Teaching Media ­Literacy with Social Media News: Practical Techniques for Middle and High School ­Classrooms

In this timely title, Whitehurst, a former CIA analyst, provides a wealth of social media examples to employ in media literacy instruction. The foundation of the text is solid; in addition to giving background about his experience and media evaluation tactics, Whitehurst also ties the book’s lessons to Common Core and ISTE standards. Emphasizing critical thinking skills over media literacy tools, the book provides contextual information and relevant examples about bias, social media ecosystems, visual information, fact-checking, bots, artificial intelligence, logical fallacies, and more, guided by the SIFT method. While its content and pool of examples are strong, for a book with “Teaching” in the title, the text lacks pedagogical guidance. Most chapters begin with a detailed background on the issue followed by a brief lesson plan, which usually comprises only a set of social media examples and a list of questions for students to answer. Readers looking for dynamic lesson ideas or innovative ways to present contextual information on these issues will not find that here. Additionally, though the audience is stated to be middle and high school teachers, some of the concepts, procedures, and examples are advanced for middle schoolers, particularly the chapters on evaluating arguments. Though there are shortcomings, the breadth of examples provided do make it a worthwhile purchase.