Media Literacy
Learn to evaluate the sources competing for your attention
This course is made in partnership with Ground News, the premier website and app for gathering all the world’s media in one place so you can
compare coverage. This course is currently being “dripped” out a session at a time. See the course preview below for a view of what’s available now, and what’s still to come. Purchase the course now, and get instant access to new content as it becomes available!
Cut through the noise
Our Media Literacy course takes an innovative approach to navigating an increasingly complex world of information:
- Follow today’s headlines and partisan news coverage with clear insight into the interests of your sources
- Find the range of sources that will constitute your healthy news diet
- Learn to understand and get behind the surface of language and images like a professional
- Gain perspective on the political landscape of our information environment, and arm yourself and your students with lifelong skills for discernment and judgment
Media Literacy in five units
The Fundamentals
From humane technology, to technology's way of pushing back on us, to the impact of the medium, to our confidence in our intuitions, and more
The History
Where did "the media" come from in seven parts: from the "penny press," to 24-hour news, to social media, to the fragmentation of legacy media, to artificial intelligence, and more
The Politics
From America's party origins, to today's so-called political "spectrum," to the partisanship of today's media environment, to filter bubbles, echo chambers, "the Daily Me," and more
The Language
Including bias, vested interest, agenda, fact, opinion, rhetoric, logic, value judgments, political cartoons, figures of speech, and more
The Tools
Including lateral reading, reading like a historian, reading like a fact-checker, misinformation and disinformation, single-tasking, and more
Frequently Asked Questions
Purchase Options
Accreditation
Course Content
More FAQs
Purchase Options
Classroom
Teachers and parents overseeing one or more students can sign up for a Classroom account. By taking this route, you will benefit from a virtual classroom setup complete with a focused dashboard where you can monitor progress, manage grades and assignments, and adjust the number of available seats in your group.Â
Individual
Users of all ages can sign up for an Individual account. This is the best option if you’re taking the course out of personal interest rather than for school credit: you don’t plan on submitting assignments, tracking grades, or generating a transcript, you just want full access to excellent content from The Nomadic Professor.
Click “View Pricing” above to get the details on each of these options.
Ground News subscription
A subscription to Ground News’s paid features is not required to complete the course. However, some parts of the course, such as learning about who funds a source, or what parent organizations own a source, will be easier to research with access to the paid features of Ground News.
To learn more about the value of what Ground News offers, check out this introductory video.
To sign up for a Ground News subscription, click here.
Accreditation
What credits does Media Literacy offer?
Media Literacy has been designed to fulfill the hours requirements of a one semester, ½ credit elective course, when taken in full. The course will require approximately 65 hours of classroom time to complete.
Can my student earn high school credit?
Media Literacy fulfills the hours and content requirements for the credits listed above. Students, instructors, supervisors, and/or parents should organize coursework into a portfolio that can be used to justify the credits and grades claimed on final high school transcripts. The Nomadic Professor does not provide the high school transcript unless the course is taken through one of our partners, such as Aim Academy Online, or Bridgeway Academy. Last, each Nomadic Course comes with an Instructor’s Guide with further details about how to document hours and content for transcript credit.
Course Content
What does Media Literacy cover?
This course covers the following topics:
• Unit 1: The Fundamentals
â—¦ What is “Media Literacy”?; Humane Technology; The Question Concerning Technology; The Medium Is the Message; How accurate are our intuitions?
â—¦ Unit 2: History
â—¦ Where did “the media” come from? Parts 1-7: The Partisan Press, the Penny Press, and the Professional Press; Separating Transportation from Communication; Collapsing Time and Space with 24-hr News; Shifting Models, Shifting Incentives, and Shifting Experiences; Social Media and the Internet; Institutions versus Individuals; Is being informed really worth the trouble?; Artificial Intelligence
â—¦ Unit 3: The Political Landscape
â—¦ Party Origins and the American Context; The Political Spectrum (Parts 1 & 2); A sketch of our media environment; Echo chambers and filter bubles
• Unit 4: Language
â—¦ Bias and Point of View; Framing and Political-Speak; Implications and Inferences; Word Choice and Tone; Figurative Speech; The Rhetorical Triangle; Logical Arguments; Logical Fallacies; Facts, Opinions, and Value Judgments; Agenda, Slant, and Vested Interest; Parody and Satire; Persuasive Techniques; Symbols; Political Cartoons; Ads and Demographics; Artificial Intelligence (Part 2)
• Unit 5: Tools
â—¦ Reading Like a Historian: Sourcing and Contextualizing; Misinformation, Disinformation, Fake News; Lateral Reading; Going Upstream to the Original Source; The Best Source, Not the First Source; Multi-tasking v. Single-tasking
More FAQs
When should my student take Media Literacy?
The course includes some abstract and sophisticated concepts that make it most appropriate for students between 8th and 12th grade. See the Free Preview session above by clicking the “Preview course!” button for a model of what to expect.
Who grades the student work?
There are consistent graded elements in each Nomadic Course. Daily quizzes are automatically graded and recorded in the student gradebook. Other graded assignments must be assessed by a qualified supervisor, parent, or instructor, who will manually enter scores into the gradebook.
To assist with grading student work, all graded assignments include (1) an answer key, and (2) an easy-to-use checklist rubric. In most cases student work can be graded in a few minutes a day, or in short sessions at the end of each week. The gradebook is pre-weighted, and will immediately reflect changes as new scores are entered.
In some cases students can be trained to assess their own work, perhaps overseen by a supervisor, but this should be decided case-by-case.
Further grading guidance is included within the course as part of the course Instructor’s Guide.
Users may also elect to take the course through one of our partners if they would like to be guided through the content and receive coursework feedback from an instructor. See Aim Academy Online or Bridgeway Academy for examples.
How much time will the courses take?
Sessions are designed to be completed in 30-90 minutes, depending on the reader and what parts of the course they utilize.Â
Media Literacy has been designed to fulfill the hours requirements of a one semester, ½ credit elective course, when taken in full. The course will require approximately 65 hours of work to complete.
Further calendar and planning guidance is included within the course as part of the course Instructor’s Guide.
Do I also have to pay for Ground News?
A subscription to Ground News’s paid features is not required to complete the course. However, some parts of the course, such as learning about who funds a source, or what parent organizations own a source, will be easier to research with access to the paid features of Ground News.
To learn more about the value of what Ground News offers, check out this introductory video.
To sign up for a Ground News subscription, click here.
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