Media Literacy equips students with the critical thinking skills needed to navigate, understand, and thrive in today’s information-saturated world. From social media feeds to news outlets, advertisements, influencers, and AI-generated content, students learn to decode the messages they encounter daily and become thoughtful, empowered media consumers—and creators.

Students will explore key topics such as:

• Understanding Media & Its Purpose:
  How different forms of media are created, distributed, and consumed. Why media exists—and who benefits from it.

• Bias, Perspective & Misinformation:
  Recognizing bias, separating fact from opinion, identifying misinformation and disinformation, and evaluating credibility.

• Social Media & Digital Culture:
  The psychology of social platforms, algorithms, trends, virality, and how online environments shape identity, beliefs, and behavior.

• Advertising & Consumer Influence:
  How marketing works, persuasive techniques, targeted ads, data collection, and how brands influence choices—often without you noticing.

• News & Journalism:
  What makes something “news”? How to assess sources, understand headlines, analyze framing, and determine reliability.

• Media Ownership & Power:
  Who controls the media? How ownership, funding, and politics influence the content we see.

• Digital Footprints & Online Safety:
  Privacy, data security, cyberbullying, reputation management, and long-term consequences of online actions.

• Representation in Media:
  How race, gender, culture, class, and identity are portrayed—or stereotyped—and why representation matters.

• AI, Deepfakes & the Future of Media:
  Understanding emerging technologies, synthetic content, and how to critically evaluate digital media in an age where anything can be fabricated.

• Creating Ethical Media:
  Hands-on practice producing content—videos, posts, graphics, or podcasts—while emphasizing ethics, accuracy, and responsibility.

By the end of the course, students will develop the confidence and critical awareness needed to interpret the media they encounter every day, make informed choices, protect their digital well-being, and contribute positively to the online world.