Topic: Manipulation in the media – not everything is true

Author: Anna Rabiega

Addressee:

8th‑grade primary school student.

Core curriculum:

X. Mass media.

The student:

2) finds in the media messages on the indicated topic; distinguishes information about facts from comments and opinions; explains what the reliability of journalists should be.

The general aim of education:

The student uses information to create his own statement.

Learning outcomes:

The student:

• explains what manipulation is.

• indicates the difference between a true and a manipulated piece of information.

• is able to spot various kinds of manipulation.

Key competences:

• communicating in a foreign language,

• digital competence,

• learning to learn,

• social and civic competences,

• sense of initiative and entrepreneurship,

• cultural awareness and expression.

Teaching methods:

• discussion,

• interactive lecture,

• brainstorming,

• Phillips 66,

• teaching conversation using schemes, interactive exercises,

• trash and suitcase method.

Forms of work:

• self‑learning,

• group work,

• whole‑class activity.

Material & equipment needed:

• computers with loudspeakers/headphones and internet access, headphones,

• multimedia resources from the e‑textbook – chapter: W gąszczu informacji, Manipulation in the media – not everything is true,

• green and yellow slips of paper for each student,

• interactive whiteboard/blackboard, felt‑tip pen/a piece of chalk.

Lesson plan overview (Process):

Introduction:

1. The teacher presents the goal of the lesson: You will learn what manipulation is and how to distinguish it from real information.

2. The teacher asks the students: What is manipulation and have you ever encountered manipulation? In what situations?

He informs the students that they will use a brainstorming method, and write their suggestions on the board. If necessary, the teacher explains the method. The students have 5 minutes to do it. The teacher appoints a moderator who will note students' ideas on the board.

After saving the suggestions, the students jointly verify and organize them. Together with the teacher, they discuss the examples of manipulation.

Implementation:

1. The teacher divides the class into 6 groups and writes 6 most popular manipulation techniques used in the media on the table:

I. Playing with emotions.

II. Questions in headlines.

III. Referring to polls.

IV. „Foreign press reports...”.

V. Taking things out of context.

VI. Outright lies.

The teacher informs the students that it will be the task of the students to determine what the manipulation used in each case is. He assigns one method to each group. He explains that the students will work with the Philips 66 method:

a. Each team has 6 minutes to prepare an explanation of what type of manipulation it is and what it aims to do, and find or come up with examples of using this technique. Each group also selects a leader among themselves who will present the results of the group's work after each round.

b. After the first 6 minutes, the leaders present the results of the group's work to the rest of the class. All students comment on the group's suggestions, paying attention to what is imprecise or incomprehensible in the explanations developed by other groups.

c. After this confrontation of solutions at the whole class level, each team resumes working to improve their own concepts.

d. After the next 6 minutes, the ideas in the class forum are re‑confronted – a comparison of the solutions' maturity and their improvements, and saving the final conclusions (or another refinement of the project for the next 6 minutes). On the board the group leaders create a mind map around the term: methods of manipulation - they write their examples and their description.

2. The teacher asks the students to verify their proposals. To do this, he displays the scheme „Popular manipulation techniques in the media”. The students compare their explanations with the information presented and verify the created mind map if necessary.

3. The scheme contains one more method of manipulation: the use of capital letters only in the headlines. The teacher initiates a short discussion by asking questions:

• Have you ever come across such a method?

• In what situations?

• How did it affect you?

At the end, the teacher asks one of the students to summarize the discussion.

4. Then the teacher informs the students that in order to check their knowledge on what qualities should a real bit of information have, and what may indicate that they have been manipulated, they will do Exercise 1 from the abstract. Together with the teacher, they discuss the answers.

5. The teacher divides the class into groups again and asks them to imagine that they are researchers in the editorial office and must verify the reliability of the information found. The students, using the websites of several different information services, have to search for two examples of real and manipulated information. The teacher also draws attention to the fact that the students, when presenting their proposals, must justify why they consider this information to be reliable or manipulated. The teacher determines the time to complete the task. Then the groups present the results of their work and discuss them together.

Summary:

1. The teacher carries out a summary part of the lesson using the trash and suitcase method. The teacher hands out small pieces of paper in two different colours (e.g. green and yellow). On the green pieces of paper the students write down the useful knowledge and skills they acquired during the class – these go into “the suitcase” (students stick it to a board under that category). The yellow pieces of paper are used to write down things the students did not find useful or interesting – these go into “the trash” (under the sign that reads “trash” on the board). The teacher explains, that their reflection can concern both the acquired knowledge, and the new skills they have learned. The teacher reads students’ reflections on the experience – first the “trash” contents, then the “suitcase”

2. Homework proposal:

a. Find an article on the internet or in the printed press that you think is manipulative. Indicate the manipulation techniques used by the author, citing examples of parts of the article.

b. Listen to the abstract recording to review the material and new vocabulary. Then do the vocabulary exercise at the end of the chapter.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Manipulation in the media – not everything is true

The media often try to influence our emotions by making the stories sound or look more dramatic. Manipulation is about mixing truth and falsehood or presenting facts in a context convenient for the publishers.

Take a look at the pictures – they are a good example.

In 2012 an Austrian newspaper “Kronen Zeitung” publish a picture of a family fleeing from a war‑torn Syria. Unfortunately, the publishers decided to make the picture more dramatic by photoshopping some bombed buildings into the background. Internet users quickly discovered the scam, and the newspaper had to apologize.