the timboucher experience

I’d like to try and solidify a point which has arisen in my mind since I did that “blogs abuzz with gossip” post. The Reuters news article which I referenced in that article was basically saying that you can’t trust alternative media sources, such as blogs, because they contain things like gossip, conjecture and conspiracy theory. Essentially, I feel like this is very close to the reason you can’t trust mainstream media completely either, because it is consistently peddling things which are equally unreal.

Myself, I think there is an enormous value in seeking out really far out fucked up sources of information. I like to basically cast my nets as widely as possible, taking in as much known fact, blatant opinion, wild conjecture, unseemly gossip, credible evidence, and anything else that swims along. In doing this, I have learned enormously valuable lessons about finding sources, verifying information, tracking down small details and much more. None of these lessons do you gain from just digesting the mainstream news. Nor are you really training yourself to synthesize completely disparate sets of information and differing viewpoints.

Besides just visiting other blogs and alternative news sites, the other thing that I think blogging is really good for is that you start to learn how media is constructed from the inside out. You learn about content and sources and audiences and advertising. You learn about slants and opinions and how easy it is for an information source to only include what they want to include. In short, you learn a small version of the struggles which mainstream media companies face daily, and you can start to see how those trends play out on various levels. It’s a crash course in media literacy and awareness.

On that note, here is a smattering of resources for teaching kids about media literacy. I’d like to mine these for additional ideas, and will come back with my findings later on:

1. Instructional Materials in Media Literacy/Studies
2. What is media literacy and why is it important for kids?
3. Media Literacy & Information Literacy

• Notes: Bonding Wakefulness
• Blogs abuzz with gossip
• More Conspiracy Polls
• Britney Doesn’t “Get” Kabbalah
• Thank you Shakespeare