Chapter 36 Exercises: Education-Based Interventions and Media Literacy Programs
Part A: Conceptual Understanding
Exercise 36.1 — The Case for Education
The chapter argues that education-based interventions are the "gold standard" long-term solution for misinformation resistance.
a) Explain in your own words the four theoretical arguments for why education is considered the gold standard: generalization, durability, transferability, and democratic citizenship. b) For each argument, identify one piece of evidence from the chapter that supports it and one piece of evidence that qualifies or complicates it. c) Critics argue that calling education the "gold standard" sets unrealistic expectations and diverts resources from more immediately effective approaches (like platform-level content moderation). Evaluate this critique.
Exercise 36.2 — K-12 Policy Landscape
a) What are the primary reasons why media literacy education in the United States exists in a "fragmented policy landscape" rather than being uniformly implemented? b) How do the Common Core State Standards relate to media literacy? What are the limitations of relying on these standards as a vehicle for media literacy education? c) Compare the media literacy policy approaches of Illinois, California, and Finland. What do the differences reveal about the political and institutional conditions that enable comprehensive media literacy policy?
Exercise 36.3 — Lateral Reading
The "lateral reading" approach is described as significantly more effective than traditional source evaluation heuristics.
a) Define lateral reading in your own words and explain the specific moves a lateral reader makes when evaluating an unfamiliar website. b) What are "vertical reading" approaches to source evaluation? Why do they fail for online content in a way they did not fail for print content? c) The finding that professional fact-checkers use lateral reading while most students use vertical reading is described as a "discipline-specific" finding. What does this suggest about how expertise in source evaluation develops? d) Design a 20-minute classroom activity that teaches lateral reading to high school students using three real-world examples (two misleading sites and one reliable site of your choice).
Exercise 36.4 — The SIFT Method
The SIFT method (Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, Trace claims) is one of the most widely taught information evaluation frameworks.
a) Apply SIFT to the following claim: "A new Harvard study found that coffee drinkers live 5 years longer than non-drinkers." Walk through each SIFT step explicitly. b) SIFT is designed to be memorable and usable in practice. What learning science principles does this design strategy reflect? c) What kinds of misinformation might SIFT fail to detect? Give two specific examples and explain why SIFT would not catch them. d) Compare SIFT to the CRAAP test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose), another widely used source evaluation framework. What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of each?
Exercise 36.5 — Library Instruction
a) What is the difference between "one-shot" and "embedded" library instruction? What does the research evidence say about the relative effectiveness of each? b) The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy describes information literacy in terms of "frames" rather than skills checklists. What is the pedagogical advantage of a frames-based approach? c) A library director is trying to convince an academic department to adopt embedded information literacy instruction, but the department chair argues that it will take time away from disciplinary content. Draft a 250-word persuasive memo in support of the library director's position, using evidence from the chapter.
Exercise 36.6 — The Accuracy Prompt
The "accuracy prompt" is described as a simple, scalable intervention with significant effects on information sharing behavior.
a) Describe the accuracy prompt in precise terms. What exactly does it do, and through what mechanism does it work? b) The accuracy prompt works by "activating deliberate analytical thinking rather than intuitive, habitual sharing behavior." What cognitive psychology concept underlies this distinction? c) If the accuracy prompt must be continuously deployed to maintain its effects, what does this say about its mechanism? Is it developing a skill or simply interrupting a behavior? d) Design a research study that would test whether accuracy prompts have lasting effects after prompting is withdrawn. Specify: design, conditions, outcome measures, timeline.
Part B: Empirical Analysis
Exercise 36.7 — Interpreting the Jeong et al. Meta-Analysis
The Jeong, Cho, and Hwang (2012) meta-analysis is the most comprehensive quantitative synthesis of media literacy education research.
a) Explain what a meta-analysis is and why it provides stronger evidence than any individual study. b) The meta-analysis found a mean effect size of d = 0.42. How does this compare to the typical effect sizes found in prebunking research (Chapter 35)? What should we conclude from this comparison? c) The meta-analysis found that more rigorous studies found smaller effects. What is the most plausible explanation for this pattern? What does it imply for the true effectiveness of media literacy education? d) Effect sizes were larger for knowledge outcomes than for behavioral outcomes. Why might this be the case? Which type of outcome is more important for evaluating media literacy programs, and why?
Exercise 36.8 — Evaluating a Media Literacy Study
Read the following (hypothetical) study description and critically evaluate its methodology:
Study: A school district implemented a 6-week media literacy unit in 8th grade English classes. Students completed a knowledge test about media literacy concepts before the unit and immediately after. The mean score increased from 58 to 74 (scale 0-100), representing a change of 16 points. The researchers concluded that "the unit significantly improved students' media literacy."
a) Identify at least four methodological limitations of this study design. b) For each limitation, explain what alternative explanation it leaves open. c) Redesign the study to address as many limitations as possible while maintaining practical feasibility. d) If you ran the redesigned study and found a smaller effect (say, 6 points rather than 16 points), would that mean the unit "doesn't work"? Explain your reasoning.
