The most important thing today's students can learn is how to find and evaluate information. This book provides in-depth discussion of aspects of media literacy and how they can be used to manipulate information. Classroom exercises are provided to help instructors teach vital media literacy skills to their students.

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Intro -- Praise for Media Smart -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of exercises -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. A Brief History of Media and Media Manipulation -- The origins of human communication -- Numbers and writing -- Oral transmission of news -- Information in print -- Electronic communication -- Advertising -- Spread of misinformation -- 2. The Psychology of Memory and Learning -- Storing and processing information -- Confirmation bias -- Transfer of learning -- Comprehension -- Making learning and memory work for us -- Corrections Cross-cultural difference -- Expertise -- Conclusion -- 3. The Internet, Technology and the Media -- The rise of the internet -- Technology -- Search engines -- Social media -- Trending -- The media -- 4. Selecting Sources of Information -- Opening up the world of information -- Algorithms -- Social media -- Trust and reputation -- Data deficits -- Selecting sources -- Alphabet soup -- 5. Expertise, Authority and Credibility -- Experts -- Sharing information -- Evaluating information -- Authority -- How can authority be evaluated? -- Lateral reading -- Credibility -- 6. Language in Media Messages Words matter -- Propaganda -- Satire -- Advertising -- Public trust in journalism -- 7. Algorithms, Bots, Trolls, Cyborgs and Artificial Intelligence -- Algorithms -- Bots, trolls, cyborgs and other inauthentic activity -- 8. Statistics and Data Visualization -- Statistics -- Data visualization -- 9. Images, Reverse Image Searching and Deepfakes -- Processing visuals -- Images -- Reverse image searching -- Memes -- Deepfakes -- Cheapfakes, shallowfakes and dumbfakes -- 10. Media Manipulation and Fact Checking -- Evaluating information and the source of the information Fact checking -- the background -- Why is there a need to fact check? -- Twitter checks and cautions -- Lateral reading -- 11. The Ethics of Likes, Clicks, Shares and Data Harvesting -- Ethics -- Ethics of data harvesting -- Ethics of tracking -- Ethics in the media -- Ethics of framing -- 12. How We Can Help Ourselves -- Fighting mis- and disinformation with technology -- Fighting mis- and disinformation with corrections -- Fighting mis- and disinformation with legislation -- Fighting mis- and disinformation with psychology and education Fighting mis- and disinformation in the classroom using games -- Fighting mis- and disinformation with codes of ethics -- Fighting mis- and disinformation by fighting plagiarism -- Fighting mis- and disinformation with diversity -- How can we help ourselves? -- Conclusions -- Resources -- Bibliography -- Index