Critical thinking and the media
I always find it disturbing the number of students who either don't know how to recognize acceptable sources of information and/or receive their information from merely one source. To my first point, in eight years of teaching I have always had at least one student reference Wikipedia as a source. Secondly, with ten media conglomerates controlling all forms of media worldwide, I like to remind students that we need to be critical of the information being broadcast to us be it print or televised media. I tell them to pay particular attention to the motivation behind the "stories" that are shared with viewers.
Robert,
I think showing students examples like this is very important. Side by side analysis of articles is extremely helpful to students as they develop their own approach to problem solving. Knowing how to acquire and analyze information helps students to reduce the volume of material being considered while increasing the skills of being able to select the needed information.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Instructors should spend time comparing different reviews of news articles and the take each agency has. In a number instances news agencies will not cover certain stories that regardless of their importance. these agencies or articles that come from online sources can not always be credible. I ask students to use multiple references, before coming to a conclusion. I also, ask them why do certain search engines place poor reviews or critical remarks against certain people? This occurs, because these search engines are paid by those individuals or organizations to hide poor reviews. It is the responsibility of each student once they are guided, to go the extra steps to find the truth through deep research.
This is a very good point and one that I find increasing in occurance. I think students now are not dedicating their time to do proper research on multiple references before formulating their own opinions.
Connie,
This is an important service you are providing your students as they need to learn how to use other resources beyond just the internet. They need to see the value of comprehensive informational research.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Many students don't feel that they have the time to consider other sources of information other than the internet or television. I try to have them read newspapers or news magazines to delve deeper into an issue and perhaps see other alternative points of view.
Christina,
This is a message I would like to get out to the general population as well. Think, explore,think some more and then explore some more. Be sure of your sources. You are right about us having so much information available to us today but since we want so much information the media sources are generating volume in many cases rather than accuracy.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