Exercise 36.9 — The Transfer Problem
"Transfer" — applying skills learned in an instructional context to performance in naturalistic information environments — is described as "one of the central challenges for the field."
a) Define "near transfer" and "far transfer." Give an example of each in the media literacy context. b) The learning science literature identifies several instructional design features that promote transfer. List three of these features and explain how they might be incorporated into a media literacy curriculum. c) How would you design a study to measure whether lateral reading instruction transfers to naturalistic information-seeking behavior (outside the classroom)? d) Some researchers argue that transfer is an unrealistic expectation and that direct instruction in specific skills (e.g., "always check Snopes before sharing") is more effective than general media literacy education. Evaluate this argument.
Exercise 36.10 — Comparing Intervention Approaches
Use the comparison table presented in the chapter (comparing MOOCs, YouTube explainers, accuracy prompts, prebunking games, and formal instruction) to answer the following:
a) If you were designing a misinformation intervention for a low-income school district with limited technology access and a single teacher, which approach or combination would you recommend? Justify your recommendation. b) If you were designing an intervention for a tech company's 50,000-person workforce, which approach would you recommend? Justify your recommendation. c) If you were designing a rapid-response intervention for a health misinformation emergency (e.g., the first weeks of a new pandemic), which approach would you recommend? Justify your recommendation. d) Create your own comparison table that adds two dimensions the chapter did not include. Explain your rationale for adding these dimensions.
Part C: Application and Design
Exercise 36.11 — Curriculum Design for Middle School
Design a 2-week media literacy unit for 7th grade students (approximately age 12-13). The unit should be integrated into an existing subject (your choice — social studies, English, science, etc.).
Your design should specify: a) Three learning objectives, written in behavioral terms (what students will be able to do). b) The sequence of five lessons (two per week, plus one capstone), each with a brief description of the activity and its learning science rationale. c) Two assessment tasks: one formative (used during the unit) and one summative (at the end). d) How you will address the transfer problem — how will students practice skills with content they have not seen before? e) How the unit connects to existing state standards or Common Core standards.
Exercise 36.12 — Community Intervention Design
You are working with a community health organization serving a rural county with high vaccine hesitancy rates. You want to develop a trusted messenger media literacy program.
a) Describe your theory of change: what causal mechanism do you expect this program to operate through? b) Who would you recruit as trusted messengers, and what criteria would you use to identify them? c) Design a 90-minute training session for your trusted messengers. What content would you include? What would you leave out? d) How would you train messengers to handle the specific challenge of not alienating community members who are already skeptical of "establishment" media literacy messaging? e) Design an evaluation plan. What outcomes would you measure? How?
Exercise 36.13 — Journalism Education Integration
You are developing a journalism ethics and verification curriculum for an undergraduate journalism program. The program has two required courses: Reporting I (first semester) and Reporting II (second semester).
a) What media literacy and verification skills should be taught in Reporting I versus Reporting II? Justify the sequencing. b) How would you design assessment tasks that measure whether students have actually developed verification skills (rather than just knowledge about verification)? c) Some journalism educators argue that verification standards conflict with the speed demands of digital news production. How should a journalism curriculum address this tension? d) How could journalism students serve as media literacy resources for their communities — an application of the peer education model?
Exercise 36.14 — Workplace Training Design
A technology company with 10,000 employees wants to develop an internal media literacy training program. The company's concerns include: employees sharing misinformation on internal platforms, employees making business decisions based on unreliable external information, and the reputational risk of employees publicly sharing misinformation on social media.
Design the training program: a) What specific skills and behaviors should the training target? Prioritize the list and justify your priorities. b) What format should the training take? (Live workshop, online module, peer-to-peer, etc.) Justify your choice based on the evidence in this chapter. c) How long should the training be, and how should it be distributed over time? Cite the relevant learning science evidence for your answer. d) Design three training scenarios specific to a technology company context. e) How would you measure training effectiveness?
Exercise 36.15 — Applying Learning Science Principles
The chapter describes three learning science principles with particular relevance to media literacy education: spaced practice, retrieval practice, and interleaving.
For each principle: a) Define the principle in your own words. b) Explain the cognitive mechanism that makes it effective (why does it work?). c) Give a concrete example of how the principle could be incorporated into a high school news literacy class. d) Identify one challenge or limitation in applying this principle to media literacy education specifically.
Part D: Critical Evaluation
Exercise 36.16 — The Evidence Quality Debate
Critics of media literacy education research argue that the field suffers from systematic methodological weaknesses that inflate reported effect sizes.
a) Identify four specific methodological weaknesses that critics point to. b) For each weakness, explain the specific way it might inflate effect size estimates. c) After accounting for these weaknesses, what would you estimate the "true" effect size of well-implemented media literacy education to be? Justify your estimate. d) Even a true effect size of d = 0.20 or d = 0.25 might be considered meaningful at the population level. Make this argument, showing your reasoning.
