to download or copypaste materials on the web. Often, others do not properly cite or mention their sources. According to the MerriamWebster's Dictionary, to plagiarize is to "use the words or ideas of another person as if they were your own words or ideas." It can be regarded as an act of fraud that involves stealing someone else's work.