Metaliteracy
Reading Deeper
This section includes guided readings that incorporate the media formats explored in Information Literacy, and require the critical reading skills that it introduced. Each reading path focuses on an event, topic, or controversy that has frequently been featured across the online media landscape, in articles, images, data, and social media. A variety of opinions and political perspectives are explored, and you may not agree with some—or any—of them. The goal is to read each item, no matter how much you may agree or disagree with it, critically and skeptically. Using the skills you have been developing on this site to consider the methods that these items employ to appeal to readers:
- What is the tone?
- Who is the implied audience?
- What information is included?
- Are the sources cited reliable?
- What information is excluded?
- What is the intention behind it?
In considering these questions, you should go beyond reading critically. While the examples are by no means exhaustive, the range of perspectives they represent should be wide enough to provoke further consideration of the topic itself. At the conclusion of the path: think about your roles as both an information consumer and purveyor:
- How does what you’ve read relate to your own point of view on the topic?
- How does the practice of critical reading affect your opinion?
- How do you think the experience of critical reading will impact your future reading choices on this topic?