Exercise 36.17 — The Civic Education Connection
The chapter argues that civic knowledge is positively associated with misinformation resistance, but that the relationship is complicated by motivated reasoning.
a) Explain the mechanism by which civic knowledge should reduce misinformation susceptibility. What specific cognitive process is involved? b) Explain the mechanism by which motivated reasoning undermines this protection. What conditions activate motivated reasoning over factual knowledge? c) What implications do these two competing forces have for how civic education should be designed? Should civic education emphasize factual knowledge, critical thinking skills, or both? d) Is there evidence that higher civic knowledge reduces partisan bias in misinformation susceptibility, or does it simply make people better at believing partisan misinformation?
Exercise 36.18 — Community vs. School-Based Approaches
Compare school-based and community-based media literacy interventions on the following dimensions:
a) Which populations does each approach reach well, and which does it reach poorly? b) Which approach has a stronger evidence base, and why? c) What are the ethical considerations specific to each approach? d) Design a hybrid program that combines school-based and community-based elements. Explain how the two elements would complement each other.
Exercise 36.19 — The Scalability Dilemma
The chapter presents a fundamental dilemma: interventions with the largest per-person effects (formal instruction) reach the fewest people; interventions that can reach the most people (social media nudges, YouTube explainers) have the smallest per-person effects.
a) Formalize this dilemma as a mathematical statement, defining relevant variables. b) Under what conditions would a low-effect, high-reach intervention produce greater population-level impact than a high-effect, low-reach intervention? c) What policy mix would maximize population-level misinformation resistance given a fixed budget? Describe your reasoning. d) Are there interventions that violate the dilemma — that achieve both large effect sizes and very high reach? If so, describe them. If not, explain why.
Part E: Extended Projects
Exercise 36.20 — Program Evaluation Design
Choose one existing media literacy program discussed in this chapter (Checkology, Mind Over Media, iCivics, or another program you are familiar with) and design a rigorous evaluation of its effectiveness.
Your evaluation plan should include: - Research questions - Hypotheses - Study design (with justification) - Participant sampling and recruitment - Outcome measures (with specific instruments) - Timeline - Analysis plan - Ethical considerations - Anticipated limitations
Exercise 36.21 — Policy Brief
Write a 600-word policy brief for a state legislature considering a mandatory media literacy education bill. The brief should: - Make the case for mandatory media literacy education using the strongest available evidence. - Acknowledge the limitations of the evidence and the implementation challenges. - Describe what a well-designed mandatory curriculum would look like. - Identify the key resources (teacher training, curriculum materials, assessment tools) the state would need to invest in. - Estimate the likely impact on student media literacy skills.
Exercise 36.22 — Comparative Analysis
Compare two countries' approaches to media literacy education: Finland and the United States (or choose another country you are familiar with as an alternative to one of these). Your comparison should:
a) Describe the key features of each country's approach. b) Identify structural, cultural, and institutional factors that explain the differences. c) Evaluate the evidence on the effectiveness of each approach. d) Identify the most important lessons that the United States could learn from Finland (or vice versa), and the barriers to implementing those lessons.
Exercise 36.23 — Meta-Analysis Critique
Obtain access to or read a summary of the Jeong, Cho, and Hwang (2012) meta-analysis. Write a 750-word critical appraisal that addresses:
a) The search strategy and inclusion criteria: which studies were included and excluded, and were the decisions justified? b) The quality assessment of included studies: how did the meta-analysis account for methodological quality? c) The statistical methods: was the random-effects model appropriate? How was heterogeneity assessed and addressed? d) The conclusions: do the conclusions follow from the evidence, or are they overstated or understated? e) What updates to this meta-analysis would most improve the field's understanding of media literacy education effectiveness?
Exercise 36.24 — Synthesis Essay
Write a 1,000-word essay responding to the following prompt:
"The goal of media literacy education — producing citizens who can reliably distinguish reliable from unreliable information across all domains and contexts — may be fundamentally unrealistic. Given the cognitive limitations of human information processing, the overwhelming volume of online information, and the sophistication of modern manipulation techniques, we should be honest that education can only partially achieve this goal. Evaluate this claim, and describe what realistic goals for media literacy education should be."
Exercise 36.25 — Program Pitch
You have been awarded a $500,000 grant to develop and pilot a media literacy program for a population of your choice. Write a 500-word program pitch that describes:
- The target population and why this population is a priority.
- The specific media literacy skills the program will develop.
- The program format and delivery mechanism.
- How the program incorporates evidence-based learning design principles.
- How you will evaluate the program's effectiveness.
- How the program could scale if the pilot is successful.
End of Chapter 36 Exercises