way2go! 7. Coursebook, Schulbuch

137 Make notes on the questions below. Compare your answers with a partner, then share them in small groups. 1 What media do you use to learn about recent events taking place in the world? 2 How do you know you can believe what these media are telling you? 3 Have you ever read or seen any news that you later discovered to be wrong? Give examples. Expand your vocabulary: The media Write down as many expressions connected with media as you can in 5 minutes (e.g. journalism, journalist, publish, … ). Who in class can find the most? Share the expressions you’ve found in class. Collect all expressions in a way that helps you to study them, such as a word map, a word cloud or a table. Read the extract from a brochure on media literacy. Which of the activities it describes do you already do? What more could you do? SPEAKING 3 World news and you LANGUAGE 4 a b READING 5 M pp. 52+54 Uncountable nouns The news is … Some information is … Being smart about media In today’s online world of uncountable media outlets providing nearly limitless information, knowing how to deal with the flood of news is more important than ever. Media literacy refers to a combination of critical thinking skills and knowledge of media that allows you to have an undistorted view of the world. By reading and watching news from a variety of sources and thinking about them critically, you can spot fake news , misleading articles or sensationalist reporting in any media. It’s also important to know about personal beliefs that might affect you, the journalists or other people reporting on an event. In general, a bias is an unfair support of a person or idea caused by personal opinions influencing your judgement. You can be knowingly biased , such as when you’re a fan of a sports team, but also without realising it. An example of the latter is confirmation bias : a tendency humans have to look for and believe in information that supports their already existing beliefs or expectations. How can you deal with these problems in understanding the world? Here are some suggestions: – Start out by asking: Is this true? It’s the first step towards becoming a critical reader . – Check the source of information : How trustworthy is it? Why is it putting out this information? – Producing news costs money: If you’re not paying for them, you should know who does and why. – Reading and watching news stories from a variety of sources helps you to verify their truthfulness . – Evaluate what you’ve read, question the objectivity of the reporting. Take both your own as well as your sources’ biases into account. Expand your vocabulary: Media literacy Study the green expressions in the text above. Copy them into your notebook with an explanation in your own words. Read your explanations to a partner and let him/her guess the correct expression. Listen to four news reports on the same event. How are they different? Which ones would you consider biased, which ones neutral? Why? LANGUAGE 6 a M p. 54 b LISTENING 7 23 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv